When The Church Is Silent

                                             When The Church Is Silent

What would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. had not spoken out about equality?  What would have happened if Corrie ten Boom had not hidden Jews during the Holocaust?  What would have happened if Peter Von Muhlenberg, who was known as the “fighting parson of the American Revolution,” had stood silent?  He was involved in raising regiments for a Revolutionary Army that had been requested by George Washington.

Christianity has had a profound influence in shaping the world through it’s moral and cultural impact on our laws, judicial system, economics, politics, sanctity of life and elevated the rights of women.  It has built and established hospitals and charities and promoted education which emphasized the Bible.  

How is the Church living up to this?  Actually, where is the Church?  Where was the Church when prayer was removed from the schools in 1962?  Where was the Church when Bible reading was banned in the schools in 1963?  Where was the Church in 1973 when Roe Vs. Wade was passed?  Where was the Church when the 10 commandments were being torn down and vandalized?

Maj. Gen. Jerry R. Curry, US Army (Ret.)  “In the 1930s German cleric Martin Niemoeller said of the Nazis, “In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.  Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up.”

During the time that the Jews were being sent to concentration camps, the train could be heard while church services were being held.  These trains carried Jews to their deaths.  What did the churches do in many cases?  They covered up the sound of the trains by “singing louder.”  The churches failed to speak up when they could have.  One brave soul, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a German double agent, who rescued Jews to escape Nazi oppression, was executed because of this.

Corrie ten Boom also risked her life as well as her families by hiding Jews and was even thrown into a concentration camp herself but was eventually released.  One man, one woman and countless others who risked their very lives and some who lost their lives were willing to stand up for what is right.  How many of us would do this? 

Where is the Church right now?  In 1954, President Johnson signed 501C3 Act.

The following is from an article”501C3 and The Church,” (I Shall Not Be Silent Ministries)

“President Johnson was no ally of the church. As part of his political agenda, Johnson had it in mind to silence the church and eliminate the significant influence the church had always had on shaping "public policy."

When a church accepts the 501c3 status, that church:

• Waives its freedom of speech.
• Waives its freedom of religion.
• Waives its right to influence legislators and the legislation they craft.
• Waives its constitutionally guaranteed rights.
• Is no longer free to speak to the vital issues of the day.
• Becomes controlled by a spirit of fear that if it doesn’t toe the line with the IRS it will lose its tax-exempt status.
• Becomes a State-Church.

Pastors of churches need to realize that they do not have to be a 501C3 entity and hand over their freedoms to the government because there are those who say that “Christ’s Church is not a legally recognized entity, so it is already tax exempt.”(YCN Nightingale “Should Churches Be Under the 501C3?”)

We need church leaders to step up to the plate and give voice to what is happening in our country where free speech is being muffled.  Christians need to speak out and not let the minority mob dictate what we should believe, think or speak!  The masks that many people are wearing are just an outward sign of the attack against our free speech here in the U.S.A.  So rise up Christians and be the voice you were created to be!  Be a light in the darkness!!