by  Lance Thompson

I never thought much about religion, until they started taking it away.

No prayers at graduation ceremonies or before the football game.  Remove the Ten Commandments from the courthouse and public square.  Excise the cross from the city seal.  Banish “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance.

I read about the teacher who was advised not to mention her religion at school.  Later she was asked to sign a petition that she would not teach religion.  All but two other teachers at her school had signed, her colleagues told her, and it wasn’t a religious school anyway, so why not just go along?  Ultimately, all the teachers signed the petition except the woman in question.  She was later transferred to another school.

Can you guess where this incident took place?  San Francisco?  New York?  Washington D. C.?  No, it was in the German town of Tilsit, in 1936, as documented in the book “Frauen,” Alison Owings’ oral history of women living under the Third Reich.

Whether it’s Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, the Peoples Republic of China, or any other government that subjugates its people, totalitarian regimes can’t tolerate religion because oppressed people must have only one master–the state.  Religion is the last bastion of faith, hope and freedom for the individual–and none of those essentials are permitted under totalitarian regimes.

Once in this country--founded in part by those seeking religious freedom--God, church and faith were woven into the fabric of our national character.  The Declaration of Independence proclaims that our fundamental rights are endowed by our Creator, not granted by our government.

But in recent decades, religion and the religious have been under attack–assailed in individual and class action lawsuits, intimidated by threats from the ACLU, savaged by activist judges who have no fear of Judgment.  Those who are guided by faith are portrayed in America as “the religious right,” marginalized as a fanatic fringe.  President Obama chose to observe the National Day of Prayer privately, rather than in the customary public ceremony, putting as much space between himself and people of faith as possible.  Candidate Obama spoke of the ignorant masses who cling to their guns and religion.

No minority group in the world is as frequently vilified and freely targeted as Christians.  The Catholic Church vies with the CIA as the villain of choice in modern films. Newsweek  Magazine recently reported on “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.”  Such stories appear regularly in the mainstream press, though there is scant coverage of religion’s recurring resurrections.

The goal is clearly to erase religion as a force in our lives.  Nowhere is this more evident than in matters dealing with gays.  First, the Left asked for tolerance of the gay lifestyle.  Then came pleas for acceptance.  Then they wanted equal rights, which blossomed into gay pride days and parades  Soon after, they demanded special protections for gays from discrimination, defamation, and depredation.  Then they insisted that gay lifestyles be taught as part of school curricula, even as every vestige of religion was expunged form those same classrooms.  Gay marriage is now legal in five states.  And a contestant in the Miss USA pageant (Carrie Prejean of Vista, California) is declared ineligible to compete because she dared to give an answer to a question about gay marriage that reflected her deeply-held religious values.  Thus, holding a religious opinion that differs from the views of the Left can lead to the authorities taking away a lifelong dream.  Who knows what the next dissenter will be forced to forfeit?

So maybe Newsweek is right, and religion is dead.  Maybe Americans of faith are a shrinking and increasingly maligned minority.  And if you don’t share those religious views, perhaps you think this is no great loss.  But if those who govern us are not guided by divine inspiration, if they do not answer to a higher authority, if they do not recognize any power greater than their own, then we are all at their mercy and must hope that we never incur their wrath.

And ask yourself, what is the next idea we’ll be forbidden to believe in?