The Erosion of "Free Exercise"

The fact that so few Christians today understand the gravity of what is going on with the erosion of the First Amendments Free Exercise clause is staggering.

Under the Constitutional right of Free Exercise of Religion, believers in our nation have specific Constitutional protection to the free exercise of their religion according to the dictates of their own consciences...that means they should not ever be forced to violate their own beliefs unless those beliefs lead to actions that do physical harm to another. I hear some believers saying that they agree with not having to perform weddings for homosexuals. But they disagree with denying services in other areas. If a Christian, has convictions about not providing his/her service to homosexuals because they feel they may be sanctioning that activity by providing their skills...that is there call. Our government, federal or state is not supposed to be permitted to force them to violate their conscience. Some agree that Christians shouldn't have to do it for the weddings, but then imply that we shouldn't be able to deny some other service. The problem with that kind of reasoning is that it makes you, I, or worse, the government the arbiter of another Christians conscience...rather than the Holy Spirit working in that individuals life. They may be convicted not to provide their skills or services because they are sanctioning that activity by doing so. Its not your call, my call, or the governments call, it should never be your or my call when it comes to a persons convictions unless those convictions obviously do physical harm to another.

This is so VERY crucial for Christians to understand...I simply cannot over emphasize this....we are sitting idly by (the Church) and watching specific rights given to us by God in our nation, for the express purpose of the free gospel dispensation...which includes believers taking a stand against what they believe is sin. No other nation has this kind of protection codified in it's Constitution or laws. Once again, our ignorance of the Constitution and the protections it affords us all, once again, that ignorance is causing us to lose those protections, and at an alarming rate I might add. Our ignorance of history creates an ungodly lack of appreciation for what God has providentially given to us in our nation and we are watching it slip away. I believe that lack of understanding on the part of the church and that lack of action to protect what God has richly blessed us with is a great abomination to God.

The erosion of Free Exercise in our nation is going on unabated at an alarming rate...when the day comes where Pastors are arrested for "hate speech" ...it will be a direct result of what we see happening now...and we think its ok...each link in the chain of Constitutional protection is breaking away from another link every day.

Maybe the American Church needs to be stripped of these God given protections in order for the American church to come under intense persecution to strengthen it...and shake it out of its sin of apathy.