So, I was looking on Urban Dictionary just a few minutes ago and decided to look up Jesus, God, and Christians.
Results:
The Number ONE result for Jesus:
Jesus
Man who was nailed to a plank for saying how nice it would be if everyone was nice to each other. Had his message misinterpreted by millions who now think it is their job to persecute certain groups of people(christians).
The Number ONE result for God:
God
A guy who talked to some Jewish guys, some Christian guys, and some Islam guys, and accidentaly caused more people to die than anyone else in human history.
The Number Three result for Christians:
Christians
The only folk in the world that can discriminate and insult people other than themselves without being charged. Christians want their belief to be respected, but usually get very cross with non-christian people thinking the same way. They also believe that they are predestined for a better world thanks to their never-wavering faith in Gawd, and agree that all other people are simply inferior.
A site that gets millions of hits a day, and these mis-construed definitions of who we are and who Our Saviour is are the top when searched.
Oh how corrupt our world has become, it saddens me.
That is why I thank God we have the ability to do something about it :)
According to some experts a pattern is emerging reminiscent of Jewish persecution in post war Germany. "Isolation of, and discrimination against Christians is growing almost geometrically" says Don McAlvany in The Midnight Herald. "This is the way it started in Germany against the Jews. As they became more isolated and marginalized by the Nazi propaganda machine, as popular hatred and prejudice against the Jews increased among the German people, wholesale persecution followed. Could this be where the growing anti-Christian consensus in America is taking us?"
Tolerance of anti-Christian attitudes in the United States is escalating. Recently, a woman in Houston, Texas was ordered by local police to stop handing out gospel tracts to children who knocked on her door during Halloween. Officers informed her that such activity is illegal (not true), and that she would be arrested if she continued. In Madison, Wisconsin, the Freedom from Religion Foundation distributes anti-Christian pamphlets to public school children entitled, "We Can Be Good Without God." The entertainment industry and syndicated media increasingly vilify Christians as sewer rats, vultures, and simple-minded social ingrates. The FBI and the Clinton White House brand fundamentalist Christian groups as hate mongers and potential terrorists. The Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago warns that plans by Southern Baptists to hold a convention in the Windy City next year might foment "hate crimes" against minorities, causing some Christians to fear that speaking openly about their religious beliefs will soon be considered a crime. All this, while Christianity itself is often a target of hate-crime violence. We remember the students at Columbine, and the United Methodist minister who was fatally beaten and burned in a remote part of Chattanooga, Tennessee, to name a few of the recent examples of interpersonal violence aimed at believers.
THE REAL ENEMY
Manly P. Hall once wrote, "They are the invisible powers behind the thrones of earth, and men are but marionettes, dancing while the invisible ones pull the strings." Satan's string pullers have patiently manipulated unregenerate architects of American society for over five decades, networking both visible and invisible principalities to discredit Christian causes. Indicators reveal the propaganda blame-game against western believers is working.
Even a casual observance of the facts reveals growing isolation of Christians as a people group, especially school age believers. Faculty and peer efforts to convince public school children that America was not founded on Christian ideals, and that our forefathers actually wanted a secular society, permeates public school interaction. History revisionists labor to eliminate any and all contradictory historical evidence from public school curriculum, and mockingly stereotype Christians as unenlightened fringe.
A few years ago, Dr. Paul Vitz, then professor of psychology at New York University, worked with a committee that examined sixty social studies and history textbooks used in public schools across the United States. The committee was amazed to find that almost every reference to the Christian influence of early America was systematically removed. Their conclusion: the writers of the commonly used textbooks exhibited paranoia of the Christian religion and intentionally censored Christianity's positive role in American history.
Intolerant, Christ-hating censors of religious expression target the media and public school curriculum because this is the best place, outside of the churches and families, to indoctrinate children and thus manipulate the future political and cultural landscape. If one succeeds in separating Godly principles from public education and the media, they deny citizens the knowledge of good and keep them from embracing the laws of God. To that extent, they are pawns of evil and subvert and destroy both the message and the messengers of righteousness.
REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
In an article entitled "Our Violent Kids," Time Magazine reported "an upsurge in the most violent types of crimes by teens." Through television, "by the age of 16, the typical child has witnessed an estimated 200,000 acts of violence, including 33,000 murders," the article went on to say.
A major study by Dr. Brandon Centerwell of the University of Washington's Department of Epidemiology concludes that "exposure to television" is related to approximately one-half of the homicides committed in the United States, or approximately 10,000 homicides annually. Exposure to television and other forms of propaganda is also related to a majority of rapes, assaults, and acts of violence according to the study.
Censoring the Christian model and denigrating biblical values has resulted in a generation where every day in the United States:
� 437 children are arrested for drinking or drunk driving
� 211 children are arrested for drug abuse
� 1,629 children are in adult jails
� 30 children are wounded by guns
� 10 children are killed by guns
� 135,000 children bring a gun to school
Social scientists claim this generation's inability to define absolutes, and a growing pattern of anti-Christian behavior, may ultimately result in the collapse of the American superstructure, as situation ethics, AIDS and other forms of sexually transmitted diseases, the redefining of the family unit, and other abandonments of biblical standards of morality come to their dangerous and natural conclusion.
WILL WE EVER LEARN?
History students compare the French Revolution and the horror of persecution and torture under Robespierre, with the Revolutionary War in America that resulted in unprecedented cultural and monetary success. While citizens in America rejoiced in newfound religious liberty and freedom, more than twenty thousand people died in Paris's guillotines. The years to follow in France brought a reign of terror leading up to totalitarianism and Napoleon.
Why were the American and French Revolutions followed by such contrasting societal conclusions? The difference was that the American Revolution was fought on Christian principles, while the French Revolution was anti-God. The forces behind the French Revolution were out to eliminate Christianity as the enemy of France. A statue of a nude woman was placed on the altar of the church in Notre Dame, and the God of the Bible was proclaimed dead. Soon afterward, the French government collapsed.
Is the Fabian process of gradualism taking modern America down a similar path? Perhaps. For the past five decades Americans have allowed the liberal Left to defend the use of public funds for pornography, explicit sex education, and anti-Christian curricula. The Hollywood elite have denigrated Christian values and mocked the virtues of purity. The highest courts in the land have ruled with contemptuous decree against God, against prayer, and against the free expression of religion. Is it any wonder we have become the most profane and violent society in the industrialized
world?
JUST THINK OF IT
America's Founding Fathers understood that all government is based on either a theistic or anti-theistic foundation. Adepts of history like George Washington understood that countries whose systems of government embrace national anti-theistic views ultimately come to ruin. Strong religious convictions therefore played a role in the development of the United States, which was established on Christian principles and open to all people of good will. In 1892 this was argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. After exhaustive deliberation, the Court said, "Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. [It is] impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian."
Imagine that. A nation whose laws and institutions are based on the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. Why, such a place would surely become the leader in education, invention, and the arts. Such a place would probably become a haven of religious liberty for more types and religions of people than has ever existed anywhere or at any time on earth. Instead of religious persecution and intolerance, such a place would offer hope and opportunity to the huddled masses of the earth.
These definitions actually reveal a paradox. On the one hand Jesus told people to love each other and on the other hand God is the greatest cause of hate in human history.
It is amazing how much prejudice exists in some popular circles! The sad thing, though, is that those who have them are totally blind to them.
It is very sad the interpretation some people have on Christianity...but might it be that some people in public positions/in the public eye/ourselves have given them cause to.
I think some of the people we elect into office (and not necessarily political) probably strategically convert to christianity with their eyes fixed on the price, others may be christians who've lost their way because they have let ambition, self-advancement, fame etcetera cloud their moral compass. I think it is a good thing that people do realize the importance of christianity in lots of people's lives but it is unfortunate there are those among us who wish to take advantage of this fact.
For example, I have watched the following unfold on t.v, all professing to be christians: politicians who are pro-abortion and anti-christian moral views, racists from all walks of life, preachers without a message of peace, people in positions of authority preying on the innocents, people holding up signs of hatred/division/violence on the streets, in political rallies...the list goes on...
The mass media is like a double edged sword, it does good and bad at the same time in my opinion, especially where the issues of morality are concerned. I see a great opportunity in using this technology... we can turn the tables and feed this machine with what christianity is about, spread the fruits of the spirit to all, uplift the broken hearted, feed the hungry, heal the sick, care for the poor, love one another, being pro-active in our communities...being part of the solution...
As christians, we should never fear to be unpopular due to our message wherever we are in this world... Thus we have a great task ahead of us, and it starts right in our homes, in our communities...let's not point fingers at others in what's going wrong in our homes... We as a christian people, as a society, as individuals have a responsibility, a duty to fulfill.. Let not fear rule our lives..we cannot always be right, none is perfect, but we can sure try to make it right... if you read or watch or hear something that's contrary to what you believe, do not be afraid, point it out...writing is a very good tool you know.. if you let something slide and think someone else will take care of it, you probably have lost another soul to the darkness...faith in action I say. Let's hold ourselves, the people we elect to represent us, our family, our friends and neighbors accountable...then hopefully we'll positively change the view of the world in who we truly are as christians. Don't underestimate yourself, be the catalyst for good from your own corner of the world.
Some food for thought:
***The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing - Edmund Burke'
***Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance- Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Most of all, know that God is our refuge and our strength, and He is a God of love... hug, smile at,tell someone today that God loves them, and so do you...spread the Word, spread the love...
