Decades later,
politicians and advocates are taking God out of the oaths of office for
politicians as well as the oaths taken in court for testimony. There’s
even a movement to take all mention of God out of the Pledge of Allegiance and off dollar bills — the currency of the United States. They
want all mention of God and religious statements off all government
buildings. Some organizations and/or individuals want crosses taken down
from land where they’ve stood for almost a century. One national
political party even took the mention of God out of their election
platform and booed the effort to re-insert His name after negative
reactions by some of their delegates.
Students no longer can begin
their sports activities with a prayer. Cheerleaders were even made to
destroy their signs which gave God credit for their lives.
Marriage
has now been redefined — after thousands of years — to include the union
between people of the same sex. Gay marriage was on the ballot in four
states in the November elections and won with overwhelming support. Black
preachers, who stand in their pulpits every Sunday to “preach the Word
of God,” have seemingly turned a blind eye to the Gospel as they have
bowed to political pressure to stop using the Christian definition of
marriage as a means of discrimination against what is now referred to as
the LGBT — Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender — community.
White
political commentators have accused “the Christian Right” of being too
focused on Christianity at the expense of other lesser religions (e.g.
Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism) even though as many as 76
percent of the U.S. population define themselves as Christians. By the
way, the “lesser” religions account for around 4 percent of the
population while a little less than 20 percent define themselves as
having no religious affiliation.
So even though the majority of
Americans consider themselves as Christians, the 44th president of the
United States has declared that America is no longer a Christian nation.
And those who are Christian and conservative find themselves victims of
persecution and accused of being racists.
As those of us who are
Christian celebrated Christmas and declared that “Jesus is the Reason
for the Season,” atheists were suing municipalities to have any outward
display of the baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, and the Three Wise Men taken
off public land or governmental areas.
So as we watch the news
showing senseless murder in the raging fight between religious factions,
we seem to ignore the ever growing war against Christianity right here
in America.
We used to say “Merry Christmas,” now people greet you
with “Happy Holidays.” The efforts of Americans to be all-inclusive have
literally destroyed our right to be “real” Christians. The political
move toward full “diversity” has caused Christians to forget their
family values.
Even as we mourn the deaths of 20 wonderful little
“angels” senselessly murdered in Connecticut, our attention has been
turned to “gun control” instead of the death of the value of love and
human life in a young man’s psyche. We are made to forget that human beings make decisions, good or bad, and should be held accountable for their actions.
We blame everything but the person, forgetting that all actions have consequences and only we are to blame.
So
while everyone runs away from what was once glorified as Christian
values, those of us who are true to our faith know that in spite of what
is “politically correct,” we are Christians still and will be held
accountable by God.
Lest we forget, we will suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorrah.
Barbara
Howard is president of Barbara Howard & Associates and the Florida
state chair for C.O.R.E. (the Congress of Racial Equality).
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