As America is waging a war on terrorism — and a war for freedom in Iraq — conservative columnist and author David Limbaugh says some elements of American society are waging a war against Christianity and the freedom of Christians to be involved in public life.
Think that's overblown rhetoric? Consider the following:
• An Alabama Supreme Court justice is drummed out of office for refusing to remove a statue that commemorates the sources of American law — including the Ten Commandments — from the rotunda of the state judicial center.
• An American general is condemned because he makes statements in a church setting that reflect his Christian beliefs.
• A Newton, Mass., high school teacher introduces "bisexual, gay, lesbian and transgendered" subjects in class by assigning his class the novel, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower," by Steven Chobsky. When a parent objects to the book — which covers everything from bestiality to homosexual sex to masturbation -- the parent is dismissed as "an ignorant pest."
• A St. Louis fourth-grader is ordered to the principal's office solely because he bowed his head to pray before eating in the lunchroom.
In his new book "Persecution," Limbaugh — an attorney and legal scholar in addition to being the brother of radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh — cites scores of cases similar to these to back up his argument that Christians are increasingly being driven from the public square, are denied their First Amendment rights and are even actively discriminated against for their beliefs.
Limbaugh persuasively and systematically argues that, under the guise of protecting religious freedom, activist judges misinterpret and misapply the Constitution and liberal secularists are working — sometimes together, sometimes separately — to eliminate Christianity from government and public life and suppress religious freedom.
The proper word for the kind of treatment Christians are receiving, Limbaugh said, is persecution.
"I'm not talking about persecution in the traditional sense in which Christians are martyred and killed," Limbaugh told CitizenLink. "I'm talking about discrimination against Christians — where Christians are singled out and treated with disrespect, they're impugned and not accorded the same amount of tolerance everyone else is, and that the people who tout tolerance as the highest virtue do not give that same respect to Christians, ironically.
"In the name of promoting a strict separation of Church and state, they thwart the very reason for the Establishment Clause in the first place, which was to promote religious liberty.
'No Separation of Church from State'
Which brings us back to Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore — whose treatment at the hands of liberals on the bench recently cost him his job, and who is only the most recent and most visible example of a trend to which more and more Christians are subject.
"I personally think that Judge Moore was correct in his legal position that the courts had no business ordering him to remove the monument to the Ten Commandments; they were clearly wrong," Limbaugh explained. "The Ten Commandments have both value as a sacred text but also historical and secular significance in terms of being foundational to secular laws."
Even if the Ten Commandments weren't part of our history — and were a purely Judeo-Christian symbol — Limbaugh doesn't believe the Constitution's Establishment Clause required Moore's monument to be removed, as a federal judge ruled.
Limbaugh said activist courts, aided by what amounts to a secularist/liberal propaganda campaign, have obscured what the Constitution actually says about religious freedom.
"We can thank expansive, twisted interpretations of the Establishment Clause — which says 'Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, nor prohibiting the free exercise thereof' — by overzealous courts for removal of these kind of Christian symbols from government property.
"The separationists flout the term 'separation of church and state' all the time, and they've indoctrinated people in the schools and in our society at large to believe that the government shouldn't have anything to do with religion at all," he added. "The Establishment Clause was originally intended only to prohibit Congress from establishing a national church, to prevent all kinds of government activities in religion. And the reason for that is the founders wanted to guarantee that we had religious freedom in this country — that's the reason why this country was founded in the first place. By preventing a national church, you prevent the state from forcing its religion on you."
Limbaugh said people forget that the other side of that coin is that the founders wanted us all to be able to exercise our freedom of religion.
The real culprits are liberal secularists who seem to control the mainstream media, Hollywood our schools and universities and much of our public life. These anti-Christian forces aggressively target any public mention of Christianity — labeling it "discrimination"; at the same time, these groups advocate secularized values such as homosexuality and condom-based sex education.
So, why is Christianity the No. 1 target?
"I think it's because Christians believe in absolutes," Limbaugh said. "I know certain other religions say they do, too, but we represent the dominant force in society -- the dominant force that advocates traditional values, the Judeo-Christian ethic, and some secularists don't think they can countenance the coexistence of Christian values with their own values. They require — in many cases — that we accept the homosexual agenda and that we not only tolerate homosexual activists and treat them civilly and with respect, but that we treat their ideas as equally valid.
"The problem when we treat their ideas as equally valid, if you carry that out to its logical conclusion, is that we necessarily treat their ideas as superior. Because, if we agree with them when they say that homosexuality is normal and not aberrant in any way, then we really are, in effect, denying what Scripture says. They really want us to believe what they believe — through coercion; it's kind of a mind-control thing."
Limbaugh added that those whose mantra is "tolerance" aren't very tolerant when it comes to Christianity.
In liberal cross hairs
From movies like "The Last Temptation of Christ" to "Frailty," Christianity and Christians are routinely portrayed by Hollywood in an irreverent, unflattering and sometimes outright abusive light.
Secularists try to expunge any mention of Christianity's role in the founding of in America from history textbooks. They even work to restrict churches.
"Zoning laws are being used to restrict churches from going in certain areas, or to conduct certain activities in certain areas, and vacation Bible schools are being treated as second-class organizations," he said.
Limbaugh said secularists seem convinced that Christianity is "ignorant," "repressive" and "offensive."
"I think they feel compelled to forcibly remove Christianity from the marketplace of ideas — and from the public square and from the media, Hollywood, the courts and schools — in order that their ideas will gain dominance — because they want their ideas to be dominant.
"Contrary to what they say, they are not tolerant, they are not open-minded, they are coercive. I don't think they believe that our ideas are compatible with theirs, so theirs must prevail and ours must be expunged.
At the heart of the matter, Limbaugh said, there is a battle for the soul of our public institutions. We have to work in our churches and at the grassroots to try to restore or spiritual values, he said.
"I believe that our Judeo-Christian values are foundational to our liberties," he said. "As we undermine that foundation, we'll undermine the pillars of our freedom."
The point, he said, is not to try to predict whether we can win this battle, it is to say we have to be in — and stay in — this fight.
"We have an obligation as Christians to struggle for our religious liberties," Limbaugh concluded. "It is one thing for Christians to say they don't want to get their hands dirty by getting involved in politics and they want to stay in the spiritual world, but . . . if we don't fight in the political world, we can expect our freedoms to erode even more rapidly. We have to have political freedom in order to evangelize. It's that simple." '
The other side knows it is in a culture war, and it's fighting. We need to awaken grassroots Christians.
"I am not advocating the endorsement of religion by the state. I am saying that the Constitution doesn't preclude mention of religion and doesn't preclude all endorsement of the Christian religion.
"But I'm further saying that the secularists are after more than just neutrality when it comes to religion. They want to sweep away the Christian values system, and replace it with anti-Christian values. They don't want to promote tolerance, they do not want to promote a level playing field. They don't want equal treatment towards the Christian religion.
"They want us to have fewer rights and less freedom, ultimately, and I'm not sensationalizing to characterize it that way," he added. "We've got to stand up."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
David Limbaugh's book, "Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity," is published by Regnery Publishing, Inc., and is available in book stores near you.
