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Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity
by David Limbaugh
Reviewed by Sandra Alexander
22 August 2004

When it comes to anti-Christian discrimination, the culture’s attitude seems to be, ‘Yes, please do shut up those bible-thumping idiots!’ One teacher in the Houston, Texas area reportedly shouted, “This is garbage,” as she threw two students’ Truth for Youth Bibles in a trash can.

In the early 1970’s author and pastor David Wilkerson wrote that Christians in America might not suffer persecution in the sense that many in other countries around the globe are who regularly are beaten, tortured, and imprisoned because of their faith in Christ; but he suggested that American Christians would be “psychologically persecuted.” He pointed out that the current trends in the culture, the education system, and the work place would be so directly opposed to a Christian’s beliefs and values that “fitting in” would be at least uncomfortable, or at worst causing extreme mental and emotional anguish and/or demanding direct confrontation. Pastor Wilkerson is a modern prophet. As David Limbaugh’s book documents, the situation for Bible-believing Christians is not just uncomfortable and Christians are not merely treated as antiquated outcasts; sadly, we are finding that our constitutionally guaranteed religious rights have been seriously eroded and our right to speak the truth not only limited, but increasingly denounced as “hate speech.”

Mr. Limbaugh begins his book by stating, “While tolerance is touted as the highest virtue in our popular culture, Christians are often subjected to scorn and ridicule and denied their religious freedoms. When other groups experience discrimination or mistreatment the culture properly decries it. But when it comes to anti-Christian discrimination, the culture’s attitude seems to be, ‘Yes, please do shut up those bible-thumping idiots!’” (ix) How have so many people of faith found themselves in such an uncomfortable, threatening position?

No one would suggest that the executive branch of government or the legislative branch are responsible for bringing about this “persecution” of a large number of their citizens. Rather, the courts of the land, primarily the U.S. Supreme Court, originally thought to be the least powerful branch of government, bears grave responsibility for ignoring the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, disregarding the history of our nation, and orchestrating the movement of our nation from its religious foundation onto the shaky path of anti-Christian secularism/humanism.

Our founding fathers were, in the main, Christians. They believed that religious freedom was of primary importance and they didn’t want government interfering with the right to worship God. Their purpose in carefully constructing the laws governing the nation was motivated by their belief that “the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.” (Noah Webster, p.10) The U.S.Constitution’s Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause “were adopted by the framers for the explicit purpose of promoting, not suppressing religious freedom.” The Establishment Clause only restricted the federal government, not the states. It was the Supreme Court “in a series of abhorrent decisions that ruled that the First Amendment Establishment Clause was applicable to the states through incorporation in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” (xii)

Although “Christian religious instruction was originally the primary purpose of education”, the courts in their judicial activism have now determined (applying or rather misapplying the First and Fourteenth Amendments) that “just the slightest nod to a religion will be enough to trigger an Establishment Clause violation.” (xii)

George Washington firmly believed in the indispensability of Christian training for good government. “True religion,” he said, “affords government its surest support. The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of our youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible.” (p. 9) If you are a student in an American public school classroom, you will never read these words by George Washington, or for that matter, almost none of the words of wisdom from our founding fathers. You will definitely not be allowed to quote the Bible, and you may be chastised for trying to read it during “break” times. One teacher in the Houston, Texas area reportedly shouted, “This is garbage,” as she threw two students’ Truth for Youth Bibles in a trash can. (p. 45)

Going a step farther, “the (government) education establishment vigorously opposes the dissemination in schools of any value or belief that can be remotely traced to the Bible; at the same time it affirmatively endorses other values that many Christians find repugnant. Public schools are replete with “values-laden” curricula, from sex education and sexual orientation instruction to notions of self-esteem and death education…….our children are often being inculcated with values and attitudes that conflict with or are hostile to Christianity.” (p. 4)

How did our public schools become so totally de-Christianized? In one of his chapters Mr. Limbaugh traces the development of “secular humanism,” a philosophy that teaches that “God does not exist, and that man is perfectible, self-sufficient and the measure of all things.” In 1930 Charles Potter, founder of the First Humanist Society of New York wrote, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an
hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” (p. 65) Educator John Dewey, signer of the Humanist Manifesto, wrote books that “were practically mandatory reading in teacher training colleges, making humanism the mainstream philosophy of public education. Humanism, not posing as a traditional religion, could enforce its own values under the guise of neutrality and without much scrutiny,” even though Ron Gray, Canada’s Christian Heritage Party leader observed, “We must not make the mistake of thinking that ‘secular’ means ‘neutral.’ (p.66-67) Even the U.S. Supreme Court, in Torcaso v. Watkins (1961), recognized secular humanism as a religion, and writer R. Waggoner points out that humanist principles cannot be reconciled with Christian ones—they are “radically at war with biblical religion.” (p. 67)

The tragic result of all of this is a monolithic public school system now barricaded against any influence of the Christian faith. The radical agendas of the National Education Association and other anti-Christian groups, supported by discriminatory Supreme Court decisions, make sure that Christians don’t have the right to speak biblical truth in the classrooms. The NEA has even developed a handbook on dealing with the “radical right’s crusade against the public schools” just to make sure that the schools are viewed as the “persecuted,” not the “radical right” (the left’s code name for Bible-believing Christians and other conservatives), who truly are. (p. 107)

Mr. Limbaugh’s investigation reveals numerous incidents where Christian students’ free speech and religious rights have been abrogated. A little boy was hauled in to the principal’s office and chastised because he prayed before eating lunch, a class salutatorian was ordered to remove any mention of Jesus before giving his graduation speech, a little girl was not allowed to give a book report on The Book of Exodus from the Bible.

Even though federal “Equal Access” legislation made discrimination against Christian clubs illegal, school districts across the nation have tried to obstruct Christian clubs (such as Child Evangelism Fellowship’s “Good News” clubs) by refusing to send home permission slips to parents of students who may want to attend. This appears to be happening in our county (Kitsap County, Washington State) as this is going to press.

The good news in all of this is that some parents and students have exercised the courage of their convictions and have contacted Christian legal defense groups which, in many cases, have forced school districts to reverse their anti-Christian policies. The Apostle Paul used his rights as a Roman citizen for the furtherance of the Gospel. In our age, an appeal to the courts may now again be necessary for the spreading of the Gospel among our youth.

Mr. Limbaugh also writes of anti-Christian bias in the universities, discussing the “postmodernist” take-over of most campuses. “Naturalistic philosophy rules the academic roost absolutely. The idea that God might really exist is rarely seriously considered,” but “classroom advocacy of atheism is common and everywhere assumed to be protected by academic freedom. Many philosophy professors make a career of fashioning arguments that support or assume atheism and students frequently tell me about courses that incorporate heavy-handed ridicule of theistic religion.” (p. 112) For Christian parents who wonder why their children (and grandchildren) are no longer “in the faith,” perhaps it is time to wake up and realize that the true agenda of America’s universities is the undermining of the Christian values and standards that made our nation and its culture a moral and decent society. Morality is out, immorality is in and we continue to reap the whirlwind of an ever-increasing epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases and lives full of despair because they are devoid of eternal hope.

Mr. Limbaugh’s book has chapters on the persecution of Christians by the news media and Hollywood, where Christians are continually ridiculed, caricatured and their viewpoints distorted. He talks about the homosexual agenda and the homosexual community’s attempt to make Christians guilty of “hate speech” if they share the biblical position on homosexuality.

Mr. Limbaugh has a book which clearly warns that we are now in a battle for the heart and soul of America. Abraham Lincoln’s statement that it’s more important that we pray to be on God’s side rather than pray for Him to be on our side is very significant, and the question for all of us to ask in November is going to be “Which candidate is truly on the Lord’s side?”

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