In human experience it is a rare thing for one man to give his life for another, even if the latter be a good man, though there have been a few who have had the courage to do it.
– Romans 5:7 (JB Phillips)
It’s hard not to notice that Christianity – and to a lesser extent Judaism – are the only religions under attack in the United States and Western culture (inasmuch as the latter can be called a culture anymore). Islam, Hinduism, Satanism, Atheism, Humanism and even Kawanzaaism, although that group meets only once a year at Christmas, are all allowed to flourish without political or legal molestation.
Indeed, the law’s scales of blind justice are now being used to diminish Christianity and Judaism even while those same scales are encouraging Islam and other faiths. Courts and prosecutors hasten to require that mosques be built in communities vehemently opposed to their construction, while every roadblock is set up for new Christian churches.
We all know these things. But the question is, why are they happening?
For the answer to this we must go to the militant political left, which is really the only left that’s left in America today. Their prophet was Marx; the stone tablets upon which their faith was delivered in the London library is the Communist Manifesto. Their religion was institutionalized into the Russian state by Lenin. And it was militarized into a reign of terror by Stalin, one of the most murderous dictators in all of human history.
Communism is a seductive faith, especially for the academic and political class. It lends significance to both their lives: Academics are finally listened to by those in power, who can take the good advice and use their power for the good of all mankind.
Unfortunately, there has always been a speed bump on the road to utopia as envisioned by the secular left:
The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. – Genesis 6:5 (RSV)
That was the judgment of the manufacturer regarding his product. Some of you will note that it occurred quite early in human history. Marx, Lenin, Stalin and American academia never got the word. The 60 million victims of their drive to implement a communist utopia could tell you about the plan’s flaws, however, were they alive to speak.
Fortunately, America’s Founding Fathers did get the word about humanity. They crafted a republic that took into account government by flawed human beings. Even imperfectly followed it has provided protection from the left’s utopian desires. And that is why it, too, is under attack by the left.
Islam’s vision of utopia is more spiritually inclined. They are busy preparing the world to receive their god. This sounds fine on the surface, but unfortunately it means converting everyone else in the world to the Islamic faith. It also requires strict adherence to the rules that have grown up around the Islamic faith. Those who have not converted still must obey. This last point is fatally lost on the left.
Penalties for the more severe infractions against Islamic law normally include death. Their penchant for public beheadings thus serves a dual purpose: It eliminates the offender, and serves as a lesson to those watching. In that sense Islam was made for the YouTube culture.
That the left should find itself in bed with Islam is not all that surprising. Both of them want you to die for their faith. Islam because they are preparing the world to receive their god. The left because you can’t make a utopian omelet without breaking a few hundred million eggs.
It is the policies the left produces that lead to death. Look at America’s inner cities, our welfare system that feeds the abortion mills and now Obamacare to open the euthanasia path as your final escape.
Christianity, unlike Islam, is not about converting the world so that god will come and rule it. Christianity is about the supernatural change in the human heart that comes when an individual is confronted with the living Christ. To continue with verse eight from our opening quote:
Yet the proof of God’s amazing love is this: that it was while we were sinners that Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8 (JB Phillips)
One might think it would be hard to offend the world with love. One would be wrong. Here is an observation worth remembering, from Eric Hoffer, the longshoreman philosopher:
“Intellectuals … are people who feel themselves members of the educated minority, with a God-given right to direct and shape events. An intellectual need not be well educated or particularly intelligent. What counts is the feeling of being a member of an educated elite.
“An intellectual wants to be listened to. He wants to instruct and be taken seriously. It is more important for him to be important than to be free. …” (“Working and Thinking on the Waterfront,” 1969, Harper and Row).
Christianity is a direct, frontal attack by God on human pride, including our intellectual efforts to remove Him from the equation. The people most offended by this are intellectuals, academics and politicians, all of whom believe they have crafted a superior answer for humanity.
They haven’t.
Finally, for the Christaphobes, you need have no fear of being forcibly converted to Christianity. It can’t happen. God respects free will. Your decision will be yours alone, and you will live with it for all of eternity.
Jesus left the Church with instructions to offer the Good News to all nations. He never suggested those nations be forcibly converted (something America had the power to do amidst the rubble after the second World War).
Indeed, Jesus made it quite clear that he intends to return here and deal Himself with whatever he finds.
Perhaps he is already here, taking a look around? “Reconnaissance,” the first step.
Media wishing to interview Craige McMillan, please contact [email protected].
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