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An Assault on Christianity

A couple of days ago I was reading an article in USA Today.  It was on the front page of Monday's edition in full color.  The article was a report on a study done in 2008 that found that the amount of people in the United States that claim, "no religion" has grown to 15% of the population, while the amount of people that consider themselves Christian (of various denominations including "non-denominational) has dropped from roughly 85% in 1990 to roughly 70% in 2008.

So the question that comes to mind is, "Why is our faith slowly fading away in America?"  It seems that there is something that is working, fairly effectively, against the Christian faith.

I believe that over the last few decades there has been a growing assault on Christianity.  This can be seen in the ever-loosening restrictions as to what we can see on T.V. and movies and hear on the radio.  As well as the ever-growing restrictions as to what we can say or do in school, at work, and in public in relation to faith.  Religion has become taboo in our society.  It is now politically incorrect to talk about religion outside of your home or church.  The government is constantly telling us that we are not allowed to pray or gather in public outside of our churches.  Public schools and secular colleges do the same thing.  We are considered "right-wing nut jobs" when we stand up for our faith and the standards we are called to live by.  It is always widely reported when a prominent Christian screws up or sins in a terrible way (as seen in all of those Catholic priest scandals a while back).  Everyone sins, as hard as we try not to daily, we still sin, it is the nature of the beast, we are fallen creatures.  

All of this culminates in this very "uncool" and "hypocritical" view of Christianity to non-Christians or those unsure of their faith.  I feel like this gets worse every year.  So what do we do?

Stand up in the face of persecution.  Jesus was constantly trashed for his "hypocrisy" (which was really just his not following the Pharisaic laws and rules).  He got slammed for dining with sinners and tax collectors, healing on the Sabbath, and eventually crucified for who he was.

As awful as that sounds, that is what we have to do, stand up for who we are in Christ and face the persecution.  1 Peter 3:15 says, "...In your hearts set apart Christ as Lord.  Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have."  Of course, we will screw up, we will sin, and we will get caught doing it.  It happens.  When that happens we just fess up to it, take responsibility, repent, and take another step forward.  If we live our lives as close to the model of Christ as we can, daily, and be prepared to explain and defend our faith to others, we can take this country back.  It starts with each of us working up the courage to do so.

Romans 1:16, "I am not ashamed o the Gospel, because it is the power of God for the Salvation of everyone who believes..."