Volume 8, Issue 2
In last night’s Democratic Presidential debate, Senator Elizabeth Warren so much as accused Senator Bernie Sanders of committing the sin of creating a hostile political environment by having allegedly said that a woman cannot win the presidency in 2020.
Certainly, in the early 20th century, African-Americans knew and experienced racism. The culture in which they lived, not always, but often, produced situations where, as individuals and families, they felt disrespected and marginalized as the women around the water cooler have felt. And, of course, not to minimize the full circumstances of racism, there were times when black Americans even felt threatened.
Throughout history, racism, prejudice, bigotry, intellectual arrogance, privilege by birth, and outright dictatorial atrocities have brutalized society no less than the infectious viruses of plagues. Humanity has made progress in addressing societal rules of engagement with respect for one another, regardless of race, creed, color, or sex, and most recently, sexual orientation.
However, there is one group of people around the world sensing a rise in persecution for no other reason than their inherent religious beliefs and their desire to practice their faith in what is becoming more and more a hostile world environment. It is incredulous and difficult in comprehension to even suggest the identity of the group given their religion’s footprint in the course of human events. Outlandish as they are, the facts speak for themselves.
Christianity in general, and Christians in particular, are under attack simply for what they believe.
How can this be? The religion of “love thy neighbor as thyself”. A philosophical idealism that professes equality among all people in the universal availability of Christ’s love, a gift without requirement.
The genesis of the secular tempest that approaches the threshold of hatred is the commitment of a Christian to a higher calling rather than to the lords of this system of things. What threatened Rome threatens the establishment today. Caesar demanded loyalty to himself as a god. Christians faced death in the Coliseum, rejecting a plea bargain to recognize Rome as a cathedral of worship in exchange for their lives. The world-changing revelation that there is one God, and one Son, and one Holy Spirit, conditioning the purpose and destiny of mankind, was worth dying for.
The fear of Rome was not a Christian uprising, Christian retaliation, or an intolerable Christian way of life. The ultimate fear was that the Christians were right, that Roman supremacy itself was a falsehood, and that the supreme power of authority resided on a spiritual throne. This metastasized fear of Rome’s necessitated persecution of Christians to eliminate them, or at a minimum, to marginalize their influence to keep Christian Truth from exposing the secular lie.
It did not work then, and it will not work today.
Today, an establishment fueled by progressives, intent on institutionalizing their values through codification of moral standards, again sees Christians as a political impediment to be eliminated. Or, at the least, they are to be marginalized. Harassing and badgering the Christian community, as an entity that is somehow inferior in ideology, is the ultimate hypocrisy. Christians have done more to provide education, health care, and basic provisions for those in need than any other single private group by identity. The Catholic Church is the only hierarchal organization that exists in the world today providing basic services to the poor in every corner of the world. Not even the United Nations can make that claim.
The question today perplexing progressive strategists is: why do evangelicals support Donald Trump?
In July of 2016, a meeting was held at the Marquis Marriott in New York City’s Times Square. The purpose of the event was to introduce the likely Republican nominee for President to evangelical leaders. One thousand evangelicals were in the ballroom. Governor Mike Huckabee acted as host and interviewer. He and Donald Trump were in a casual setting conducting a conversation. At one point, candidate Trump broke off the conversation, turned his chair to the audience, and said he had to ask one question that had been driving him nuts for a long time. He stated the Founding Fathers professed to be Christians. Throughout history, Christian values were the standard of measure for the objective of government policy. And further, today is it politically incorrect to criticize a Muslim, anyone’s ethnicity, gender, or sexual persuasion, and yet, it is open season on Christians. Talk show hosts more than ridicule Christians, they are hateful in their comedic dialogue. In society today, the powers-that-be marginalize Christians as irrelevant. His question then was, “How did this happen?”
The audience sat in stunned silence. One could have heard the proverbial pin drop. No one had stated the obvious so bluntly before. Candidate Trump then said, I promise you that if I am elected President, I will respect and protect your right to practice your faith, as you see fit, freely and without intervention from the government. Again, the audience sat in stunned silence. The promise was unexpected and so rare in personal sensitivity that it took a while to emotionally absorb. Slowly, the applause began to build as if a new word of hope had been offered from an unexpected source. A political fog of denial had been penetrated. The applause grew to a raucous ovation including some standing in appreciation.
President Trump has never in his presidency backed down from this commitment.
Christians believe there is a Spiritual Kingdom separate from this system of things. As a follower of Christ, one is a dual citizen. A Christian perseveres to advance the faith in the reality of this world, yet spiritually, they find their reward and their relationships with others in God’s Kingdom. A simple pledge to honor freedom so that one can worship as one sees fit, without the overbearing yoke of government standardization…is all that a Christian asks.
President Donald Trump has reawakened and given hope to this yearning that is foundational in American citizenship.
Currently, a group called the Lincoln Project, has produced a video that mocks Christians for supporting President Trump. They claim hypocrisy when the President doesn’t act or speak like a religious leader. They go so far as to accuse, "If this is the best American Christians can do...Then God help us all." This acclamation is hypocrisy that knows no limits!
Who are these people to criticize any American for any reason when they freely act on their constitutional right to make a choice in the best interest of their world view? These secular agents, in their blind arrogance, do not realize that they are not criticizing Christians, they are questioning the veracity and the validity of God Himself. They feel a need to eliminate and marginalize Christians. As in past times of history, such leaders fear those they do not understand, evangelicals who are willing to stand for the fateful truth that God is sovereign over man and man is sovereign over government.
Hostile environments around any water cooler may intimidate or marginalize an individual. The pursuit of persecution of a religion, resulting in a hostile culture, can result in the marginalizing of a nation.
Truth need not be feared, for the Truth will set you free.
My name is Marc Nuttle and this is what I believe.
What do you believe?