Religious Freedom?

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Tim. 3:1-8). I know those words don’t only apply to the present, but it sure feels as if Paul had a crystal ball and peered into  the world of 2022 when he penned them.

There are many countries where Christians are persecuted daily for their beliefs. If they are lucky, slander is all they experience, but if they are not, beatings and even death could be in their future. We look at those countries and consider ourselves lucky to be living in the “Good ole USA,” where religious freedom is a constitutional right. Not having to worry about our ability to assemble safely as we praise our God and Father is a blessing we should not take for granted. This morning we will look at this religiously free country a little closer. Now, I don’t want to be a “Debbie-downer,” but the direction we started moving in from around the ’60s should be concerning, if not rather alarming.

In 1962, the first case against prayer in school was won with the Snyder versus Vitale case. In 1963, the famous Madaline O Hare (Murray versus Curlett) managed to get prayer removed from all schools. Strangely, her son, William O Hare, would later become a preacher and an avid advocate for reintroducing prayer into schools. In 1968, the banning of teaching evolution in schools was declared unconstitutional, although the banning of creationism has never been deemed the same. In 1980, The Supreme Court ruled that posting the Ten Commandments in a school classroom violated the constitution. In 1985, the Supreme Court declared a moment of silence in schools unconstitutional if the time is meant to encourage prayer. All nativity scenes in government buildings were declared unconstitutional around that time as well.

In 1992, the Supreme Court ruled that having a clergy member recite a prayer at elementary and secondary schools was unconstitutional. In 2001, a federal district court ruled that a teacher be removed from a classroom because the teacher was a creationist and could, therefore, not adequately teach evolution. Now, there are many other cases where the Supreme Court, District Court, or other government entities successfully attacked Christianity, but I want to concentrate on the examples of schools for a specific reason. A few years back, I was told Apple decided to give as many universities as they could great deals on their Apple Computers. The genius behind this marketing strategy realized that if they could put their computers into the hands of college students, they would be more likely to continue using them privately and in the workplace after college.

That is a similar strategy of the Separation of Religion and State organization, the Supreme Court, and the many other anti-Christianity organizations in our country. They advocate openly and loudly for removing any and all Christian references from schools. By doing so, they essentially remove the Bible’s importance in the young student’s mind. Not only that, but it virtually eliminates any possibility of some young child being introduced to “Jesus” in school. The strategy, although technically being the reverse of the Apple strategy, is equally effective. Every day we thank God for living in a country where we enjoy the religious freedoms we do, but we need to be mindful of the fact that the church is under attack every day as well. Our freedom to preach Biblical truth, to share our faith with others, and to pray in public, to name but a few, might not be a privilege for too long. We need to pray for our religious freedom to continue.