Rights for Everyone?

by Maurice Pujol
Published July 14, 2006

Let’s pretend for a moment.

Let’s pretend a visitor from another planet, who knows nothing about our culture, reviewed recent news stories to get a “feel” for our basic values. This visitor would conclude that Christians are a hated minority that the rest of the world would like to eliminate, or at least silence.

There was a story about a teenager who expressed his religious belief that homosexuality is a sin on a T-shirt he wore to school. He was sent home, even though the school was sponsoring a “tolerance” day to educate everyone on the homosexual lifestyle.

Another teenager, valedictorian of her class, had her microphone turned off when she began to mention Jesus and what He had meant to her during her graduation speech.

A state transportation employee in Maryland was fired by the governor after he expressed his religious views on homosexuality on a local television talk show. The governor just would not tolerate the man’s “intolerant” comments.

Another public employee, in another state, was ordered to remove all religious symbols from her desk and to cease from praying with clients.

Some military chaplains have been given a hard time about praying “in the name of Jesus.” Meanwhile, the military has officially recognized Wicca, the pagan religion that practices witchcraft. I’m sure that mentioning Biblical prohibitions against this would be considered “intolerant.”

During a community service following the World Trade Center attack on Sept. 11, 2001, one pastor was lambasted by his own denominational leaders for praying in the name of Jesus.

There have been lawsuits in several places about removing crosses from public places, the most absurd one in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where there have been crosses on city hall as long as anyone can remember. By the way, “Las Cruces” means “The Crosses.”

Elementary school students in many states have been given assignments to write essays on Christmas – but they aren’t supposed to mention Jesus, all in the name of separation of church and state. However, one second grade teacher did read her students a fairy tale about a handsome prince who falls in love with his fiancée’s brother.

Of course, everyone remembers the big flap over Christmas this past year. The movers and shakers of our culture decided it was no longer politically correct to call Christmas, Christmas, for it had the dreaded word “Christ” in it.

I could go on, for stories like this pop up on a weekly basis. Our nation has become obsessive over the mention of Christianity, its symbols and its doctrines. We have, as a nation, rejected the very principles upon which we were founded. A cultural elite that has all but outlawed the Christian faith is swaying the public sector.

No other religion is treated in quite the same way. No other group is treated in quite the same way. When someone writes a book or an essay critical of Islam, charges of intolerance and prejudice flood the media.

If someone were to attack any ethnic minority the way many people attack Christians, they would be immediately silenced by a host of voices calling for termination of employment, social isolation and worse.

I think our visitor from another planet would be thoroughly confused if he then read the Declaration of Independence, or if he took his spaceship to the top of the 555-foot Washington Monument and read the phrase “Laus Deo” on its capstone, which means “Praise (be) to God.”

This is a nation founded on Christian principles, and one of the core values we get from Christianity is that everyone has a free will and an inherent right to exercise that gift. That’s where the phrase “certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” comes from.

The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the press and prohibits the establishment of a national religion. Again, this is in line with Christian principles, which call for each man and woman to accept Jesus Christ freely, without coercion.

But our cultural elite does want to establish a national religion. It’s called secular humanism. Its basic precept is that any mention of God or any expression of faith in public should be outlawed. It seeks to dethrone God and replace Him with humanity. It is idolatry, a worship of self over God, the oldest sin in the book.

On the other hand, no amount of debate or argumentation will convince anyone to change sides in this war. The lines are clearly drawn. Neither secular humanists nor devout believers are going to defect to the other side.

Ironically, though, this is the way it should be. No human being can convince another human being to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We can educate. We can preach the gospel. We can invite someone to accept Jesus and even offer to pray with them. But no one can change a person’s heart.

This is the job of the Holy Spirit. We believers are under a command from Jesus to lead others to the point of allowing the Holy Spirit to effect this change in them, but we’re not the ones doing the “saving.” That takes divine power.

So, the culture war will continue as the Spirit changes hearts, one at a time. Until the final resolution – and there will be a final resolution – let’s just pray that Christians will have their rights better respected than they are today.

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