Celebrating 20 Years 1991-2011 

"WITH GOD ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE"  Ohio State Motto

 

War on Christmas is a War on Religious Liberties


Sat, Jan 3rd, 2015 12:48:51 pm

War on Christmas is a War on Religious Liberties

The war on Christmas is underway once again this year as the American Atheists have launched a multi-city billboard campaign attacking Christmas and religious faith. Atheist legal groups such as the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the ACLU, and People for the American Way believe it is open season to attack public expression of faith with their relentless lawsuits and letter campaigns of intimidation to city officials, school districts and public institutions. Continuing the tradition of their predecessors in earlier decades starting in the '60's, they won't rest until every expression of religious content is wiped from the public square, whether it's a football team that prays before the game, a city council that seeks divine guidance, or a Ten Commandments marker on public property. Even peaceful nativity scenes are targeted. Their motivation? It is not tolerance, but intolerance of those who hold a religious belief that is contrary to their atheist views.

With each case they win, either by capitulation or in the courts, a little bit of the American way of life dies with it. Ronald Reagan stated, "The frustrating thing is that those who are attacking religion claim they are doing it in the name of tolerance...Question: Isn't the real truth that they are intolerant of religion?"

In his book "Backfired", William Federer writes, "A nation born for religious tolerance no longer tolerates religion." He describes historically from the Pilgrims through the Founding Era that the growth of the Judeo-Christian cultures demonstrated tolerance of new groups coming to America, only to have that Christian tolerant view backfire on them. The truth is that America, once built upon the Christian principle of tolerance, no longer tolerates religion.

Recent historical examples of state sponsored atheistic oppression come from the East Block and former Soviet Union, where for 70 years religious freedom was restricted and suppressed. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, a cry went up with request for Bibles and religious materials. State and local officials requested missionaries to come to teach the Bible and Christianity to school students. The irony of this, of course, was that these same American missionaries returned home to a nation which no longer embraced these very practices of Bible reading and prayer in schools as it had once done.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, and The Declaration of Independence all spell out one fundamental truth, that rights are granted by God, not by kings, governments, or tyrants. It is for the people to exercise those innate yearnings of freedom and self expression, with religion being central to those fundamental rights.

For the past 23 years, the Ohio Christian Alliance has advocated for religious freedom by supporting our state motto "With God All Things Are Possible", defending public prayers before city and county councils and the state legislature, and presenting more than 200 framed copies of the Ten Commandments to public officials for hanging in their offices per their request at the Ohio Statehouse. Public expression of our religious faith comes first nature to us. We don't hide our candle under a bushel, but instead freely live out our faith in everyday life in the American culture, encouraging others to do the same.

Chris Long

Brief bio: Chris Long is the President of Ohio Christian Alliance, a public policy grassroots educational organization.



 

 

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