Rising Persecution of U.S. Christians

Friday, September 21, 2012 (2:58 am)
by Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent



WASHINGTON, D.C. (Worthy News)– A joint report by Liberty Institute and the Family Research Council shows that anti-Christian persecution is not only increasing in America, but that it's coming from our own government.

"There are children being prohibited from writing Merry Christmas to the soldiers, senior citizens being banned from praying over their meals in the Senior Center, the VA banning the mention of God in military funerals, numerous attempts to have veterans memorials torn down if they have any religious symbols, such as a cross, and I could go on and on," said Liberty Institute Founder Kelly Shackleford.

"Religious hostility is the red light on the dashboard that tells us we have a problem and that violence will come next if not fixed," Shackleford said. "The recent attacks on the faith-based Family Research Council and the attack on the Sikhs are recent examples alone."

Many public facilities are also masking American Christianity, according to ACLJ senior counsel David French.

"One of the most strident examples: the misuse of the Establishment Clause to attempt to ban any mention of God from historical markers, monuments or even museum exhibits. This represents an effort to whitewash God from American history and change our national identity."

French said that though the Obama administration has contributed to this, it didn't begin with his inauguration; in fact, anti-Christian persecution has been stewing here in America for decades.

"While the Obama administration launched its own unprecedented assault on religious liberty through Obamacare, the attack on Christian expression is the result of cultural changes that have been taking place for decades … the trend began with the advent of the sexual revolution and the mainstreaming of the 1960s counterculture. As leftist radicals have progressed through the academy, media, churches and government, the trend has only accelerated."

Shackleford said a plethora of new court cases has sped-up this trend.

"The seeds for these attacks were dropped in Supreme Court opinions in the ’40s and it really began to take off in the 1960s. The thing that is shocking now, and different, is that the attacks have dramatically picked up speed. There can be as many as 100 new attacks in a month. While Liberty Institute has the highest win rate of any group in the country at over 99 percent, we just can’t currently cover all these with our current resources."

Other examples of anti-Christian persecution by the U.S. government in the joint report are:

- Federal judges who threatened to incarcerate a high school valedictorian unless she removed all references to Jesus from her graduation speech and who decided that prayer before a state House of Representatives couldn't be to Jesus.

- Public school officials who prohibited students from handing out gifts containing religious messages and who stopped another student from handing out flyers inviting classmates to a church event.

- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs ban against any mention of God in veterans’ funerals, despite the desires of families of the deceased.


http://www.worthynews.com/11755-rising-persecution-of-u-s-christians

It's about time.

Too bad that the article quoted in the OP doesn't provide any evidence to support some of the claims given.

Sure, atheist groups have insisted that monuments on public property not have any references to religions. That fact is well reported by the mainstream media.

However, those other claims in the OP are news to me. Without specific details about those claims, I cannot do any research on them.

Since Worthy News is a religious publication dedicated to promoting a certain set of religious beliefs, I consider the article in the OP to be an opinion, not hard news.

i don't think it is the atheists doing this, i think it is the other religions doing it... muslims, for one, don't want to be taught anything other than the koran, and the jews care only slightly more...

in god we trust has been taken off all the money, too... not that i care

Yep. I just don't see it and I don't see any evidence that any of that is true.

Show me.

In God we trust has not been taken of the money either.

Show me.

I don't believe any of this crap.

Where are you getting this stuff?

Besides, none of that can be called "Persecution of U.S. Christians."

When they start hauling them off in trains to gas chambers, then you can call that "Persecution."

PROPAGANDA is what it is.

and its bull crap B. S.

I'm a tarot card reader and the Christians in this town would love to burn me at the stake, so I'm not buying any of that nonsense.

do you have any money?

perhaps you should look at it more closely,,,,,

true

more like religious oppression, than persecution

like jim crow laws oppressed those with different skin, without blatantly rounding them up and carrying them off,,,

But, Msharmoney, NONE OF THAT IS TRUE.

If it is, prove it.

Its B.S.

I have no doubt that like most political and religious claims in our public forum , there is quite a bit of exaggeration and misinformation in the piece

I also believe though, that there is enough grain of truth to sadden me, as a christian


there are indeed local governments and courts which uphold such oppressive actions , it has yet to reach a consistent trend at the federal level and hopefully it wont,,,,

Report Highlights Consistent Pattern of Hostility Toward Christians in US


By Paul Stanley, Christian Post Reporter

August 22, 2012|2:23 pm

A new 140-page report released by the Family Research Council and Liberty Institute reveals a pattern of hostility toward Christians and Christianity in the U.S. ( http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12H29.pdf)
The report was released earlier this week and includes over 600 incidents over a 10-year period.

The attacks range from rulings from the judiciary branch to an elementary school student who was physically lifted from his seat and reprimanded for praying before eating his lunch. Yet another example shows a Christian couple was fired as apartment complex managers and forced to move because a painting with a Christian reference was displayed in their office.

Other examples cited in the report include:

• A federal judge threatened "incarceration" to a high school valedictorian unless she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech.

• City officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to religious messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities center.

• Following U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' policies, a federal government official sought to censor a pastor's prayer, eliminating references to Jesus, during a Memorial Day ceremony honoring veterans at a national cemetery.

• A public university's law school banned a Christian organization because it required its officers to adhere to a statement of faith that the university disagreed with.

• The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire.

• Through the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare"), the federal government is forcing religious organizations to provide insurance for birth control and abortion inducing drugs in direct violation of their religious beliefs.

• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans' funerals, overriding the wishes of the deceased's families.

• A federal judge held that prayers before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to Jesus.

"America today would be unrecognizable to our Founders. Our First Liberty is facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups and individuals who are using the courts, Congress, and the vast federal bureaucracy to suppress and limit religious freedom," said Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Institute. "This radicalized minority is driven by an anti-religious ideology that is turning the First Amendment upside down."

Both organizations presented the findings of the report during a joint press conference in Tampa, Fla., on Monday prior to the Republican Party Convention platform committee to raise that awareness.

The Liberty Institute further pointed out that religious liberty is "facing a relentless onslaught from well-funded and aggressive groups" that are using whatever means available to suppress or attack religious freedom.

FRC's Tony Perkins added, "As dark as this survey is, there is much light. The secularists' agenda only advances when those who love liberty are apathetic. Let this be a call to stand for religious liberty in the United States."




Read more at http://www.christianpost.com/news/report-highlights-consistent-pattern-of-hostility-toward-christians-in-us-80408/#x5HWGwIJZXDOQ2Po.99


http://downloads.frc.org/EF/EF12H29.pdf

Uh-oh!
Pulled out old Jim Crow, the Dumbocrack Dream Laws.

Who supports them mean old Jim Crow Dems anyways?

They the devil.

We secular people laugh at other religions. We need them all around us to keep us entertained.

History. Helps reading it.

Democratic Redeemer governments legislated Jim Crow laws, segregating black people from the white population.

Blacks were still elected to local offices in the 1880s, but the establishment Democrats were passing laws to make voter registration and electoral rules more restrictive, with the result that political participation by most blacks and many poor whites began to decrease.


Muslims will creep into and destroy our way of life.

Read what Europe is putting up with.

Ive read history

the southern states were very racist and supported the jim crow laws
the northern states did not

during the time in history when what is now the democrat party had more SOUTHERN support, it also had more support of racist policy

but what did that have to do with the difference between oppression and persecution?

My christian friend in Iran will be murdered if it found out that he is a christian. I personally consider 'persecution' to be more like beatings, jail and death. We western christians live non persecuted easy lives.

Exactly no one is being feed to the Lions for being Christian in New Zeland or the United States. Merry Christmas is now Happy Holidays deal with it.