
In the United States today, there are very few words that provoke as much  outrage as the name of Jesus. 
 It is being banned from  graduation ceremonies, chaplains all over America are being forbidden from using  His name in their prayers, and many school officials all over the nation have  become absolutely fanatical about eliminating every trace of Christian  expression from their schools. One elementary school in North  Carolina even ordered a little six-year-old girl to remove the word “God” from a  poem that she had written to honor her grandfathers. 
Political correctness is spreading like a cancer in this country, and our  “freedom of religion” is rapidly being transformed into a guarantee of “freedom  from religion” for those that hate the Christian faith. Without a  doubt, there is a war on the Christian faith in America today.  It is being  waged in classrooms, courtrooms and churches all over the nation.
 The following is an excerpt from a speech that Rand Paul gave earlier this  year…
There is a war on Christianity, not just from liberal elites here  at home, but worldwide.
And your government, or more correctly,  you, the taxpayer, are funding it.
 Evidence of this war on  Christianity is everywhere these days.  The following are just a few  examples…
-The Ohio Statehouse banned Christian pastors from using the  name of Jesus when they open up the daily sessions with prayer.
 -The use of the name of Jesus was also forbidden in all prayers opening sessions  of the North Carolina State-House.
 -Last year, a federal appeals  court ruled that prayers before commission meetings in Forsyth County, North  Carolina that included the name of Jesus were unconstitutional.
 -Earlier this year, a Florida Atlantic University student that refused to stomp  on the name of Jesus was banned from class.
-A student at Sonoma State  University was ordered to take off a cross that she was wearing because someone  “could be offended“.
-A teacher in New Jersey was fired for giving his  own Bible to a student that did not own one.
-An open air preacher in  Illinois was recently threatened with arrest for “scaring people” with the  message of the gospel.
-A high school track team was disqualified earlier  this year because one of the runners “made a gesture thanking God” once he had  crossed the finish line.
-Volunteer chaplains for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department have been banned from using the name of Jesus in their public prayers. Sadly, this is not an isolated incident. Chaplains all over the nation are now being banned from using the name of Jesus.
-In recent months,  daredevil Nik Wallenda has walked a tightrope across Niagara Falls and has  walked a tightrope across the Grand Canyon, and yet both times the mainstream  media has gone out of the way to keep the name of Jesus out of news  reports…
Despite Nik Wallenda’s frequent mentions of God the Father and  Jesus during his high-wire crossing of Niagara Falls Friday night, an ABC News  blog documenting virtually every moment of the achievement makes no mention of  his verbal thanks to the Creator.
 Wallenda, 33, the great grandson  of legendary tightrope walker Karl Wallenda, walked across Niagara Falls on a  high wire, as hundreds watched on TV at a block party in his Florida hometown of  Sarasota, Fla., and millions of others tuned in for ABC television  coverage.
 Wallenda was fitted with a microphone during his  tension-filled, 25-minute saunter at 200 feet high, and he could be heard  praising God numerous times as he walked the length of four football fields from  New York to Canada.
 A recently released 140 page report entitled  “The Survey of Religious Hostility in America” included some more examples of  how Christianity is being systematically oppressed in America today…
A  federal judge threatened ‘incarceration’ to a high school valedictorian unless  she removed references to Jesus from her graduation speech.
 City  officials prohibited senior citizens from praying over their meals, listening to  religious messages or singing gospel songs at a senior activities  center.
 A public school official prevented a student from handing  out flyers inviting her classmates to an event at her church.
 A  public university’s law school banned a Christian organization because it  required its officers to adhere to a statement of faith that the university  disagreed with.
 The U.S. Department of Justice argued before the  Supreme Court that the federal government can tell churches and synagogues which  pastors and rabbis it can hire and fire.
 The U.S. Department of  Veterans Affairs banned the mention of God from veterans’ funerals, overriding  the wishes of the deceased’s families.
 A federal judge held that  prayers before a state House of Representatives could be to Allah but not to  Jesus.
 Are you starting to get the picture?
 And one of  the biggest battlegrounds for religious freedom in America at the moment is the  U.S. military.
Right now, there are some very powerful forces that  are trying to eradicate all expressions of the Christian faith from the U.S.  military.  It has gotten so bad that a 23 year Air Force veteran was recently  ordered to remove his Bible from his desk, and the Air Force recently came out  and announced that service members are only allowed to talk about their faith if  it “does not make others uncomfortable“.
The U.S. military is a far  different institution than it once was.  Today, political correctness rules the  U.S. military.
 If you doubt this, just check out this  example…
Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes is a Christian chaplain currently serving  in the U.S. Air Force. He is stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in  Alaska. As an ordained clergyman whose duties are to provide religious  instruction and spiritual counseling, he has a page on the base’s website called  “Chaplain’s Corner.”
Reyes recently wrote an essay entitled, “No Atheists  in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II.” This common saying is  attributed to a Catholic priest in World War II, made famous when President  Dwight D. Eisenhower said during a 1954 speech: “I am delighted that our  veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily  lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the  foxholes.”
The Military Religious Freedom Foundation was absolutely  outraged when they heard about this.  They demanded that the commander of the  base, Col. Brian Duffy, do something about the “anti-secular diatribe” that  Reyes had authored.
 In the old days, a base commander would have  had a good chuckle and then would have told the MRFF where to stick their  complaint, but the old days are gone. These days, base commanders  cower subserviently before politically correct organizations such as the MRFF.   Just check out what happened next…
Nonetheless, only five hours after  MRFF’s complaint, the essay was removed from the website. Duffy has profusely  apologized to MRFF for not stopping this religious leader from sharing religious  thoughts.
 But this response—which again appears to be a violation  of Reyes’s First Amendment rights—is insufficient for MRFF. They said, “Faith  based hate, is hate all the same,” and, “Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately  punished.” (Emphasis added).
 And thanks to the MRFF, special  edition Bibles for service members have been banned from being sold on military  bases…
Bowing to a complaint from a religious watchdog group, the  Pentagon will no longer give consent for a publisher to use the official emblems  of the military services on a line of Bibles sold on base exchanges.
 The group claimed victory, but an association of former military chaplains is  demanding that Congress overturn the Defense Department’s decision.
 The Bibles, branded for each of four services as “The Soldier’s Bible,” “The  Sailor’s Bible” and so on, are published by LifeWay Christian Resources’ Holman  Bible Publishers, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Bible Convention, said  Chris Rodda, the senior research director for the Military Religious Freedom  Foundation.
 The MRFF is a very insidious organization.  It is  headed up by a man named Mikey Weinstein.  He has called Christians “human  monsters” and “enemies of the United States Constitution“.  Weinstein is  convinced that sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ while in the military is  “sedition and treason” and should be punished as such.
 You would  think that people like Weinstein would be dismissed as lunatics, but  unfortunately under the Obama administration he has been brought in as a special  adviser to the Pentagon.
 What a crazy world that we live  in.
 Meanwhile, Barack Obama himself has remained completely silent  as a totally innocent American citizen is being tortured in an Iranian prison.   If that prisoner was a liberal activist, Obama would be moving heaven and earth  to get him released.  But because he is a Christian, we haven’t heard a peep out  of Obama, and many Christian leaders want an explanation…
One of the  nation’s most prominent evangelical leaders wants to know why President Obama  has remained silent as Iran tortures an American pastor held captive in one of  the Islamic republic’s most notorious prisons.
 Franklin Graham, the  president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse,  told Fox News the imprisonment and torture of Pastor Saeed Abedini is a blatant  example of “religious intolerance.”
 “Many in the international  community are expressing outrage over this blatant example of religious  intolerance,” Graham said. “I ask that our government do the same and demand  that Pastor Saeed Abedini be released and allowed to return home to his wife and  family in the United States.”
We are rapidly moving toward a time when  followers of Jesus will be treated as second class citizens in America.  The  following are some other examples of this trend…
A War Games scenario at  Fort Leavenworth that identified Christian groups and Evangelical groups as  being potential threats;
 A 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security  memorandum that identified future threats to national security coming from  Evangelicals and pro-life groups;
 A West Point study released by  the U.S. Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center that linked pro-lifers to  terrorism;
 Evangelical leader Franklin Graham was uninvited from  the Pentagon’s National Day of Prayer service because of his comments about  Islam;
 Christian prayers were banned at the funeral services for  veterans at Houston’s National Cemetery;
 Bibles were banned at  Walter Reed Army Medical Center – a decision that was later rescinded;
 Christian crosses and a steeple were removed from a chapel in Afghanistan  because the military said the icons disrespected other religions
 This is not what America is supposed to be about. How quickly we  have turned our backs on the values of our founders.
 In a recent  article, Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin tried to remind us of how far we have drifted  from what our founders intended…
It’s a good thing that George Washington  is dead and military history effectively banished from our campuses. Otherwise,  we might remember the general order Washington issued upon taking command of the  embattled Continental Army–and in Boston, no less. 
The general “requires and expects of all officers and soldiers a punctual  attendance at Divine services, to implore the blessing of Heaven upon the means  used for our safety and defense.” In the same way, any assistant professor of  government hoping to achieve tenure will likely skim over certain sections of  the first president’s Farewell Address, which reads: “Of all the dispositions  and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are  indispensable supports.”
Will America be able to stand if we continue to  try to push every shred of the Christian faith out of public life?