Freedom from atheists?

Christians are safe low-hanging fruit ripe for accusations of bigotry for trying to live their lives according to a faith that is the foundation not only of this country, but also the whole of Western civilization. Declining to provide services on religious and/or moral grounds should be a well-protected right. Can you imagine the outrage if a group sued a black business owner who refused to bake a cake for a Klan-themed wedding?

The Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) continues its dogged quest to keep the Christian faith out of the public square. Earlier this year, the Oviedo, Fla., police department held an awards ceremony in a building at nearby Reformed Theological Seminary–Orlando. The program included prayer. The FFRF wrote to the chief of police to complain that this was a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment Establishment Clause.

“Allowing prayer at an awards ceremony sends the message that the police department not only prefers religion over non-religion, but also Christianity over all other faiths,” the letter stated. The Constitution doesn’t contain language to indicate the police department violated the First Amendment. The founding document bars Congress from establishing a national religion. In his response to the FFRF, Chief Jeffrey Chudnow, who is Jewish, said he wasn’t offended by the prayer and didn’t receive any other complaints about it.

The FFRF also wants a Florida courthouse to remove a Christian flag displayed behind the bench. Unrelenting, the atheists recently complained about a Christian prayer service at an elementary school. They sent a cease-and-desist letter, and the school superintendent moved the service to a church. “Our public schools exist to educate, not to indoctrinate,” a spokesperson for FFRF said. Does the group take issue with homosexual indoctrination in government schools? That’s secular. Anything but religion. It’s godless, and that’s the goal.

Too bad taxpayers can’t choose which government services and programs they pay for. Abortion advocates can pay for abortions, for example, and homeschool and private school parents can choose not to pay for government schools.

We can view our country’s acquiescence to atheists the way Christ saw the Pharisees’ attempts to trick him into contradicting Himself. “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” they said. “Shall we pay, or shall we not pay?” The Lord said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s.” Although we’re obligated to pay taxes even to a government hostile to us, we can petition for redress. In a country where women have a “constitutional” right to kill their own children, but a Christian business owner doesn’t have the right to refuse services on religious grounds, we must remember that this world is fleeting. There will come a time when the unrepentant won’t be able to deny the truth of Christ any longer.

One day, all individuals will account—even atheists: “Every knee shall bow to Me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”