<\/p>\n
This article is part 2 in our series on religious freedom in America. You can read part 1 by clicking here.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n For years, a Christian baker in Colorado<\/span> had been harassed by people opposed to his beliefs. First, a gay couple took him to court for refusing to make a wedding cake for them. Then a transgender person sued him for refusing to celebrate with a cake his transition to a woman.<\/p>\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n More recently, a leader in the pro-life movement<\/span> was ejected from a coffeehouse in Idaho once staff realized she was hosting a meeting there.\n<\/p>\n And Christian evangelists<\/span> were kicked out of the Burning Man festival.\n<\/p>\n Jack Phillips<\/span> and others<\/span> who have suffered in the court system for their beliefs have prevailed in most cases that make it to the U.S. Supreme Court, but the sad fact is that the harassment is costly \u2014 financially, reputationally, and emotionally.\n<\/p>\n This harassment is abetted in many cases by state-based agencies that use their regulations or state law as a sword to crush Christians\u2019 free speech and exercise of their religion.\n<\/p>\n Respect for Christian values in America\u2019s public square seems to have waned significantly, where they were once honored.\n<\/p>\n Slippage in respect can be tied to scandals in various churches and denominations. The Bible warns us we will have trouble in this world, especially in these days when the love of many grows cold. But I argue Christian abdication has contributed as well.\n<\/p>\n Abdication, simply put, means abandoning one\u2019s duty or responsibility. This can be formal, as in stepping down prematurely from a position of leadership, or informal, as in simply ignoring one\u2019s duty or responsibility.\n<\/p>\n For Christians, this has often taken the form of opting out of key areas of life \u2014 politics and government, education, and the arts, to look at just a few.\n<\/p>\n IFA has written about, and our intercessors regularly pray about,<\/span>\u00a0the lack of pastoral engagement in the governmental space. Beyond leadership, many Christians don\u2019t even vote.\n<\/p>\n One cost of steering clear of politics and government: In recent primaries, we have seen socialist candidates<\/span> trounce traditional Democrats. The mayor of New York City<\/span>, for example, is an Islamic socialist \u2014 verging on Marxist \u2014 and is busily trying to implement costly and controlling socialist ideas.\n<\/p>\n Socialism, history shows us, is one of the most anti-Christian political systems known on earth.\n<\/p>\n Americans generally send their children to public schools, where the dominant influencer is the powerful National Education Association<\/span>.\n<\/p>\n This seemed like a great choice \u2014 especially for parents who both worked outside the home \u2014 until the COVID era, when close quarters and virtual classrooms afforded parents a close-up on what their children were learning, at the urging of the NEA.\n<\/p>\n Recently, a school took a field trip to a mosque<\/span> and instructed girls to wear Islamic garb. Many schools teach explicit gender and sexual content that parents oppose<\/span>.\n<\/p>\n An alarming trend among elementary school administrators and even public librarians has been to host drag shows<\/span> for children.\n<\/p>\n And once kids hit college, they are at even more risk. The Barna Group<\/span> estimates that 60% to 70% of young people lose their Christian faith in college. While many leave because their faith was never really grounded in good discipleship, many leave because of intellectual pressure to embrace competing ideologies, such as socialism or Marxism.\n<\/p>\n Many Christians frown upon any engagement with the arts. My husband, Rich, also an IFA contributing writer, is a drama evangelist who performs edifying, biblical, and family fare. Even so, many pastors find the idea of drama in a church setting too radical. In some cases, they actively disparage the arts.\n<\/p>\n As for fine arts, a quick tour of most museums illustrates that the great art of days of old centered on biblical themes. Modern art, on the other hand, tends to focus on alienation or other secular themes.\n<\/p>\n Where once Hollywood featured wholesome \u2014 even biblical \u2014 stories, such as The Ten Commandments, it now focuses on horror or sexual themes.\n<\/p>\n America is a nation firmly founded upon the principles and Person of the Triune God.\n<\/p>\n Yes, some dispute that, dragging out old arguments that the founders were deists or even that their repeated references to Providence were akin to today\u2019s agnostics\u2019 and atheists\u2019 references to \u201cthe Universe.\u201d\n<\/p>\n It is true that not everyone in the thirteen colonies was a true believer in Jesus Christ.\n<\/p>\n But it is also true that the Bible was well known, and the dominant culture was Judeo-Christian. No amount of revisionist history can change those facts.\n<\/p>\n Our founding fathers \u2014 having firsthand experience of the oppressive hand of Britain\u2019s King George \u2014 knew the danger of allowing government a free hand over matters of religion and its practice.\n<\/p>\n For that reason, in our Constitution, the founders took pains to limit the government\u2019s power over religious freedom<\/span>.\n<\/p>\n Unfortunately, some \u2014 including Christians \u2014 have misunderstood this clause to mean government and religion should be isolated from each other.\n<\/p>\n This thinking has led some Christians to be passive in the face of opposition to their religious expression. While some brave Christians have taken a stand against government oppression (or, in the case of Coach Kennedy<\/span>, a knee), many other Christians have simply given up the fight \u2014 or never engaged in it.\n<\/p>\n Some of America\u2019s turn from Christianity stems from poor leadership.\n<\/p>\n As we know from the Biblical record, when leadership in ancient Israel and Judah turned away from the Lord, so did the people. A quick scan of the books of Judges, Kings, and Chronicles shows us that truth pretty quickly.\n<\/p>\n But there may be a theological reason for Christian abdication. Many Christians focus on John 17:14-19<\/span> \u2014 notably the idea that disciples are in the world but not of it. For many, the fight to remain faithful in the midst of evil is so difficult as to require withdrawal from temptation.\n<\/p>\n Certainly, it is much more peaceful to live a monastic life, praying and worshipping 24\/7. One could avoid the conflicts that inevitably arise when a committed Christian hits a secular roadblock.\n<\/p>\n Bringing the gospel into a sinful culture will cause conflict. We see many examples of harm coming to disciples from those who resist the message (e.g., 2 Corinthians 11:24-28<\/span>).\n<\/p>\n Jesus, however, never withdrew from the messiness of people mired in sin. In fact, per Matthew 28:16-20<\/span>, He sent His disciples out into the world in order to preach the gospel and lead those who were willing to Himself.\n<\/p>\n We call this the Great Commission.\n<\/p>\n This imperative becomes even more important in a culture that is devoid of or lacking in Christian influence. This is the kind of culture in which the disciples lived.\n<\/p>\n Bearing witness in America has been crippled, I believe, by a dynamic here in America I am dubbing the Great Deception.\n<\/p>\n I posit Christians have misunderstood the cultural shift from a biblically literate America. As America moved into \u201csecularism,\u201d many Christians \u2014 aided in some cases by denominational reluctance to evangelize \u2014 have chosen to downplay their faith, so as not to \u201cpush their beliefs\u201d on others.\n<\/p>\n Other Christians failed to understand the threat of secularism, thinking they could compromise with it. Far from being an indifferent, harmless worldview, it is a faith system based on atheism, hedonism, or even paganism.\n<\/p>\n America has been insensible to her increasing secularism and the squeezing out of Christian values. It crept up on us like the proverbial frog in the pot, slowly heating up to the boiling point.\n<\/p>\n While there are certain points in time when Christian values were trampled upon overtly and obviously (the sexual revolution, the striking down of prayer in schools, the Supreme Court\u2019s rulings that allowed abortion and gay marriage), it is most accurate to say those values have lost power by inches that became miles.\n<\/p>\n Now, however, as America embraces multiple other religions \u2014 most notably Islam \u2014 Christians seem to be waking up to the fact they no longer have influence in key parts of the culture.\n<\/p>\n We\u2019ve seen encouraging events, including the May 17, 2026, rededication of America to the Lord, favorable U.S. Supreme Court rulings, and college revivals. These are laying the groundwork for a renewal of Christian influence and engagement in the culture.\n<\/p>\n Lord, teach us to advocate for You. Give us eyes to see the potential for the Kingdom to be established in America. Stir Your church to get involved where You call to make disciples, influence the culture, and see righteousness established.\n<\/p>\n Make sure to check back on Saturday for the final part of this 3-part series!<\/em>\n<\/p>\n New York City\u2013based Joyce Swingle is an intercessor, webcast prayer leader, and contributing writer for IFA. With her husband, Rich, who is also a contributing writer for IFA, Joyce shares the gospel of Jesus Christ around the world through theater, speaking, writing, and film. Prior to going into full-time ministry, Joyce worked for many major magazines and now works in pastoral ministry and Christian counseling. www.RichDrama.com. Photo Credit: Priscilla Du Preez on Unsplash.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This article is part 2 in our series on religious freedom in America. You can read part 1 by clicking here. For years, a Christian baker in Colorado had been harassed by people opposed to his beliefs. First, a gay couple took him to court for refusing to make a wedding cake for them. Then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[10715,93,236,384,235],"class_list":["post-32163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-abdicate","tag-advocate","tag-america","tag-dont","tag-intercessors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Who is praying on the wall?<\/h4>\n
What do I mean by abdication?<\/h2>\n
Politics and Government<\/h2>\n
Education<\/h2>\n
The Arts<\/h2>\n
It wasn\u2019t always so.<\/h2>\n
Theological Issues?<\/h2>\n
Jesus Calls Us to Engage.<\/h2>\n
The Great Deception<\/h2>\n
It\u2019s not too late.<\/h2>\n
Share your prayer below.<\/h4>\n