Where has that decency gone? Political sparing has replaced proportionality of liberty? Seems rather extreme, no? Desperate even.
I found this interesting. Christianity was incubated under oppression. It survived in the face of oppression. Even today, depending on the country, it still struggles with oppression. The biggest concern of Pope Francis is poverty. Poverty is oppression.
In the USA there is no oppression, but, today extremist Christians seek to oppress.
By Marty Duren
June 28, 2013
CP Op-ed contributor
Religious Liberty is Idolatry? (click here)
...Of equal concern to me is the elevation of religious liberty to a mythos of which Christians should be wary. While our Founding Fathers enshrined religious freedom into the constitution, our Savior did not. In fact, Jesus was born, lived and died in an era when religious freedom was not absolute. (Religious freedom is not absolute in America being affected by the whims of congress, but that is for another time.)
While religious freedom is appreciated it is not part of what followers of Christ should expect at any particular point in history. It could be argued that religious freedom is a primary contributing factor to the morbid obesity of the church in the U.S. Beware lest our rabid pursuit of it lead to possession of a godliness in which is no power to deny (2 Tim 3:5).
Jesus neither commended us to long for religious freedom or to strive for it. It is pretty much the opposite, in fact.
"If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you." John 15:18...
...I am saying that holding up "religious liberty" as the highest desired end is a biblically untenable position. If we promote such we may create an idol of the very freedom ostensibly designed to focus us on God.
"Analysis of Supreme Court Decisions" on PBS (click here)
I found this interesting. Christianity was incubated under oppression. It survived in the face of oppression. Even today, depending on the country, it still struggles with oppression. The biggest concern of Pope Francis is poverty. Poverty is oppression.
In the USA there is no oppression, but, today extremist Christians seek to oppress.
By Marty Duren
June 28, 2013
CP Op-ed contributor
Religious Liberty is Idolatry? (click here)
...Of equal concern to me is the elevation of religious liberty to a mythos of which Christians should be wary. While our Founding Fathers enshrined religious freedom into the constitution, our Savior did not. In fact, Jesus was born, lived and died in an era when religious freedom was not absolute. (Religious freedom is not absolute in America being affected by the whims of congress, but that is for another time.)
While religious freedom is appreciated it is not part of what followers of Christ should expect at any particular point in history. It could be argued that religious freedom is a primary contributing factor to the morbid obesity of the church in the U.S. Beware lest our rabid pursuit of it lead to possession of a godliness in which is no power to deny (2 Tim 3:5).
Jesus neither commended us to long for religious freedom or to strive for it. It is pretty much the opposite, in fact.
"If the world hates you, understand that it hated Me before it hated you." John 15:18...
...I am saying that holding up "religious liberty" as the highest desired end is a biblically untenable position. If we promote such we may create an idol of the very freedom ostensibly designed to focus us on God.
"Analysis of Supreme Court Decisions" on PBS (click here)
