Category persecution of christians

Apr 20 2016

My Response To The NFL Attacking Georgia

Because the NFL has interjected themselves into the debate on Religious liberty and furthermore has chosen to persecute and advocate against Christians who stand by their convictions of faith and conscience, no matter how unpopular or out-of-style those convictions are, which is their unalienable Constitutional right, I must exercise my own rights, those selfsame unalienable rights, my birthright as an American citizen, and stand beside my brothers and sisters, my fellow citizens in Georgia whom you, the NFL, through misguided arrogance believing the monumental wealth you have acquired from the marketing of the play of a child’s game, combating over a misshapen leather ball, somehow grants you license to trample the basic aforementioned unalienable rights of the very citizens whose monetary and popular support of your game, your product, has granted you the enormous wealth you enjoy and abuse.

 I will stand with those you persecute in Georgia and I will no longer watch, purchase, or any way support your product, your business. The NFL should be in the business of football, not trying to bully the citizens of the United States into changing the fundamental structure that has produced and supported the very free society that grants the platform on which a colossal entity such as the NFL can be built.
I have been a football fan since I was a little boy so it is with no small regret that I have severed any ties or support to the NFL. I have deleted all my fan accounts and put my memorabilia in a closet hoping my favorite sport will come to their senses and return to being just that, a sport. Until then, please delete my email account from your list.
 We live in a nation where not only are we afforded the right to be controversial and pursue agendas that might make others uncomfortable, but we are also afforded the right to disagree with those agendas and say “no”.  Your disdain for that basic unalienable right is more than troubling and in more plain speech, perhaps you should just stick to your business; that is, playing a game with a little leather ball.
With much regret and frustration,
Andy Torbett
Apr 9 2016

A Conduit Severed and A Pendulum Swung

Part Two-A Pendulum Swung

So similar is the dilemma of the battle of religious liberties against the cry for the equitable treatment of the humanities to the lack of knowledge transference that it begs the question of whether the severing of the conduit of knowledge is directly related to the need for those most tolerant of the humanities to facilitate and necessitate the trampling of the religious liberties of their fellow countrymen to achieve their end. But to what end? And could it be the knowledge of our forefathers, a knowledge not transferred, is the reason we can behave so abominably?

Certainly history bears out the truth of this premise. At the genesis of the revolutions of noted social engineers such as Marx and Lenin, of Democratic socialists and Communists, was the fabric of teachings that the old beliefs and morals of their forefathers were outdated, inhibiting, and not capable of embracing the new ways. Disciples were admonished the reject these old ways and embrace what was new. It was this severing, specifically of moral codes, that allowed these brutal uprisings that that typified social democratic revolutions leaving 100 million slaughtered in its wakes.

So now we see another rise of social engineering. Our moral codes once again are seen as the obstacle to its resurgence. Our religions, Our Constitution all paint a negative pall on what many consider progress.

So we have passed laws to protect the perceived rights of those believed aggrieved. Still, it is not enough to pass laws to protect those rights, citizens who do not agree must be forced to agree or face the wrath of government. It is necessary, again, to force acceptance, and the cries from the ghosts of perils pasts call to warn us.

But the Constitution calls a halt, reminding us that no law can be made that prohibits free speech and the free expression of religion. Still states have passed humanity laws assuring the populace that when the Constitution said “no Law” it didn’t mean this law. The need for tolerance outweighs the need for freedom.

Christianity is the culprit now. It’s tenets, the dos and don’ts, have inhibited the “safe places” of so many, so many who just want to be accepted. And Christians will accept them, even if we must use the bludgeon of government to enforce it. “Its time to swing the pendulum against those have oppressed us for so long,” rail the social engineers, the social democrats, again. “Away with the old ways of right and wrong.”

Ah, but the pendulum always swings back. So, what of that? Christianity is the easy target. With its gospel of dos and don’ts it is also the gospel of peace and love. There’s no fear of retribution. But what of those that do not worship God but worship government?

Our founding fathers wrote that no law should be written to prevent religious freedom because they knew that once one law was written to prevent religion, then another would come and another, all in retribution for the other. On and on the pendulum would swing, only settling after untold damage had been done.

Freedom is freedom whether in the home or the market. Freedom inhibited anywhere is not freedom. Its just that simple. Whether a persons beliefs disrupt your “safe zone” or your feelings is not a warrant that cancels their freedom to do so. You just need a stronger “safe zone” or as they said in “olden times”, thicker skin.

A pendulum swung is an energy time not easily recovers

Each energy rails against the swinging to balance the other

But woe is the battle inertia between them until the pendulum calms

Would to God that pendulum stayed settled and never swung at all

Mar 30 2016

The Helpless The Agony

 

As with so many others, I felt the helpless agony of watching, during the most sacred and holy week of Christendom, the martyrdom of so many of my brothers and sisters and little brothers and sisters in Christ around the world. While we of Christian faith understand through the warnings in the teachings of Christ that we will be hated of all nations, our humanity recoils when we see the depravity of that hatred so unleashed and so unchecked.

It has certainly has not been a good week to be a Christian anywhere in the world. Over and over again, the world has watched these debaucheries be vomited out before our eyes. We wonder and exclaim how mankind can be capable of all things heinous? Where is the strength of righteousness nations to stand against it all? In the depths of the hollow silence to the question, all we hear are the deepest agonies and travails of mothers weeping for their children who are no more.

For the righteous nations are no more

They recoil and shudder on their own shore

They excuse and they ponder

While filth rape and plunder

And children accept their death with grace

What leaders here cannot with courage face

Are the righteous nations righteous no more?

Who will stand if our courage is poor?

Mothers and Fathers whose arms ache to hold

Their children whose lifeless still bodies so cold

Their blood is now calling From the ground of their falling

While we stand debating Our leaders are waiting

To find who has courage in deed

Committees addressing the need

Death marches on Screeching its song

We wonder whats wrong? What’s taking so long?

To say what is right.

Stand up against the night

Rabid dogs howl they know that its true

There is no one standing and fighting for you

For the righteous nations are no more

They recoil and shudder on their own shore

It hasn’t really helping the courage of Christianity in our own land that we constantly face the betrayal of our leaders here, such as the Governor of Georgia, in the face of mounting persecution here in the United States. We must call for courage in our leaders and then remove them when they do not exude the leadership we demand.

May 7 2015

Of Mordecai, Bonhoeffer, and Such

 

Conservative news outlets and activist groups have been heralding the announcement by Franklin Graham that he will be visiting all fifty States and urging the Christians of the Unites States to awaken to the surge of persecution against the Christian faith both in the citizenry and the government. A worthy quest to be sure, but, given the spotty at best history of the Christian Church in speaking out against persecution, one would wonder if Reverend Graham’s zeal will succumb to the apathy so prevalent in the Christian Church of the United States. It is amazing or perhaps appalling that the people of this Nation, who have been given so much more Freedom, more than any other peoples throughout history, Freedoms given to us for their preservation, and yet we have done so little to protect these Freedoms.

Within it’s storied past, the Judeo-Christian history holds examples to each side of the pendulum of strength as the beasts of repression and oppression have raised their ugly heads in a cyclical pattern to which no civilization seems immune. The Biblical story of Mordecai holds lessons for all of us who now face the rising tide of hatred in this Country. The events recounted from the time of the Persian Empire are the basis for the Feast of Purim that our Jewish friends celebrate to this day.

After his niece, through a series of events, had been chosen to be Queen of Persia, Mordecai made a habit of sitting outside the gate of the palace. He did so in hopes to hear news from the palace so he could look out for his beloved niece. There was resentment in Persia against the Jewish people and because of this Mordecai had advised Esther to keep her lineage a secret.

The King’s second in command was a man named Haman who despised the Jewish people and especially Mordecai. All the people were supposed to bow when Haman walked by, including the Jews. The Jews must have obeyed because Haman’s anger was singular against Mordecai when he refused to bow. It was a violation of the Jewish faith to bow to anything but God. So Mordecai offended Haman and the statutes of the day to stay true to his faith.

Haman manipulated the King and influenced him to sign a law that designated a certain day for all Jews to be killed by the citizens of Persia. It’s interesting that, for all the compromising done by others in bowing to Haman, it did not save them from the new law. It was all the Jews they wanted not just Mordecai. Mordecai told the Queen as much when he informed her of the plot. Even her station would not protect her. She was hated because of her faith.

We all know the story. Queen Esther exposed the plot to her husband. The Laws of the Medes and the Persians bound the King and he could not revoke the law, but he did write another law giving the Jews the right to a defense. Thus, the Hebrew people were saved again from destruction because someone was willing to speak up in the courts of the King.

Fast forward to Germany pre-World War II. The ominous shadow of fascism was over the land. Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned the Christian Church of the dangers of the Third Reich. Bonhoffer admonished the Church that their silence would not save them and that it was immoral. He was ignored.

Bonhoeffer was executed for his faith and his words against the Third Reich. Too late the Church saw their folly and what followed is one of the darkest moments in world history. Those Christians who sought to help the Jewish people were executed right along with them. The others were cowed into silence.

And now today, again, we are being told to be silent and leave our faith at home. In the public place, it is now demanded that we bow to the government and set our beliefs aside or face retribution from our government. To all my fellow Christians, I say this: Silence will not separate you from the persecution that’s on the horizon. The hatred is for all Christians. Not just the vocal ones.