"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." - Matthew 16:18
You know that, I know that, and He knows that. But the Obama Regime has other ideas. And they'll be listening - as a start:
Government's assault on religious liberty has hit a new low as the IRS settles with atheists by promising to monitor sermons for mentions of the right to life and traditional marriage. [emphasis added]
Stop the tape. Amendment I states, in part: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...." The Regime's answer will be, "Nothing in the First Amendment precludes the President of the United States from prohibiting the free exercise of religion, directly or delegatedly." And they'll find judges who will back them up on it.
A lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) asserted that the Internal Revenue Service ignored complaints about churches' violating their tax-exempt status by routinely promoting political issues, legislation and candidates from the pulpit.
"The right to life and traditional marriage are not "political issues," they're Biblical doctrine that has been politicized by the Left to put a one-sided taint upon them in order to silence their evangelical prey. Accordingly, passages such as Psalm 139:13, Matthew 19:5, Mark 10:7-9, and Ephesians 5:31 are now officially stricken from every American pulpit by state decree.
Which brings to mind this passage:
I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book.
The IRS and FFRF tread a very dangerous path, and they do so proudly.
The FFRF has temporarily withdrawn its suit in return for the IRS's agreement to monitor sermons and homilies for proscribed speech that the foundation believes includes things like condemnation of gay marriage and criticism of ObamaCare for its contraceptive mandate.
Actually, this is what surprises me. The same Obama IRS that launched the ongoing jihad against the Tea Party had to be bullied into unleashing a wave of persecution upon American Christiandom? Sure, they're doing it now because they're frantically grasping at any base-turnout straw they possibly can, but I'd have thought that crushing the Church would have been as second-nature to them as breathing heavily.
Here's the punchline, and it's a 24-carat dilly:
The irony of this agreement is that it's being enforced by the same Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division of the IRS that was once headed by Lois "Fifth Amendment" Lerner and that openly targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups. [emphasis added]
In for a penny, in for a pound. <shrug> But it harkens me back to this passage in Acts:
As [Peter and John] were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.
On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem; and Annas the high priest was there, and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and all who were of high-priestly descent. When they had placed them in the center, they began to inquire, “By what power, or in what name, have you done this?” Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the "stone which was rejected" by you, "the builders," but "which became the chief cornerstone". And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another, saying, “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.” And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the judge; for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” [emphasis added]
Take your best shot, heathen. Because when it comes down to a showdown between our God and your big-eared golden calf, the choice really is that obvious.
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