Assault on freedom of exercise of religion by twist of words

AIPNews.com

Free the First Amendment Committee

Wednesday, June 30, A.D. 2010

In today's BreakPoint Commentary, "Redefining the First Freedom: More than Worship," Chuck Colson begins: "For some time now, I’ve been warning you about the various threats to religious freedom...," and goes on to assert "But now I’m seeing the threat to religious freedom in its most pernicious and dangerous form ever."

In a nutshell, here’s what happened. In a speech at Georgetown University, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a speech on human rights. Not only did she talk about the right “to love in the way you choose,” (an obvious attempt at making protecting gay rights a top priority for the U.S. government), she also talked about “freedom of worship.”

But she never mentioned freedom of religion. Only freedom of worship. This is a big change.

In the First Amendment, the founders (whose work we celebrate this weekend) wisely ensured that government could not prohibit the “free exercise” of religion. And that means so much more than freedom of worship. It guarantees that we are not restricted to living out our faith in the privacy of our homes or church sanctuaries. It means we are free to exercise our religion—and contend for faith--in every area of life.

Colson challenges his audience to seethe implications of this. See more at http://www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/14757.

"The real battle is about whether God is Lord, or whether government is Lord."

Colson also urges his audience to view his Two-Minute Warning: http://www.colsoncenter.org/, specifically, http://www.colsoncenter.org/the-center/the-chuck-colson-center/two-minute-warning: "Freedom of Worship: an anorexic description of our rights," published June 30, 2010.

I am personally reminded of Jesus' warnings to watch [or be alert].

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For Life and Liberty, America, and the Kingdom of God,
(John 1:1-4; 14:6; 8:32, 36; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1; Matthew 6:33)

Gregory

Gregory Poulos, Chairman
America's Independent Party of Florida
fl@aipnews.com