Two important essays today encouraging the faithful to “prepare your minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13) in anticipation of the coming persecution of U. S. Christians:<\/p>\n
Dr. Albert Mohler urges us to “take a careful look”<\/a> at how homosexual activists are responding to the passage of Proposition 8 in California: “[T]he coercive effect is to punish anyone who will not recognize, endorse, or celebrate same-sex marriages.”<\/p>\n Dr. Richard John Neuhaus warns<\/a> that “we are heading into a greatly intensified public clash of state power and religious freedom,” for which Christians are ill-prepared. His concluding graph is ominous:<\/p>\n Yes, the imminent\u00a0Kulturkampf<\/em>, if that is what is in the offing, will require legal talent, political strategizing, relentless persuasion, and all the other means compatible with our constitutional order. Most of all, however, it requires the courage born of faith that the Church really is the Body of Christ through time, a distinct and public community bearing public witness to public truths about the right ordering of life both public and personal. In Catholic history, the cry through the centuries is for\u00a0libertas ecclesiae<\/em>\u2014the freedom of the Church to be the Church. For Catholics and others, that freedom now faces a time of severe testing. In the defense of that freedom there have been through the centuries martyrs beyond numbering. We do not know what will happen in the months and years ahead, except that now it may be our turn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two important essays today encouraging the faithful to “prepare your minds for action” (1 Peter 1:13) in anticipation of the coming persecution of U. S. Christians: Dr. Albert Mohler urges us to “take a careful look” at how homosexual activists … Continue reading