Communists have warred against Christians since Lenin and Trotsky first imposed Karl Marx’s horrific nonsense on reality. Whether it was the Soviet Union’s exiling of converts to mental hospitals and the gulag or >Castro’s beating of Cuban believers, Romania’s 13-year imprisonment and torture of Richard Wurmbrand or China’s fierce retribution against unofficial “house churches,” the State fears Christianity’s inherent enmity. And it abuses Christ’s followers accordingly.
Biblical Christianity cannot help but oppose government: the principles and forces that animate the two conflict irreconcilably. Christianity sees each person, no matter how insignificant, helpless, or sinful, as a being of infinite value, created in Jehovah’s image and worth His Son’s agonizing sacrifice.
It also recognizes and respects the free will God grants every one of these immortal souls — free will the Almighty Himself honors in this present world. Certainly, “every knee should bow … and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” but here on earth, men are free to accept or reject the Gospel, to bow humbly before their Creator or to shake their fist in His face. God does not hurl thunderbolts at even the worst blasphemer, nor does He usually or even often bless the righteous with Solomonic wealth. He allows us instead to select both our temporal priorities as well as our eternal fate, and He defers to both choices. He forces no one to become a preacher, salesman, or politician, to donate to the poor or hoard every penny, to tell the truth or cheat on his wife; He saves no sinner from hell without that person’s explicit permission.
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This reverence for each individual’s autonomy permeates Christianity; it extends from our Lord to believers and should always characterize our interactions with mankind. “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you,” Christ commanded in one of the Bible’s paeans to free will. Which of us ever wants a more powerful person imposing his whims on us? Whether it’s something as trivial as lunch or as monumental as the college we’ll attend, we crave the liberty to decide for ourselves.
We seek advice, yes, and we may even forego a burger in favor of a salad if we’re trying to shed pounds — or the other way around if we heed certain nutritionists. But should Ms. Diet Guru barge into our kitchens and compel us at gunpoint to dine as she decrees, we would object, and furiously.
Indeed, acting as we judge proper and determining our own destiny renders existence meaningful. “Live free or die” is more than just Revolutionary General John Stark’s counsel: it’s a prescription for human happiness and wellbeing.
Contrast Christianity’s homage for the individual and his sovereignty with the State’s spurning of both. Rulers view other people as mere means to an end, as pawns to exploit, whether the goal is building pyramids à la Egypt or controlling the world like the ancient Roman Empire and modern American one. Far from considering us God’s children, politicians deem us taxpayers, the golden geese financing their schemes. We’re also inept fools whose silly ideas and ambitions they must override in favor of their own.
So the universal antipathy between Christianity and the State is no mystery. Worse, Christian beliefs not only radically contradict the State’s, they also dictate our behavior so that we necessarily undermine government. When Leviathan upholds chattel slavery to protect influential interests, Christians abolish such vile bondage. When the beast exterminates people with mental or physical handicaps, Jewish folks, and Gypsies, Christians hide the victims and even try to take out the murderous regime.
Naturally, government avenges itself. It hunt downs, round ups, persecutes, tortures and executes Christians.
Except in twenty-first century America.
“Well, of course not!” you snort. “We have a Constitution, there’s the First Amendment to protect freedom of religion. “
We have a Constitution and a First Amendment that protect freedom of association, too, but try telling a sodomite you won’t hire him and watch bureaucrats from the EEOC swarm. Ditto for freedom of speech, yet last week cops arrested a woman who jokingly sketched a bomb on her friend’s suitcase.
Meanwhile, the Feds and their socialist economy control every detail of our days, from the light bulbs we buy to the milk we drink to the pensions on which we retire. America is arguably as totalitarian as Soviet Russia or Red China, as merciless and aggressive as Hitler’s Germany.
And yet, American authorities do not persecute the Church.
Why not? Why hasn’t a battle that’s raged everywhere for 2000 years bloodied believers here?
Perhaps because the lukewarm, fake “Christianity” most Americans practice doesn’t even begin to threaten the Feds. Indeed, such “Christians” are among government’s biggest boosters. Each Sunday, the American flag presides over their worship; shockingly, many pledge an allegiance that belongs to God alone: “to the Republic for which it stands.” They cheer the Feds’ imperial wars, beseeching the Prince of Peace to protect “our” troops as they massacre Iraqis and Afghanis; they trouble themselves neither to learn about nor to pray for the Iraqi and Afghani Christians trapped in the maelstrom. They applaud fortifying American borders against immigrants, including their brothers and sisters fleeing persecution. Their preachers denounce “tax cheats,” not the thieves plundering us so abortionists can slaughter infants as mercilessly as U.S. soldiers do.
Such Christians remain ignorant and dangerous throughout the week, too. A group in the Midwest recently emailed a newsletter discussing their latest “community service projects”: “We will be painting the city jail,” they “excited[ly]” relate…
Oh, good: freshen up the hellishly cruel, corrupt prison-industrial complex rather than agitate for its destruction. God loves bright beige walls when we’re caging each other.
“…painting the court house ceiling…”
Another homer! We wouldn’t want judges who uphold the Transportation Security Administration’s “right” to ogle naked passengers to suffer peeling rafters, now, would we? And as a bonus, we save the State money so it can hire more soldiers and abortionists.
“… working with the school district to do projects in the schools …”
On evolution? Or how it’s perfectly normal, even beneficial, that Heather has two mommies?
“… and working with city code enforcement by getting referrals from them of people who need help with projects around their home that they are unable to do themselves.”
So what if the homeowner liked his house the way it was? Remember the Eleventh Commandment: “Thou shalt assist bureaucrats as they tyrannize poor people.”
Everlasting shame on the American Church. While the satanic State viciously attacks Christians worldwide, it counts American believers among its staunchest allies.
