How long will Christian freedom remain in North America?

Unless the direction of our nations change dramatically, citizens of the United States and Canada will soon have occasion to apply these unforgettable lines credited to the German anti-Nazi, theologian, and Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller.

Niemöller’s words carry insight that has meaning for Christians and other persecuted minorities throughout history.

Today, Christians in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt are being attacked by militant Islamists. Though much more advocacy is sorely needed, these brothers and sisters are getting at least some voice from groups like BreakPoint, RUN Ministries, et al.

In the meantime, Christians in Canada are also being persecuted … not by jihadists wearing keffiyehs, but by secular fundamentalists in three-piece suits. Canadian Christians are not being threatened with beheading, but they are being attacked and marginalized, simply for their religious beliefs.

On January 9, 2015, a Canadian constitutional lawyer, Albertos Polizogopoulos, wrote an article in The Cardus Daily titled “Christian Lawyers and Doctors Need Not Apply.”

It has become a scary time to be a Christian professional in Canada.

In 2014, lawyers and doctors were targeted by their own professional associations for direct attack because of their religious beliefs.

For Christian lawyers, the first salvo was fired at Trinity Western University’s law school. TWU, which exists to “develop godly Christian leaders” in a variety of marketplaces, requires its students and staff to sign a Community Covenant. This pledge, based on religious beliefs, to abstain from certain activities and behaviours during their time at TWU, includes the use of alcohol on campus, viewing pornography, and “sexual intimacy that violates the sacredness of marriage between a man and a woman.”

It seems that the Judeo-Christian concept of a covenantal marriage between a man and a woman is abhorrent to secularists. Wouldn’t a level playing field have room for all reasonable views? Apparently not. Confessing Christian professionals must be crushed. They have two options: renounce their faith (exactly what the jihadists demand), or flee for their professional lives.

On January 20, 2015, the American author and editorialist Rod Dreher, inspired by Polizogopoulos, wrote a piece on the same threat with the provocative title, “Canadian Christians: Tomorrow’s Soviet Jews.” Dreher ends his piece with these sober comments:

But how long will American Christians be free to work as lawyers and doctors (or other professionals) without having to deny their faith or participate in something they consider to be gravely immoral? I suppose the US Supreme Court will at least partly answer that question in its gay marriage ruling this summer.

If you are a North American Christian and you are not preparing, and preparing your children, to suffer for the faith, you are not reading the signs of the times. Do not let yourself be blinded by the Law of Merited Impossibility, which says, “It will never happen, and when it does, you people will deserve it.”

Will Christians in the West simply say, “This cannot happen here”? The signs indicate otherwise. It already is happening here. In Gresham, Oregon, the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa have been found guilty for discrimination for declining a request to provide a cake for a same-sex “wedding.” They await a March 10 sentencing and could be fined as much as $150,000.

Yet the next generation need not suffer as the Jews did in Germany and Russia. Free people can rise up and stand against a growing tyranny. But we will need to love freedom more than we love our toys, our technology, and our comfortable lives.

• Darrow Miller

See these related posts:

ISIS “deChristianizes” Mosul: Is the West Next?

Needed: A Theology of Suffering

Why Are Western Christians Silent While Their Brethren Suffer?

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