Church

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Thou Shalt Not Say "Jesus" > Recent court rulings expose growing constraints on religious speech.

By John Sykes

We are no longer seeing just the decimation of freedom of religion but also freedom of speech. The progressive elite can only establish their utopia through the silencing of those who love God rather than themselves, and who demand the freedom to make their own choices. Elitists would make serfs of the rest of society. Christians and those who would be free must resist strongly!

From patheos.com:

Tensions over church-state separation are mounting across America as courts increasingly require the erasure of religion from public spaces. A recent incident at a Campbell County Board of Supervisors meeting in Rustburg, Virginia, illustrated the growing furor: when advised that a July 29 ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals discouraged sectarian prayers at public meetings, the board made clear their contempt for the court's judgment. Chairman Steve Shockley addressed the audience and said, "If you're offended by the name of Christ or Lord and Savior, you are welcome to leave the room."

… his frustration—indeed, his alarm—is understandable. How can judges forbid anyone, even elected officials, from saying certain religious words?

Rural Rustburg is a short drive from Red Hill, the last home of Patrick Henry, and Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's lesser-known estate to the south of Monticello. What would Henry and Jefferson think about a court banning officials, or even clergy, from uttering Jesus's name in public meetings?

The “town square test” for a free society proposed by a former Soviet dissident and human rights activist Natan Sharansky, now a notable politician in Israel holds that:

If a person cannot walk into the middle of the town square and express his or her views without fear of arrest, imprisonment, or physical harm, then that person is living in a fear society, not a free society.

How close are we to failing the “town square test”?

How soon would the elitists have us be serfs rather than creatures of God with free will and the right to express that will?

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