There is only one thing more alarming than the concerted attack on Christianity all over the Western world. That is the tragic truth that the Christian church is sleeping through its own execution. It seems most Christians have no clue that war has been declared against the Christian faith.
Indeed, most believers don’t seem to know or don’t seem to care that everywhere in the West we have case after case of ugly anti-Christian bigotry. Christians are being arrested, jailed, kicked out of school, fired from jobs, and threatened with fines and other penalties for daring to be Christian.
All over the West every particular group and lobby is allowed to do whatever they want whenever they want. But if Christians dare seek to exercise their faith in any way in public, you can be sure that increasingly the law will come knocking on the door.
A whole raft of laws effectively designed to silence Christianity are being passed around the Western world. Sure, they sound innocuous enough: anti-discrimination, anti-vilification, equal opportunity, hate speech, and so on. But who are they being used against?
Are they being used against angry atheists who berate, blaspheme and badmouth Christians on a regular basis? Are they used against militant homosexuals who mock, vilify and pour a steady stream of public abuse and hatred on Christians? Are they used against those promoting stealth jihad and creeping sharia in the West?
No, they are being used mainly against just one group: Bible-believing Christians who think they have as much right as anyone else in society to publicly exercise their faith. But of course such believers are sadly mistaken. Every day they are losing these rights.
I have documented countless examples of this on my site, and there looks to be no end in sight. Each new day brings new cases of blatant anti-Christian bigotry. Consider the latest, this time from the UK: “Police have threatened a Christian cafe owner with arrest – for displaying passages from the Bible on a TV screen.
“Jamie Murray was warned by two police officers to stop playing DVDs of the New Testament in his cafe following a complaint from a customer that it was inciting hatred against homosexuals. Mr Murray, 31, was left shocked after he was questioned for nearly an hour by the officers, who arrived unannounced at the premises. He said he had turned off the Bible DVD after an ‘aggressive inquisition’ during which he thought he was going to be arrested and ‘frog-marched out of the cafe like a criminal’.
“But he added: ‘I have now checked on my rights and I am not going to be bullied by the police and the PC lobby out of playing the Bible silently in my cafe. It’s crazy. Christians have to stand up for what they believe in.’ The Salt and Light cafe in Blackpool has for years repeatedly played the entire 26-hour-long Watchword Bible, a 15-DVD set produced in America in which a narrator reads the whole of the New Testament, on a small flatscreen TV on the back wall.”
This is utterly insane – but it is utterly typical of what we find occurring over and over again. Was this guy selling crack cocaine? Was he filming child pornography? Was he planning a bank robbery or a terrorist attack? Was he engaged in a violent robbery?
No far, far worse than that, apparently: he was actually showing the Bible in his own cafe! Wow, put him away and throw away the key! Lock up this horrible anti-social miscreant for life! Strip him of all his rights, close down this evil cafe, and make an example of him for everyone to see!
This is where law has degenerated to in the Western world. This is the madness which rampant political correctness and a militant and vicious homosexual lobby have brought about. Thus today every single committed and public Christian is at risk. It is only a matter of time before we all get similar visits from the police.
At least a few people have not gone completely nuts. Some people were rightly gobsmacked by all this, and raised their voices about it all. As the article continues: “The Christian Institute, which is supporting Mr Murray, said its lawyers had told him he is free to display the Bible in any way he chooses, and they are preparing a complaint against the police.
“The Institute’s spokesman Mike Judge said: ‘I have no problem with the police looking into a complaint, but once they realised it was just the words of the Bible being shown on the screen then they should have walked away. They did not even look at the offending DVD. They simply told Mr Murray that he had to stop showing the Bible and warned him that they would continue to monitor what he was doing. This is intimidatory and completely unacceptable. It is a problem right across the country that the police are under huge political pressure to be seen to respond to anything homophobic.’ Lancashire Police said they had received a complaint on Saturday afternoon from a female customer who was ‘deeply offended’ by the words she had seen on the screen.”
Another article says this: “Mr Murray said: ‘I couldn’t believe the police were saying I can’t display the Bible. The officers were not very polite, in fact they were quite aggressive. It felt like an interrogation. I said “surely it isn’t a crime to show the Bible?” But they said they had checked with their sergeant and insulting words are a breach of Section 5 of the Public Order Act. I was shocked. I’m not here to insult or offend anyone, but the Bible is the Bible. We’re always being told that we’re a tolerant and diverse nation. Yet the very thing that gave us those values – Christianity – is being sidelined.’
“‘I’m not looking to make a name for myself, I’d rather be quietly getting on with running my café. But there comes a time when you have to say enough is enough.’ The Christian Institute’s Head of Communications, Mike Judge, said: ‘We’ve all seen the police stand by while extremist Muslims hold placards calling for infidels to be beheaded, but woe betides a Christian café displaying Bible texts. Yes, the Bible speaks about morality, of course it does. But the Bible isn’t hate speech. Disagreement isn’t hatred. If a café customer dislikes parts of the Bible, the right response is to take their custom elsewhere – not dial 999’.”
It concludes, “Sam Webster, the Christian Institute’s in-house Solicitor-Advocate, said: ‘We will be advising Mr Murray of his legal options. He may well have grounds for a legal action against the police for infringing his rights to free speech and religious liberty.’
“‘It ought to go without saying that reading the Bible out loud in a public place, or displaying Bible texts in a Christian café, is not of itself a criminal offence. I am alarmed that I even have to point that out. On the face of it, officers of Lancashire Constabulary appear to have said that such behaviour may fall within the scope of Section 5 of the Public Order Act. As a lawyer and a Christian, I find that deeply disturbing’.”
It is deeply disturbing alright. But it is happening more and more all over the West. Yet the really disturbing thing is how few believers are even aware of this crackdown on Christianity, or even care. If they don’t get aware soon, and start caring, they soon may not be able to make any public stink about this at all.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2041504/Police-tell-cafe-owner-Stop-showing-Bible-DVDs-arrest-you.html#ixzz1Yy923q8j
http://www.christian.org.uk/news/video-police-ban-bible-from-christian-cafe/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%20christianinstitute%20%28The%20Christian%20Institute%29&utm_content=FaceBook
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