Is Christianity Under Attack

I was shocked to see the latest from the Pentagon. Someone in the military who shares their Christian faith can now be court martialed and possibly imprisoned. I guess this is the new form of the military code, except now it is "Don't talk, don't tell." That said, I am just now finding out some new things about Christianity.

I didn't know that Evangelical Christianity is a form of religious extremism comparable to Hamas, the KKK and Al Quaeda according to training given to Army Reserves in Pennsylvania.  http://www.adfmedia.org/files/ExtremismPresentation.pdf For Christians in the military, it gets worse.

“Today, we face incredibly well-funded gangs of fundamentalist Christian monsters who terrorize their fellow Americans by forcing their weaponized and twisted version of Christianity upon their helpless subordinates in our nation’s armed forces.”

That is a quote from Mikey Weinstein,who is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He has also said that Christians who share the gospel in the military are guilty of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” I wonder how women and men that have been raped would feel about that comparison. I know it shows me his lack of education on the issue. I was Agnostic for over 20 years and when a Christian talked to me about their beliefs it was nothing like getting molested when I was a youth.

The scary thing is that Mr. Weinstein is sitting down with the Pentagon as a consultant to help them develop new policies on religious tolerance.  There does not seem to be too much tolerance coming from Mikey. It is becoming more and more obvious that there may be issues for Christians.

For starters, Christians are held to different standards. While Mr. Weinstein can say whatever he wants about Christians, imagine if Christians spoke the same way about his organization. They would be vilified. If Christians voice opinions about the veracity of the Koran or who Muhammad was they are branded bigots. If Muslims burn Bibles it is considered no big deal.

Take Jason Collins coming out and telling the world he is gay this week. When Tim Tebow prays on the side of the field he is told by the mainstream media, "Keep that to yourself. No one cares." When Jason Collins comes out the media proclaims, "He is a hero." I would argue that both feel that the things they share are a huge part of who they are, so what is the difference?

Then Chris Broussard is asked his opinion about Jason coming out and he is called every name under the sun for giving it. I have a rule, do not ask questions you do not want answers to. That said, it was not like Chris spoke with the kind of malice those posting on his site are displaying.

Christians are facing a day when freedom of speech for them is fading. Christians are told to keep their opinions to themselves and to be tolerant of others. From what I have seen, they are. In fact, they show love and give support in the way of shelter and food to people who live lives that they do not agree with. I believe they say, "Love the sinner hate the sin." Then you have people like Richard Dawkins saying, "Mock them. Ridicule them in public," when speaking about Christians and he is applauded. That does not sound very tolerant.

A quote that I saw attributed to Voltaire said, "To learn who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticize." Point being, it would seem that as much as the media shouts about the Christian majority, Christians do not seem to be the ones in power. They are the ones told to be tolerant while everyone else picks on them and calls them names.

Thankfully, Christians continue to give millions upon millions of dollars as well as hours of their time to help those who are struggling. I remember working the Joplin tornado doing psychological first aid and seeing tent upon tent staffed and funded by churches as well as Convoy of Hope and Compassion International semis loaded with supplies. Would have been nice to see some secularists putting forth the same unified effort.

I guess none of this should shock me. It was predicted 2,000 years ago by Jesus in John 15:18-19, "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.

Top 10 Reasons People Hate Tebow

Last night I was watching the UFC fights. My sincerest apologies go out to Tim, Tom, the Broncos and the Patriots. I am a Chicago Bears fan, and I figured the fights would be more interesting. I have been a huge fan of the UFC since it began, and I was excited to see a couple of the fights. That and I already had plans to have people over to my house for the pay per view.

What I did do was follow the game on my Yahoo! Sportacular IPhone app. I generally follow the chat that goes on during the game on the app too, and it was horrific. There was so many disparaging words that I knew I was not home on the range. They started before the game even began, and as the game continued they got worse. It is amazing that a quarterback has set multiple high school records, won the Heisman trophy as a sophomore and took his team to two national championships but is repeatedly called lucky. Lucky happened to be among some of the best remarks that I read in the chat.

As the Broncos fell further and further behind, the bad mouthing continued to deteriorate. Wow, I had not seen this much vitriol spewed at a man since Obama was elected president. People seem pretty quick to share their hate. Sad when it is done to a guy that gets pile driven into the turf and tells the linebacker "Nice Hit." If he was a rapist or a drug peddler I would understand, but he is a man that is trying to open up a children's hospital in the Philippines and whose foundation supports an orphanage. Wish the haters would do as much to help their fellow man!! I'm not judging, just saying.

I figured that there must be some great reasons that people do not like Tim Tebow (There is an I HATE  Tim Tebow group on Facebook) and I made a plausible (to me at least) list of reasons why he is so disliked:

1. Tim Tebow does not do drugs (C'mon, We need a role model. If you can't lead your team in drug arrests how can you be a team leader?)
2. Tim Tebow has never had a DWI or been arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct (Must not appreciate his wins enough to get drunk and then drive when celebrating them)
3. Tim Tebow has never been convicted or even charged with any felonies (He is too soft for the NFL!)
4. Tim Tebow doesn't raise pit bulls to fight or even run a dog fighting ring (He hates animals so much he will not let them compete)
5. Tim Tebow visits children in hospitals and makes terminally ill kids wishes come true (To mock and belittle them when no one is looking, I'm sure)
6. Tim Tebow has never been seen in a bar fight (What a WUSS!!)
7. Tim Tebow doesn't sleep around or spread STD's (Tim Tebow is selfish and does not share)
8. Tim Tebow does not cuss and is a role model for children (Quit making so many other athletes look bad. How can we say we are not supposed to be role models when he is such a great one)
9. Tim Tebow is building a hospital in the Philippines for children (It's in the Philippines because he hates America, not because he was born there)
10. Tim Tebow has no visible tattoos (He must be afraid of pain)
11. Tim Tebow represents a great ethical and moral standard of living ie Tim Tebow has values (I could never parent that good of a kid, stop making me look bad Tim)
12. Tim Tebow doesn't beat women (I got nothing for this one, I tried but could not come up with a reason to hate on him him for this no matter how hard I had to stretch it. This one is just simply not in the least bit funny.)

The bottom line is this; Tim Tebow IS a role model for our children (at least for mine). If my son graduates from high school and then goes to college and the worst thing people can say about him is that he is a lucky quarterback and too open about his faith than I will consider myself one blessed parent! I look at how many of the professional athletes are getting arrested for drug possession, DWI, rape, assault and child molestation and it hurts me. Many children look up to these people and want to be just like them. At least he lives a life worth imitating!

Tim Tebow is a man who volunteers and donates loads of time and money and has never been attached to a crime or scandal. He is a role model in every sense of the term and he is hated on? If I was an atheist or agnostic (which I once was) I could still use how he acts in his life as an example to my son. I would talk to my son about why he represents his beliefs so openly and encourage my son to do the same with his beliefs. Don't hate, emulate!!

P.S. - Shout out to Edson Barboza for one of the coolest knock outs ever. Then mad props to Barboza for giving all glory to Christ. Classy guy, and just like Tebow I bet that he would have prayed in defeat too. We know we get more strength and wisdom from the loses than the wins!