Jaimedawn's List: Christian Persecution Exists in America

• But why would messages about martyrdom and victimhood be so galvanizing to a group of people who are, by almost any measure possible, objectively not being persecuted?

• Last spring, I was having supper with Christian workers who had devoted their lives to North Africa. They were retired missionaries. I left the table to take a call from a reporter. He wanted my opinion on the subject of the persecution of Christians, claiming many of his sources in the media and academia were downplaying accounts of Christian persecution, both past and present. I gave a few comments, then returned to my companions who were in mid-story, telling one account after another of the devastation occurring in their former areas on labor -- churches burned, Christians killed, believers fired from jobs, church members imprisoned, leaders slain.

  I thought to myself, anyone who downplays the persecution of Christians is deeply mistaken.
• While it's true attacks are mounting against adherents of other faiths, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today are directed at Christians.
• If much of the media hasn't yet realized the significance of this story, the Bible anticipated it years ago. The founder of Christianity, after all, was tortured to death and his original 12 followers were all persecuted; most were slain. Though his message was a Gospel of peace, his critics nailed him to a cross but failed to keep him in the tomb. They hated him but could not contain him. They sought to limit his influence, but they only broadened his impact.

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• The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear Elane Photography v. Willock, the case of a photographer who was told by the New Mexico Supreme Court that she must, as “the price of citizenship,” use her creative talents to communicate a message with which she disagrees or suffer punishment.

  Nonetheless, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys representing Elane Photography and its owners, Jonathan and Elaine Huguenin, point out that the central concern in the case—government punishment of Americans for declining to create or promote messages with which they disagree—is alive in other ADF cases moving forward around the country.

• Two Christian evangelists were arrested in West Windsor, New Jersey early Tuesday morning after preaching the Gospel without obtaining permission and for attempting to record the encounter with police.
• Robert Parker and Don Karns state that they have been preaching at the Princeton Junction train station for several years, which is a part of the New Jersey Transit system, a provider of public transportation.
• They explained to Christian News Network that after they had finished preaching and witnessing to those waiting for trains, and were leaving, they were approached by Sergeant Kathleen Shanahan and Officer Sandy Crowe. Parker and Karns said that Shanahan was “extremely hostile.”
• The officers stated that the evangelists had violated the law for speaking at the train station without a “permit,” and demanded identification. Parker and Karns attempted to record the encounter with their cell phones, but were ordered to turn them off, which they did.

• The evangelists spent three hours in jail and now face criminal proceedings for three offenses: defiant trespass, and two counts of obstruction for recording with a cell phone and declining to provide identification.

   

  “They treated us like terrorists,” Karns stated.

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• I agree with retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, now executive vice president of the Family Research Council, who explained to Starnes: "Once the academy allowed cadets to use these whiteboards for their personal use, censorship of religious commentary is unacceptable. Either the Air Force Academy is very confused about the Constitution of the United States or they don't really believe in the liberties that are provided by that document. In essence, what they are doing is preparing young men and women to defend the Constitution while at the same time depriving these cadets of their own constitutional liberties."

• The Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, Fla., is currently embroiled in controversy after a Bible honoring missing soldiers and prisoners of war was removed from one of the base's dining halls earlier this month.
• The purpose of the Bible is to "[represent] the strength gained through faith to sustain those lost from our country, founded as one nation under God," according to the Air Force Chiefs website.

• Family Research Council pointed out the irony of the controversy.

  "Of particular irony is the fact that this reversal of a long history of including such memorials in dining halls occurred at the same installation where the Department of Defense's equal opportunity agency - the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute - is housed," FRC said. "DEOMI is tasked with training military Equal Opportunity (EO) advisers on how to instill respect and tolerance for diverse viewpoints in service members. Apparently, that respect and tolerance isn't supposed to extend to religious speech or the ability of an organization to recognize the role religious faith has played in the lives of many service members."

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• Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believes he can do all things through Christ, but an atheist group charges that he cannot do all things through Christ on his official social media platforms.
• The Freedom From Religion Foundation has demanded Walker remove posts from his official Facebook and Twitter feeds that read, “Philippians 4:13.”
• “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” the verse reads.
• “This braggadocio verse coming from a public official is rather disturbing,” FFRF co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Baker wrote in a letter to the governor. “To say, ‘I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me,’ seems more like a threat, or the utterance of a theocratic dictator, than a duly elected civil servant.”
• “Governor Walker will not remove the post on his social media,” press secretary Laurel Patrick told me. “The verse was part of a devotional he read that morning, which inspired him, and he chose to share it.”

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• According to a new Pew Research Center analysis, six-in-ten Americans (60%) say that “humans and other living things have evolved over time,” while a third (33%) reject the idea of evolution, saying that “humans and other living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time.” The share of the general public that says that humans have evolved over time is about the same as it was in 2009, when Pew Research last asked the question.
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