Christians Are The Lepers of the 21st Century

From Will at THE OTHER NEWS

Christians are the 21th Century lepers. HT: Archbishopcranmer.

Speaking at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Virginia last week, the next Republican nominee (if they have any sense) for President of the United States spoke of the increasing intolerance being expressed toward Christians by the erstwhile liberal democratic states, simply for believers’ adherence to centuries-old moral orthodoxy and theological wisdom in an age of relativism and aggressive assertions of equality and human rights.

Yes, he was courting the ‘Evangelical vote’ (aka ‘Religious Right’), but quite why an appeal to that constituency should be deemed cynical when a presidential candidate must impress across a broad church (quite literally) is perplexing. The fact that much of the media, however, deemed his speech to be a depthless flash of detested pretence rather goes to prove Bush’s point: Christians are the new lepers. 

He didn’t quite point it like that, but the inference is clear: 

How strange, in our own time, to hear Christianity spoken of as some sort of backward and oppressive force. Outside these seven thousand acres of shared conviction, it’s a depressing fact that when some people think of Christianity and of Judeo-Christian values, they think of something static, narrow, and outdated. We can take this as unfair criticism, as it typically is, or we can take it as further challenge to show in our lives the most dynamic, inclusive, and joyful message that ever came into the world. 

His zeal is for religious freedom, which, under President Obama, has been made a little lower than Gomorrah: “What should be easy calls, in favor of religious freedom, have instead become an aggressive stance against it.” 

It strikes me that most of the criticism directed at believers in our day is drawn from hostile caricature. That’s just the easy way of avoiding honest discussion. It is a posture that only deepens distrust, instead of inviting understanding. 

The truth, of course, is that the censorious liberals and intolerant democrats don’t want an honest discussion.

By deepening distrust of Christians, they stifle debate in order to suppress truth. Leviticus introduced us to the scapegoat; the Athenians gave us ostracism; Matthew and Luke tell us about lepers. Now, of course, we send people to Coventry.

Every age and culture has its heretics, untouchables and outcasts. Christians aren’t quite criminals, but if ‘hate speech’ continues to suck in Scripture, it won’t be too long before the priestly persona non grata is thrown into prison by the enlightened establishment simply for refusing to join two men in holy matrimony.

And yet that conscience has become warped, dangerous and damaging. Christianity has become a perverted practice and phobic offence.

Christians who were called to a revolutionary mission of love have become the haters, bigots and social deviants. Our words are deemed destructive; our beliefs archaic; our opinions obsolete.

We cling to free speech but know that our mere thoughts are scorned by the illiberal anti-democrats who demand unqualified subjection to what we are told is the new mainstream of reason and factual authority. To criticise is social suicide. To utter a word in defence of the Faith is shrill and shallow.

To tweet truth is to invite Stephen Fry’s horde of devotees to screech ‘homophobe’ and heckle until an apology is extracted – with threats, if necessary. 

There can be no opposition, no resistance and no petition for appeal. Every jarring dissonance must be muzzled before it is uttered. Those who demur are stamped upon and snuffed out. The land must be purged of ugly scars and cleansed of infectious scabs. Christians were once scapegoats and sacrificial lambs, and then we became heretics and outcasts. Now we are the lepers of omniscient secular enlightenment. Blessed are those who conform. Read the full story here.


Hmmm.....Luke 6:22 - Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you [from their company], and shall reproach [you], and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake.