15 Seconds
Radio Commentary, 90.7, 91.7 New Life FM, September 12, 2014 – By Sue Ella Deadwyler
Anyone living in the Israel knows first-hand the value of the tiniest bit of time. Phone calls in Israel are often cut short, so folks can run for their lives. In some places, residents have just over a minute to get to a bomb shelter, but others living within range of Hamas rockets have only fifteen seconds to find shelter before the barrage hits.
On July 17th Israel sent ground troops into Gaza to degrade Hamas military capability and destroy a series of well-stocked sophisticated underground tunnels built to invade Israel. Because of enemy attacks, Israel set up Operation Protective Edge to defend the civilian population against rockets and missiles from Gaza. When the threat ends, Operation Protective Edge will end. That’s happening in the Middle East, but results are felt around the world.
Recently the U.S. State Department issued this warning: “In much of the Middle East, the Christian presence is becoming a shadow of its former self.” Though the current threat in the United States doesn’t require sprinting to bomb shelters within 15 seconds, Christianity is under attack and could use a specialized Operation Protective Edge in this country. On July 28th the White House nominated Rabbi David Saperstein to be the next Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. Congress created the ambassador-at-large position with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 that also created the Office of International Religious Freedom, to promote religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy. That seems contradictory to sending foreign aid ONLY to countries that support and promote homosexuality. Would that requirement mean nations practicing Biblical principles don’t qualify for U.S. foreign aid? Is pressure on Christianity in the United States an attempt to stifle objections to homosexuality?
On the same day that appointment was made, Secretary of State John Kerry released an annual report naming eight nations as the worst religious freedom offenders in the world. Nations on that list are said to have no penalty for discrimination and displacement of religious minorities. So, U.S. foreign policy promotes freedom of religion, while here in the United States Christian religious expression is under attack.
In 2012 American Atheists filed a federal lawsuit claiming it’s unconstitutional to display on Ground Zero a 17-foot cross of steel beams that were left in the rubble of 9/11. Fortunately, a three-judge panel dismissed the case, which is only one of a myriad of examples.
In fact, the Freedom from Religion organization boasts of initiating 40 First Amendment lawsuits since 1977 and is currently challenging a Ten Commandments monument, graduation prayers and a Catholic shrine on public land. But that’s not the whole story. ACLU challenges to religious freedom may be too many to count. For Georgia Insight I’m Sue Ella Deadwyler, your Capitol correspondent.