Standing Against the Secularists Who Want to Outlaw Christianity

Back in 1986, I was filmed for a movie called The Genesis Solution. In my presentation, recorded in front of a live audience, I stated:

Our declining society is an outward expression of an inward rejection of our Creator. And our freedoms are being eroded as Christianity is being slowly eliminated. Christians may wake up one day to find Christianity outlawed.

Now, there were people back then, 30 years ago, who said to me, “Christianity outlawed in America? No way.” But actually, little by little, Christianity is. Think about it:

• By and large the teaching of creation, the Bible, and prayer have been outlawed from most public schools.
• Christian reminders like crosses, Ten Commandments displays, and Nativity scenes are being outlawed from public places.
• The word Christ is being outlawed from Christmas in some places.
• Lawmakers in California have been attempting to introduce legislation that would affect whether or not religious colleges can continue to uphold their tenets of faith on marriage and human sexuality in codes of conduct, housing policies, and employment, and still participate in state programs such as the “Cal Grant” (which helps many families in the state afford higher education). Their latest effort did not succeed.
• We’ve already seen many instances where people have not been able to carry out the free exercise of their Christian convictions in their businesses.

The list could go on and on quite extensively. As I’ve said many times, in essence the secularists little by little have been imposing their anti-God religion on the culture. Christians need to wake up to what is happening regarding their legal rights.

The secularists little by little have been imposing their anti-God religion on the culture.

Another example of hostility toward Christianity pertains to the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) and its recent attack on the Ark Encounter. The FFRF is bullying public schools in an attempt to outlaw students from having the opportunity to visit the Ark Encounter themed attraction.

Now what the FFRF claims is not correct, and in fact what it advocates is illegal. But because its lawyers constantly bully educators and threaten lawsuits, most school administrators just cave in because of the hassle (and cost) to legally contest the issue.

Their bullying letter (which was also a fund-raising tool for the FFRF) states:

The Ark Encounter, which is opening this week in Kentucky, is a Christian ministry run by the creationist Ken Ham, who also built the notorious Creation Museum.

And why are we so notorious? Well, this is why:

Ham has been clear . . . “Our motive is to do the King’s business until He comes. And that means preaching the gospel and defending the faith, so that we can reach as many souls as we can.”

And yes—we’ve always said that! Indeed, the Ark and Creation Museum present the Christian message! But then the FFRF states:

Ham is free to erect monuments to the bible, but public schools are not permitted to expose the children in their charge to religious myths and proselytizing. So, public schools cannot organize trips for students to either the Creation Museum or the Ark Park. Doing so would violate the students’ rights of conscience and the U.S. Constitution.

Note the emotional language: “religious myths” and “proselytizing” (as if we are forcing our messages on people). But is it really correct that government-run schools would be in violation of the law if students were brought to a Christian facility as part of their school curricula?

Not at all. Attorneys for the Center for Religious Expression, who battle such cases all the time, sent me this statement:

Once again, FFRF is wrong. Public schools are free to take students on field trips to any place they find educationally beneficial, which can include parks, museums, and even churches that have religious connotations. The Constitution demands the state be neutral—not hostile—toward religion. To deny students the unique opportunity to see and experience a full-scale model of Noah’s Ark—just because its existence is described in the Bible—would be decidedly hostile.

It’s the same reason we won the federal court case earlier this year against the state of Kentucky. The Ark Encounter was refused the right to participate in the state’s tourism tax-incentive rebate. As the judge ruled, the government cannot be hostile toward religion!

The government cannot be hostile toward religion!

Little by little, the secularists have been outlawing Christianity from the culture. Through misinformation, bullying, and intimidation, they have been succeeding. And because so many Christians have been so secularized by the public education system, they have largely not put up a fight.

And if this trend keeps happening, do you want a picture of where America is headed in the future? Just look at England. Consider these eye-opening comments from the well-respected publication The Economist (August 13, 2016):

Britain is unusually irreligious, and becoming more so. . . . THE final parish meeting of the Holy Trinity Church, in the centre of Bath . . . is listed for sale on the Church of England website, with offers invited. . . .

Last year the church reported a “sharp upturn” in such disposals . . . a milestone that Britain reached in January, when figures for weekly church attendance fell below 1m [million] for the first time, as well as one passed in 2009, when the proportion of Britons saying they had no religion (49% in the latest data, for 2015) overtook that saying they were Christian (43% in 2015) in NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey.

A 65-country study by WIN/Gallup last year found a lower proportion of people are religious in Britain than in all but six other countries. . . . Meanwhile other religions, like Islam, are growing—albeit not nearly fast enough to slow the growth of non-religious Britain.

The country is littered with evidence of the change. Everywhere deconsecrated churches are reopening as bars and restaurants. Five hundred churches were turned into luxury homes over five years in London alone. Shrinking congregations and growing repair bills are typically the fatal combination: about a quarter of Sunday services are attended by fewer than 16 parishioners.

Well, the sad article ends with this comment:

The Pew Research Centre (whose research goes beyond pews) projects that Australia, France and the Netherlands will lose their Christian majorities by 2050. Even in America, the non-religious part of the population rose from 16% to 23% between 2007 and 2014. Britain is just farther down the road to a post-religious society than most. It must lead the way.

Warning! What is happening in the United States has already happened in Britain. That’s where America is heading.

I would say the decline is happening for the same basic reason: God’s people didn’t stand on God’s Word from its beginning. In this era, the compromise between evolution/millions of years and Genesis began in England and spread around the world. Really, what’s happened to the church throughout England is actually the outworking of a church that has compromised God’s Word with man’s fallible ideas. Furthermore, the church has largely handed over the education of generations to the state.

This same compromise is rife in the church in the United States. At the same time, generations of children in America have been educated in schools that have increasingly outlawed anything Christian.

I believe this is why the Lord has raised up ministries like Answers in Genesis, the Creation Museum, and the new Ark Encounter. God is using these outreaches to equip Christians to stand against the secular attacks of our day and to challenge (in a very public and bold way) non-Christians with the truth of God’s Word and the gospel.

God has allowed AiG to build the Creation Museum and the Ark because I believe there are many godly people who will take a stand on the authority of the Word of God.

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

While we still have the freedom to boldly proclaim the message of God’s Word to the world, I pray you will support us in prayer to do whatever we can to embolden God’s people and reach millions with the saving gospel. I urge you to help us to stand against those who would try to completely outlaw Christianity from the culture.

You probably recall the famous quote by Edmund Burke, an 18th century British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

God said it this way in His Word:

I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 3).

If God’s people don’t contend for the faith, we will see Christianity outlawed even further in our culture! I implore you to stand up for your faith. In a very public way (with an increasing number of scoffers trying to stop us), AiG is contending for the faith through many ministries like the Creation Museum and now the Ark Encounter.