O PreacherListen to a beautiful presentation of “America the Beautiful” from the Hillside College Choir by clicking on the flag . . .

Listening makes me nostalgic.  Violence in our cities and division over race, politics and same-sex marriage  make that song sound like something from the “Leave It to Beaver” and “Little House on the Prairie” days.

But America had its problems then, too.

In 1950 the U.S. Senate authorized a wide-ranging investigation of homosexuals “and other moral perverts” working in government.  Two months earlier the Civil Service Commission intensified its efforts to find and fire lesbians and gay government employees.  Last week (just 65 years after the government hunt for homosexuals!) the U.S. Supreme Court mandated each state to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples.  A swift, seismic societal shift!

Rick Segal commented on it in a “Desiring God” blog July 3rd . . .

“The 350-year marriage of Protestant Christian theology and American popular culture is over. Christianity, it may be sadly said, is no longer the preeminent social influence in American life. We Christians who dared to presume that America was ever all and only ours are, apart from some God-ordained awakening, unlikely to ‘get our country back.’ We will live and work henceforth, as do most other Christians around the world, amidst a public square hostile to our beliefs.”

The First Amendment, of course, guarantees religious freedom:  “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . . ”  Nevertheless, here are a few ominous signs of what may be coming.

  • Oregon  bakers Aaron and Melissa Klein were fined $135,000, forcing them into bankruptcy, because (as they explained to their former gay customers), their faith forbade them from participating in a same-sex wedding.
  • Washington florist Baronelle Stutzman (a grandmother) is being prosecuted for refusing to provide services for a same-sex wedding.  She could lose her home and life’s savings.
  • Colorado baker Jack Phillips faces jail time if he violates a court order to bake cakes for a same-sex wedding.  (Source for the first three points “The Christian Post” http://www.christianpost.com/news/battle-lines-for-religious-liberty-and-same-sex-marriage-are-set-141179/
  • Mark Oppenheimer in “Time Magazine” (June 28th) called for the government to stop subsidizing religion and non-profits through tax exemptions (http://time.com/3939143/nows-the-time-to-end-tax-exemptions-for-religious-institutions/).
  • Debate on “Fox News Sunday” (July 5th) between Kelly Shackelford (president of Liberty Institute) and Evan Wolfson (attorney and gay rights advocate) revealed the fierceness of the division.  Wolfson argued that no one has the right to let their faith impact how they run their business, claiming that one’s beliefs then become a license to discriminate.  Shackelford insisted that Wolfson and his allies want a license to discriminate against Christians.
  • Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts wrote in his dissenting opinion, “The majority ‘graciously suggests’ that religious believers may continue to ‘advocate’ and ‘teach’ their views of marriage.  The First Amendment guarantees, however, the freedom to ‘exercise’ religion.  Ominously, that is not a word the majority uses.“
  • Supreme Court Justice Alito added this in his dissenting opinion:  “[This decision] will be used to vilify Americans who are unwilling to assent to the new orthodoxy . . . this will be exploited by those who are determined to stamp out every vestige of dissent . . . I assume that those who cling to old beliefs will be able to whisper their thoughts in the recesses of their homes, but if they repeat those views in public, they will risk being labeled as bigots and treated as such by governments, employers, and schools.”

I’m not confusing the kingdom of God (“My kingdom is not of this world”–Jesus, John 18:36) with the USA.  I do believe, however, that God shed his grace on America.  In my view, the recent Supreme Court decision is another example of America dismissing that grace.  And I sense that, because of it, Christian living will become costlier in this country.

In Mark 12:13 Jesus answered his enemies, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are Gods.”  Oscar Cullmann (1902-1999), a liberal Protestant theologian, said implicit in Jesus’ statement is this:  “Do not give Caesar more than his due!  Give him nothing that belongs to God.”  He went on to charge, “When the State demands what is God’s, it makes itself independent of God, absolutizes itself, deifies itself and becomes satanic.”

Certainly we’re not there—yet.  By God’s mercy, may we never be.  We still live in the Romans 13 phase of history where we’re to “be subject to the governing authorities.”  But one generation will live in the Revelation 13 phase where government becomes openly anti-Christ  and Caesar demands what is God’s alone. That’s the direction history is moving.

“If we are to enter God’s kingdom,
we must pass through many tribulations” (Acts 20:22). 

Are we ready?