Are Christians being gagged?

[notice]In this week’s Righteous Rant  DIANNE STEVEN sounds an alarm about a sinister force that she believes is attempting to eradicate the Christian worldview from the public arena in South Africa. Gateway News invites you to email your rant to news@gatewaynews.co.za for possible publication in this occasional column where readers get to share what’s on their heart. [/notice]

Things are happening fast that have made me sit bolt upright and think!

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Do we really realise the root of our country’s problems and how it can affect us in the very near and distant future?

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We are facing one of the cruelest enemies mankind has ever had to confront – no, not Satanism, but the religious forces of Secular Humanism. This is a belief that suggests that humans are capable of some form of morality and self-fulfilment without God and thus every effort is made to eradicate the Christian worldview from the media, government and public education thereby affecting the whole of society.

No Gospel please
A community radio station said to me recently: “We only want a little bit of salt, so the gospel may not be shared on air, in fact you may not even read a scripture, but may present documentaries, recipes and sport to entertain – nothing deep!” I left thinking, “Time is too short to not be able to preach the gospel. If I am being gagged left, right and centre, then who else is going through similar experiences, and what is going to happen to South Africa?”

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I then remembered something I wrote in my journal (on the 8/8/2011) – “There is coming a day when you will desire to search My Word and the privilege will be denied. Shadows are falling across a land that has known light and has rejected it and chosen to walk in darkness.”

Errol Naidoo of Family Policy Institute, commented in Gateway News recently, what I thought seemed very prophetic, and in line with my recent thinking – he said that, “He is consulting with several senior Christian leaders in SA about the growing attacks against the Church and its constitutional rights to religious freedom, belief, opinion and association. If the Christian Church fails to unite against these well-orchestrated attacks against the authority and integrity of God’s Word – the Bible will eventually be criminalised for its view on sexual sin.” 

The Bible criminalized! South Africa! It took a while to sink in before I started to realise what’s behind it all. Secular humanism!

God continued to open my spiritual eyes! In JOY! Magazine, April 2013 issue, I saw three items under ‘news’ that again got my attention:-

*   Spain says children adopted from Morocco must remain Muslim

Moroccan children adopted by Spanish families will be monitored by the Moroccan government until they reach the age of 18 to ensure the adopted children remain culturally Muslim. Spanish government sides with the Islamic policy and agreed to the monitoring of Spanish-Moroccan adoptions.

*   Four foreign Christians arrested in Libya

Libya has a law that prevents proslytising, making it a criminal offense potentially punishable by death. Four foreigners, including a South African, were arrested because they were found with 45 000 books about Christianity. Salafi groups will demand these ‘enemies’ receive the death penalty.

*   The Dalai Lama says ‘no’ to Christian conversions

“Any religion,” he said, “should be limited to service-oriented interventions, such as providing education and health care, not indulging in conversions.”

Next thing I received Gateway News … “Home Schooling not a fundamental human right”. It read … “Americans have been warned recently by US Attorney General Eric Holder who said that home schooling is not a parent’s right; it is not a fundamental human right!” It continued … “Two of the worst nations for home-schoolers are Germany and Sweden. Home schooling is illegal in Germany, except in rare cases. And many home schooling parents are persecuted with fines, jail, or the loss of their children. In Sweden the government controls education and the home schooling movement has been crushed.”

Slowly legislation is being passed to take control of children away from their parents and give them to the government, as we see in Germany and Sweden (above). In some South African schools we already see that pupils can access contraception, evening accessing abortions, without parental consent.

Condoms promoted
The Department of Education is teaching in schools the use of condoms, and sex education instead of abstinence (whether the parents want it or not), which is leading to permissiveness and increased abortion rates. Government financed abortion is provided and grants are being given. The Secular Humanist says: The child is part of the mother so she has the ‘right of choice’ to abort her child.

Our laws, required to maintain a bible-based moral society in the areas of marriage, pornography, sexual matters, gambling and homosexuality are being, or have been, struck down. Our statutes are being liberalised consistently opening the door to situation ethics, permissiveness, sexually active youth, fornication and perversion.

Increasing pornography in SA, with the recent TOP TV debacle relating to their 3 new pornography channels, plus sex education in schools, all bring spiritual destruction to children and teenagers, women and men, as well as heartbreak to their souls and death to their bodies. The hallmarks are disease, infections and death, broken families and a broken society.

Then I received ‘Prepare the Way’ Issue No.72’. In an excerpt from an article called “Look and Listen” by Peter Pollock, Pollock shares his story: “I agreed to address a junior school assembly. Pollock explained to the principal, “I’ll tell stories for 25 minutes … and then I will give them the Gospel for the last five minutes.”

“The headmaster looked at me with fire in his eyes. “Stories! Stories! Stories!” he almost bellowed. “Everybody is telling stories! Even the church is telling stories. I don’t want stories, I want the Gospel,” he demanded. “I was firmly convicted that I must stop telling stories, stop amusing and intriguing the kids, and rather give them the Gospel straight and clear” said Pollock “We are now seeing the truth of Paul’s the apostle’s statement that it is the preaching of the Gospel that is the power unto salvation for those who believe.” “Preach the Word! Not “from” the Word or “about” the Word,” says Pollock.

 As Christians, are we all we all seriously making the most of every opportunity to preach the Gospel and reach people for Jesus before it’s too late? Are we alert and standing strong for what we believe, “Seeing to it that no one takes us captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, and not according to Christ?” Or will we bow when under persecution from the enemy of God, Secular Humanism, which is already causing havoc under our noses in this country?