The stories about persecution of Christians for their faith always seems to be happening "over there." In other words, we Americans tend to think of this as a problem for the Christians in Africa or Asia. Or, we think of persecution of Christians taking place in countries in which freedom is greatly restricted because of dictatorships. Unfortunately, the persecution of Christians by the government is starting to take place in Western democracies as well.
A story out in today's Telegraph talks about the experience of Dale McAlpine being arrested in the U.K. for calling homosexuality a sin. McAlpine was street preaching when a person engaged him in a debate. A few minutes after their discussion, a police officer arrived, which eventually led to his arrest because of his "abusive" language. One may argue about the effectiveness of street preaching, but one cannot deny the importance of people being allowed to freely express their religious views. You can read the full story by clicking on the title above.
Why does this matter? The secularization of the U.K. and other Western European democracies appears to be headed our way. We need to be engaged in defending our right to speak freely about religion in our country, and carry on the Baptist tradition of defending others' right to religious freedom as well. Ultimately, this is not a political issue, but a spiritual matter. We must be faithful in praying for our leaders, as we live out the Gospel before a desperately needy world. We may come to a time that expressing our faith costs us something, we must be prepared to pay the cost, in order to share the hope that we have in Christ.
