OPINION:
One of the most dangerous facets of our ever-secularizing culture is the creeping, metastatic hostility many Americans have toward religious liberty.
“We’ve moved beyond the divine” seems to be the predominant mantra among an increasing proportion of the populace, with punitive measures for those who hold traditional views becoming increasingly prevalent on social media platforms, in schools and other public venues.
The individuals and forces behind these assaults cannot see how the diabolical blueprints they blindly follow lead to rampant toxicity and government malfeasance.
And yet these blueprints have proven disastrous in other nations. Consider China, just one of the nations where one can see the results of religious liberties being trampled for the whims of the state. It is the fulfillment of the utter horror that can unfold when people allow the government to run rampant.
While Americans still enjoy robust First Amendment freedoms, the same can’t be said for the Chinese, who are entrapped by the Chinese Communist Party’s diabolical meanderings and sometimes deadly force.
Persecution watchdogs have long sounded the alarm on China’s curtailment of religious liberty, with the Chinese Communist Party demanding churches be registered with the government, with the destruction of churches — and with theological control being seized by communist officials.
One of the most sinister and wicked reports from China centers on the government’s project to reimagine the Bible through a socialistic lens, something I recently covered in great detail.
“This is a project that the Chinese Communist Party announced in 2019. At the time, they said it would be about a 10-year process … to release a new translation of the Bible,” Todd Nettleton, spokesman for the Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), told me. “This new translation … would really support the Communist Party.”
Not only would this new “bible” support the Chinese Community Party’s ideals, but it could very well become the only legal version of the scriptures available at officially recognized churches. And just for context’s sake, any non-recognized church is an illegal house of worship.
For a lens into how twisted this all is, consider that this new Bible edition reportedly claims Jesus stoned the woman accused of adultery in the famed story found in John 8:7-11. According to the Chinese Community Party, Christ concluded this murderous endeavor by stating, “I am also a sinner.”
It’s all so corrupt and evil. Yet, it’s a painful reality for innocent Chinese citizens forced to live under this purported insanity.
America is nowhere near China on the religious liberty front, but current trends in the U.S. are troubling. After all, the Communist Party didn’t end up this way overnight, and I pray we pay closer attention to the warning signs all around us.
As Americans become more secularized and less influenced by Judeo-Christian ideals, we’ve seen the faucet increasingly stream with ideas and arguments that not only take aim at traditional, biblical ideas but also treat them as though they have no place in society.
Somewhere along the way, the embrace of a “freedom for me and none for thee” mentality — one bolstered and propped up by the systems that seem to embrace the very same secular and progressive ideologies — overtook far too many of us.
Banning people who oppose transgender policies, threatening to fire conservatives, deleting social media accounts, forcing people into silence for fear of retribution. The erosion of our First Amendment values and our willingness to so flippantly assuage the whims of the culture should give us great pause.
The price so many paid for our freedom should curtail our carelessness. After all, religious liberty is a bedrock of any authentically free society — the right to freely believe or not believe in good or bad theological sentiments or no religious ideals at all.
I hope and pray we’re never faced with anything close to China’s woes, but it all depends on how committed we are to freedom for all. We know where the dangerous blueprint leads; let’s just hope we opt for the detour.
• Billy Hallowell is a journalist, commentator and digital TV host who has covered thousands of faith and culture stories. He is the director of content and communications at Pure Flix, and previously served as the senior editor at Faithwire and the former faith and culture editor at TheBlaze.
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