Thankful for Freedom

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While it may seem cliche, I am very thankful that I live in a country where we can worship God freely and openly without infringement.  As of today anyway.

Just because it is that way now, it doesn’t mean it will always be that way if we do not guard it carefully.  There is a huge force to minimize, to trivialize, and even to criminalize Bible believing Christians.¹  We are the new group that is on the government “watch lists.”² People are being penalized for standing firm for their faith.³

It is also significant that the day we are celebrating our independence, the citizens of Egypt are fighting for theirs in an uprising against Morsi and his Islamist Muslim Brotherhood regime.⁴ One where sharia law is the law of the land, Christians are being shot within their churches, and women are treated as chattel.⁵

We are not immune to despotism.  We are not so sophisticated and evolved that what is happening in other countries couldn’t happen here

Before the economic depression and conspiracy theories gripped Germany and catapulted the Nazi party into power, Germany was one of the most sophisticated and solidly Christian countries in Europe.  It had been one of the most welcoming countries for Jews prior to the Nazis.  When the persecution started inching in step by step, most Jews didn’t leave because they were German citizens.

If it could happen in Germany, it could happen here.  One (of many) of the steps was the curtailing of religious freedom.  There were outright restrictions on the Jews, but it was more insidious in the Christian church.  Hitler essentially coopted it and attempted to create a “unified” German church.   They cried “peace when there was no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Lutheran pastor who was hanged for standing up to Hitler, shared with his friend Rabbi Wise.”

What Bonhoeffer came away with from his New York experience was a willingness to stand by the true faith. He wrote to Rabbi Wise, telling him what the Nazis were doing to the Jews, and how the “religious” people were complacent.

“There were many German churchgoers, whether they were Christians or not I don’t know, but they went to church and somehow they made peace with the Nazis,” Metaxas says. “They thought there was nothing wrong. Bonhoeffer had such a devoted faith he knew without any question that the Nazis were anti-Christian and they were evil, and if he didn’t stand against them he would have to answer to God.”⁶

If we turn a blind eye to what is going on around us, not only will we have to answer to God, but we will lose the freedoms that we have and often take for granted.

God Bless America – We Shall Overcome

From the Independence Day worship service at my church on June 30, 2013

 “God governs in the affairs of man. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel” – Benjamin Franklin.  Constitutional Convention of 1787,  original manuscript of this speech

Endnotes