I get emails all the time from Christian organizations who want to frighten me into believing that Christianity will collapse at any moment unless I take action right now (usually by sending money to their organization). Here’s one I received recently:
Do you think it’s right for liberals running the government to …
- Force a Christian bookstore to hire a man . . . who dresses in women’s clothing?
- Force your child’s religious school to hire homosexual instructors?
- Force your employer to fire or censure you for what they call “anti-gay harassment” . . . for simply keeping a Bible on your desk?
That’s the nightmare you could face if the Obama/Pelosi/Reid Congress passes the so-called Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA).
And that’s why it must be exposed.
Really? A nightmare? Let’s take a breath for a minute, and get some perspective on what a real live nightmare looks like. Here’s how Tacitus described life for Christians in the Roman Empire under Emperor Nero:
First those were seized who admitted their faith, and then, using the information they provided, a vast multitude were convicted. And perishing they were additionally made into sports: they were killed by dogs by having the hides of beasts attached to them, or they were nailed to crosses or set aflame, and, when the daylight passed away, they were used as nighttime lamps.
Nero gave his own gardens for this spectacle and performed a Circus game, in the habit of a charioteer mixing with the plebs or driving about the race-course.
We live in a post-Christian culture, and we shouldn’t be surprised when the world around us doesn’t like us or the things we stand for:
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. (John 15:19-20)
We need to be actively engaged in the world, bringing salt and light to a very dark place. But we don’t need to live in constant fear of looming nightmares that might come if we allow vast anti-Christian conspiracies to get their way:
Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honor as holy.
Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary. (Isaiah 8:12-14)