The Continuing Attack on Christianity in the USA

There was a time in America when first amendment rights were assumed, assured, and appreciated. Then, in the 1960’s, the civil rights movement ushered in the ideology of multiculturalism. Little did the American people realize how it would affect the First Amendment. Multiculturalism slowly seeped into our educational system, gradually inching out the historical structure that formed our national identity and cultural orientation. Samuel Taylor in his article for The Journal of Historical Review, The Challenge of ‘Multiculturalism” In How Americans View the Past and the Future,  points out that the purpose of the American public education system was not only to transfer knowledge, but to build a like-minded nation; to assimilate immigrants into the American way. (Our educational system also orientates our children into our society.)

E. Digby Baltzell’s book The Protestant Establishment Revisited (p 218), coincides with Taylor’s findings:

Thus, John Quincy Adams wrote in 1818 that immigrants must cast off their European skin, never to resume it, ‘must look forward to posterity rather than backward to their ancestors; they must be sure that whatever their own feelings may be those of their children will cling to the prejudices of this country. Theodore Roosevelt echoed Adams when he wrote that ‘we have no room for any people who do not act and vote simply as Americans and as nothing else . . . where immigrant, or the sons of immigrants, do not heartily and in good faith throw in the their lot with us, but cling to the speech the customs, the ways of life, and the habits of thought of the Old World which they have left, they thereby do harm both to themselves and us.’ And Woodrow Wilson told a group of newly naturalized citizens in Philadelphia in 1915: ‘America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American.’ 

Our national educational curriculum taught a single standard historical perspective that united Americans. Taylor notes that such a focus had a “coherent purpose and a single voice”. It was the history of America’s primarily white founders for early America’s primarily white population; a white population that was primarily made up of a Judeo-Christian philosophy.

It is the Declaration of Independence that formed America—not the Constitution. The second paragraph defines our governing principles:

We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

The unifying philosophy has slowly been disassembled to accommodate the civil rights movement. Then, in an effort to give voice to the two “traditional minorities—blacks and Indians”, followed by the incoming non-white immigrants, the established historical point of view that connected us with a united purpose and single-mindedness was changed to a multicultural history. Taylor continues to point out in his article that academia concluded that its history had to be rewritten to include other perspectives from a single perspective to be culturally relevant in order to keep black and Hispanics in school.

Taylor found that the blacks are learning a history that whites once learned to build an identity and certitude. He notes that multicultural history has become “a collection of perspectives that are often not merely non-white but anti-white”. This division of perspectives has resulted in making “America into nothing at all”.

Taylor wrote, “Unlike the old history, which viewed the past with pride and the future with confidence, multicultural histories are diffident and perplexed. Unlike the old history, which at least gave white children a firm foundation for national identity, multicultural history says, in effect, that America has no identity. The only thing left to unite a multicultural America is geography.”

Taylor continues:  “Multicultural history is like Affirmative Action. Just as whites are to step aside to give hiring preferences to minorities, whites are to set aside their own point of view and study those of others. Non-whites, on the other hand, are free to promote their own interests and exclusionist histories…They [whites] will eventually see that there cannot be one history that satisfies all. And they will begin to wonder whether there can be one nation that satisfies all.”

Because our traditional history was steeped in the Judeo-Christian beliefs and principles, in order to change the national orientation, Christianity has been discounted, dismissed, devalued, and deliberately attacked to facilitate the transformation into the New America. Christians now have to decide whether to organize so other groups no longer trump their rights—or the politicians pandering for power as they intentionally dissect America for political expediency.

In April of 2009, while in Turkey, President Obama repeated what he claimed in 2006, that America is no longer a Christian nation. Yet according to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) from 2008, 73—76% of American adults identify themselves as Christians.

The first amendment reads,

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Yet, Christians’ rights to pray, witness, and perform their religious duties are under attack today.

• Priests are threatened with arrest if they perform their religious duties due to the government shutdown. The priests who minister to Catholics on military bases worldwide are not permitted to work, even if they volunteer.
• In Oct. 2012, 25 Christians were arrested while praying in front of the White House, while Muslims are not only free but accommodated to pray in the streets.
• Julian Raven was arrested and began serving a jail sentence for praying in a public park in March of 2010, while he was at his office. This for an offense of praying in a park. In 2007, Raven and other Christians went to Wisner Park in Elmira to pray for the participants of a “gay pride” event. Materials advertising the event stated that it was open to the public and that all were invited. They proceeded to the front of the stage and laid prostrate on the grass and began to pray. Though a police sergeant had told Raven earlier that he was not to go into the public park, walk through the park, or talk to anyone in the park about his religion, he did so anyway. All were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Since then, the charges have been dismissed against everyone but Raven, who served 7 days in jail—for asserting his faith in a public park for a group of people. Alliance Defending Freedom sued the city. The city settled in February of 2010 with ADF attorneys in a separate federal civil suit involving Raven and two other men.
• Obamacare’s war on Christianity has regulations hidden in the legislation that require all health insurance plans to cover the costs of abortion-inducing drugs. It requires churches and religious organizations to provide that coverage. Pro-lifers will also be required to pay for abortions for others.
• Christians attempting to witness at a Muslim event were arrested in 2010 for engaging in evangelistic activity with the Muslims. The American Freedom Law Center in Michigan filed a lawsuit against the City of Dearborn for the arrests of the three Christians. Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Chief of Police Ronald Haddad, 17 City police officers, and two executives from the American Arab Chamber of Commerce were all named in the legal complaint. The City of Dearborn, Michigan has since apologized as part of a settlement reached between city officials and those arrested.

Teens from Reach America sum it up best. They say Christianity is being frozen out of the American square. Their mission is to call on their generation to join them in the “thaw”. Perhaps we should as well.  Please watch their video: