Militant Secularism, Atheism and Rising Legal Discrimination Against Christians
As we are in Holy Week and respecting Good Friday and it’s meaning for the world and soon the triumphant celebration of Easter and its deep and awesome impact we note that we and what we believe are not tolerated or considered a part of diversity of beliefs by some in government in academics, and the mainstream media. They mock our beliefs with reason and logic and demand believers hide it under a bushel or be censored if we don’t.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Militant secularism is on the march throughout the Western world.
It began with court cases concerning what were clearly government entities in nature. The first court cases focused on things that were problematic.
It didn’t take long for these court cases to move past the clearly problematic to a frontal assault on any mention of faith in any guise in even the most quasi of public situations anywhere in the country. In a few years, it broadened to include attacks on Christian public officials, which I have experienced myself. Verbal hazing and hectoring became such a commonplace that many public Christians began to self-censor their remarks to avoid it.
The reason for this is that public life is difficult and insecure enough without adding extra problems to it. Public officials and other public figures get worn out from the constant harassment and misery of being attacked 24/7. Also, the use of slander and mockery, can, over time, destroy their reputations and make it impossible for them to do their jobs.
So, they backed down. They self-censored Jesus out of their vocabularies. It was easier to keep quiet about their faith than to take it on the chin, especially since most of the American Christian world was cocooned in a rock-a-bye world of their own and largely indifferent to what was happening.
However, public figures are not the only targets these days. More and more, the courts have become a means of harassment and oppression of Christians who are private citizens simply trying to live their faith in their private world. Thus we have bans on student-initiated prayers in school, censorship of religious viewpoints from valedictory speeches and, lately, the banning of Christian groups from college campuses.
It was and is the Martin Niemoller poem , coming to life again.
I wrote a post yesterday, Atheist Governments: Failed Experiments in Godless Goodness which referred to this situation. This post is an extension of that.
One of the more interesting examples of forced removal of Christian art from public grounds is the Soledad Cross. This cross was designed by architect Donald Campbell and is part of a memorial for war veterans.
Americans were outraged when Al Queda blasted ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan because they offended their religious sensibilities. But they do not see the parallel in the forced removal of religious art from public places in our own country at the behest of a well-organized movement of militant secularists.
You can find a list, of the cases the Freedom From Religion group in Wisconsin is involved in now on their website . I would guess that this list is relatively small compared to the numbers of threatening letters concerning Christian art, speech and actives that it churns out on what appears to be a continuous basis. The Supreme Court has ruled that historic monuments may be preserved, but there are no guidelines as to what constitutes a historic monument.
The deluge of court cases that are brought by a couple of groups and dumped on public entities, coupled with the threat of costly litigation, usually results in people backing down without a fight. This is using the courts as a club to bully and intimidate ordinary citizens into giving up their rights.
The ACLU has joined with the Freedom From Religion Foundation in some of these lawsuits. They have also filed suits of their own. They claim, like the Freedom From Religion Foundation, that they are “defending” the Constitution and the American people from the dangers of statues in parks, plaques, and commentary in graduation speeches.
Both these groups often file lawsuits that are aimed, not so much at government policy, but the individual expressions of faith by government employees. They have worked assiduously to drive religion in general and Christianity in particular from the public square. In case after case they have filed suit against city parks , state governments , and courthouses all over the country. They have forced them to remove statues , and ban celebrations that smacked in any way of a Christian viewpoint.
You would think the mere sight of the Ten Commandments on a plaque was a threat to our liberty equal to say, banning prayer in schools, even when they are student-led, censoring personal religious comments out of student speeches or requiring college faith-based student groups to put atheists in charge.
Of course, that is exactly what has been happening in more and more places around the country. Here a few examples that I found of censoring student speech and attempting to force student religious organizations to admit unbelievers as members and leaders of their groups. I found these with a simple google search that took about 10 seconds.
Censorship of Christian’s Free Speech in Schools Christian’s Valedictorian Speech Censored by Principal District Pulls Plug on Speech Attorneys Win Settlement in Cases Involving Censorship of Religious References from Valedictory Speeches Student Says Testimony About God Censored From Speech
There are a number of cases of Christian student groups being kicked off college campuses because they refuse to put non-believers in positions of leadership in their organizations, or because they require that members be people of faith. There are many of these incidents. Some of them involve numerous press releases with denials and counter charges that go back and forth. However, I doubt that there would be any back and forth if the initial discrimnatory actions by the universities in question had not been taken.
Discrimination on College Campuses University of Michigan Kicks Christian Club Off Campus Campus Crackdown: Restricting Religious Freedom Vanderbilt Christian Groups, Citing Religious Freedom, Follow Catholics Off Campus Rollins College Boots Student Religious Group Off Campus College Forces Christian Group Off Campus Christian Groups Face Hostility on Campus Universities Across Nation Kick Christian Groups Off Campus Christian Group Kicked Off Campus at Brown University
If you don’t believe in abortion, don’t have one. That’s one of the nifty little sayings pro-abortion advocates are fond of tossing around. However, in real life, they are using political clout with the president to create an abortion hegemony in which organizations, including the Church are forced to refer for abortions or be severely penalized.
The same kind of thing is at work with gay marriage. If you don’t believe in gay marriage, don’t get gay married , the slogan goes. But Christian groups on college campuses are being penalized for following their faith concerning what is rapidly becoming a gay hegemony. At the same time, Catholic adoption agencies in many states have been forced to close because they will not place children with anyone except a married man and woman.
This is militant secularism run amuck. It not only violates the religious freedom of American citizens, it deprives orphan children of loving homes and trafficked women of the help they need to get out of that life and move forward. Here are a few examples I found, again, with a quick google search.
Direct Discrimination Against Churches and Church Ministries Illinois Catholic Charities Closes Adoption Over Rule Same-Sex Law Forces Catholic Charities to Close Adoption Program Bishops Say Rules on Gay Parents Limit Religious Freedom Discrimination Against Catholic Adoption Services Oregon Catholic Charities Loses Grant Because It Will Not Refer for Abortion Kentucky Catholic Charities Shutters Aid to Traffickers Over Refusal to Refer for Abortion
I could go on with this, but I think I’ve made my point. The increasing harassment and move toward overt legal discrimination of Christians is so widespread and has been in the news so often that I honestly believe it is public knowledge. Anyone can find all the cites they want about it in a matter of a few seconds. I’m sure that what I’ve given here are not the best examples. I didn’t aim for that. I literally just took the ones at the top of the many pages of hits I got when I googled. They are also not meant to be comprehensive.
They are indicative. They indicate what is happening and why the concerns of Christians about the rise in overt anti-Christian activity on an official as well as a social level is well-founded. They also indicate a growing problem with how ideas like “inclusion,” “tolerance” and “equality” are being codified and used to create enforcement that produces exclusion, intolerance and inequality for Christians.
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Could it be that the takeover of Christianity by the militants with their anti Jesus doctrines perpetuated by the Money Changers and purveyors of hate, fear and suspicion of Social Order is the expected result. Only one will benefit. Lucifer always smiles when the MAGA CHURCHES are full and the coffers are fuller than the pews.
The "takeover" started as soon as the religion started. And don't forget that the religion was (is) spread by the sword and by the use of terrorism just like Islam was (is) spread.
As far as the rest of this article, the victim card is void. The "discrimination" that it complains about fails mention that the religion also practices (and has for centuries). Not only have they suppressed the free speech of other religions it has killed millions in order to force others to submit.
"Pro-abortion" is one of the nifty little lies pro-lifers/anti-choicers are fond of tossing around too.
And that's one of the nifty little things which shows just how delusional some of them are.
Marriage and adoption is a matter of law, not religion. So if such bigoted (against gays) religious organizations cannot or will not follow the law, they should be penalized. Just as anyone is who doesn't follow the law.
And that statement is paranoid delusion.
No, it doesn't,
If children lose the opportunity to be placed in a loving home, it's due to the religious groups denying then the opportunity by not allowing gays to adopt. So don't try to pass the blame.
What point would that be exactly?
So is the increasing whining and persecution complex of Christians it seems.
" This is militant secularism run amuck. "
what about militant religionists running amuck?
It is ridiculous is it not? One almost never sees a secularist article promoting atheism or attacking religious people, but we get treated to a steady stream of seeds attacking secularists and promoting nonsense such as 'evolution is pseudoscience'.
Yet it is the seeder of these anti-science, anti-secularism, religious declaration seeds who complains about 'militant' secularism simply because these seeds posted in a public forum are logically and factually challenged.
Fascinating, eh?
Maybe we should? Perhaps a steady stream of such articles, much like how we're inundated with BS religious articles. Kind of like fighting fire with fire, eh?
To me it would be better to focus on other ways of viewing reality. The seeds in question here are typically trying to bash the irreligious. To fight fire with fire one would need to bash religious people or simply offer seeds that whine about persecution. Not really the kind of stuff we would want to offer.
That much is obvious. And not just the seeds, but also some of the accompanying comments.
Good point. We are better than that after all.
Some seem to have lost touch with reality.
You equate bloody religious conflicts with challenging claims of truth on a social forum? Get a grip.
The author is as confused (willfully or not) as you seem to be on this aspect. Yes, skeptics do not believe the Christian God exists. So when we refer to God allowing brutality we are presenting to you (for all the good it does) a logical conundrum. God, per your beliefs, has set all of reality into motion and knows exactly what will happen. Thus everything that happens is ultimately a result of God's decisions. To not recognize this is to not comprehend the definition of the Christian God.
And I think that is much of the problem. In my opinion you have not thought this through. I expect you will simply leap to free will and then continue to ignore the logical explanation as to why that leap contradicts (yet again) the definition of the Christian God.
The author of that quote isn't HERE at all.
Faux christian outrage over NOTHING, more imagined persecution.
In other words, just business as usual. Lol
Yet another example of duplicity. You routinely cry victimization yet put forth seeds in the public forum that are begging to be challenged.
Your opening comments:
You frame this as a seed respecting Easter, etc. and then immediately cry victimization. Then you provide a seed that starts with:
Posting seeds that are thinly veiled attacks and misrepresentations of NT members while crying 'victimization' is disingenuous.
I'm noticing a recurring pattern here.
Lol, oh the lashing out of the "faithful" as they see that their bullshit is not taking hold like it used to. What they call "militant secularism" is really just people saying 'why" and "explain" and then not buying it.