STOP PLAYING THE PERSECUTION CARD

Can you believe it? Billy Graham is still alive. He had his 95th birthday this weekend. And oh, there was whoop te do all around. Gag me with a spoon. This op ed piece appeared in a South Carolina Newspaper. I'll spare you the picture of a smirking just out of his teens, proud owner of a Strom Thurmond T shirt.

“The hour is late, and the need is urgent.  The eternal destiny of many souls—and the future of our great nation—are at stake.  Pray that we will turn from our wicked ways and that God will heal our land.”  -Dr. Billy Graham

As part of Billy Graham’s 95^th birthday celebration, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association put together a phenomenal video series billed “My Hope America.”  In the series, Graham discusses the secular path on which our nation seems intent upon traveling.  However, Graham continues to present a message of hope.  Despite the chaos America finds herself in, Graham has hope for our country.

His hope is not in government.  His hope is not in celebrities.  His hope is not in medicine nor is it in business.  His hope is in Jesus Christ.

We live during an age when persecution of Christians is becoming more and more commonplace.  In fact, Christianity grows more and more irrelevant in modern society as the days pass.  We have witnessed attack after vicious attack to alienate us and ostracize our beliefs.  Too many “influential” Americans in the spotlight today find strength in themselves rather than in God.  Their self-centeredness gives them a sense of invincibility and they do as they please.

The Billy Grahams of the United States seem to be growing fewer and fewer.  Our once God-fearing nation has become uninterested in Christian teachings and more interested in self-advancement.  Great evangelicals within our Christian community have been replaced by anti-Christian organizations such as the Freedom from Religion Foundation, the American Atheists, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, and the list goes on.

These groups have taken control of the nation.  They have taken prayer out of schools.  They have murdered more than 50 million unborn children.  They have shoved homosexuality down the throat of America.  They have abandoned morality in the name of “freethinking.”

The bottom line is that Christianity is under attack in America.  Unfortunately, the reason behind these increasing assaults is the church.  The Christian church has become complacent in modern society and has allowed secular progressives to do as they please while we remain silent in the corner.  We cannot expect things to change if we continue to stand by.

The Bible teaches that Christians will face persecution.  Upon accepting Christ, one must accept this reality.  When fear of persecution silences the population, well, we have a serious problem.

Our answer is not found in government.  In fact, the government is not at fault for the actions it has taken.  The blame lies squarely with the church.  So long as we appease the Muslims and atheists and gays and other so-called “activists,” how Christians feel is not important.  This is the position in which we find ourselves after years of complacency.  We cannot expect change unless we are going to drive it.  Our hope is in Jesus Christ.

Dr. Graham has been estimated to have reached more than 210 million lives in his 60 years of preaching.  He understands that we cannot make the decision to follow Christ for anyone but ourselves.  We can, however, present the Gospel to the lost and allow them to make the decision for themselves.

I strongly believe that if each Christian in our nation would be as willing to come out of the closet we have locked ourselves in as the homosexuals are, a transformation would occur right here in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.  We must not forget that the Constitution grants us freedom to worship as we please.  We have the sovereign right to worship the Creator of the heavens and the earth.  If we fail to step up to the plate, this right will be an element of history that generations to come will only be able to read about in textbooks.   G. Miller Thompson

I can't find any particular claim to fame for Mr. Thompson other than access to a computer. 

God/dess where do I start?

Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham were contemporaries. It's scary but I do believe they were both Baptist ministers and that is where they parted company. 

Billy Graham had a national pulpit and access to the mighty. He could have used that pulpit to speak  out against the war in Vietnam. He could have used that to come out against racism. He could have raised his voice to attack injustice. He could have used that influence to help the poor. He could have used his access to speak out against our war against "subversion" in Central and South America. A war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and left little more than devastation behind. 

He chose not to. Probably would have cost him that national pulpit and that access to the mighty. He chose the rewards of this world while Dr. King became a true prophet. A century down the road I wonder who will be remembered? The Billy Sunday wanna be or the man, who with all his faults, saw poverty, war and injustice and did all he could to stop it. 

I've said it before and I"ll repeat it until I'm blue in the face. When someone uses the word Christian as if everyone from Old Order Amish to Unitarian Universalists shares the same set of beliefs call them out. Better still ask them if they believe in witches and demons. That'll tell you all you need to know.