How many people who support any of the Republican presidential candidates have protested an appearance by one of the Democrat candidates? Perhaps there are a few present with signs advocating for one of the Republican candidates, but we've seen no media coverage of riots and violence except by supporters of Democratic candidates opposing Republican candidates.
It's fast becoming a common theme. The people who demand others be tolerant of their views demonstrate a complete lack of tolerance towards anyone holding an opposing view. The same thing is true on many university campuses. Conservative speakers are often uninvited after students and faculty protest their appearance.
Bakeries owned by Christians are forced to provide wedding cakes for same-sex couples. If they refuse they are heavily fined and may be ordered to attend diversity training. Why are the same-sex advocates not ordered to attend diversity training so they will better understand the values the Christian owners hold?
Those who held to evolution first said they were just asking for the right to teach their theory in schools alongside creation teaching. They got that right. Now, anyone who attempts to teach creation rather than evolution is accused of promoting religion and is at risk of losing their jobs. Yet another example of the intolerance of those who demand tolerance.
Recently, a study was released that showed that a majority of Americans believe that conservative, biblical beliefs are extreme and those that hold to those beliefs are extremists. Sixty percent of Americans in the study claimed that any effort to convert someone to your religious beliefs was extreme. This would put most conservative, evangelical Christians in the category of being an extremist since evangelism is one of the marks of such Christians.
If we take that to a logical conclusion, evidently sixty percent of Americans would put Billy Graham in the same category as ISIS. I doubt most of those responding to the study would admit to believing that, but in essence that is what they are saying.
This demonstrates the challenges ahead for the Christian church, at least those of us who hold to evangelical doctrine. We have gone from being a nation who embraced Judeo-Christian values and beliefs, to a nation who began to challenge them, to a nation who merely tolerated such beliefs, and now to a nation who holds such beliefs to be extremist.
Sadly, it also points to a difficult future for America. No nation has ever turned its back on God and prospered. Once again, we have learned nothing from history. We have been warned for a long time that we were on a slippery slope. We're no longer on that slope; we have fallen off the edge, and I hurt for our children and grandchildren.
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