[CS-FSLUG] 'Exit Jesus': God in the Public Square

[Fred A. Miller]

BreakPoint with Charles Colson
Commentary #041230 - 12/30/2004
'Exit Jesus': God in the Public Square

A friend of mine recently installed voice-recognition software on his 
computer. Instead of "keyboarding" thoughts, he now speaks them in. He tested 
the software by saying a wide range of words and sentences and found the 
software did reasonably well, even on technical vocabulary.

But then he spoke the word exegesis, meaning the explanation or elaboration of 
a biblical passage or other text. He nearly fell off his chair laughing when
exegesis came up on the monitor screen as exit Jesus -- a computer Freudian
slip, but prophetic nonetheless.

Later that day several news dispatches reminded him that there is a concerted
effort to "exit Jesus" from public discourse. For example, Pastor Richard 
Parker was ready to deliver the customary invocation prayer at the Warren 
County, Virginia, Board of Supervisors meeting. Just before he was to speak, 
the county attorney alerted him that he could say "Lord" or "God," but not 
"Jesus." Pastor Parker rightly walked out, explaining that as a Christian 
pastor, he would not pray if he had to "exit Jesus."

Literally hundreds of violations of religious freedom in the United States 
have been documented by a Texas-based group, the Liberty Legal Institute. On 
October 20, it presented the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the 
Constitution, Civil Rights and Property a fifty-one-page report titled 
"Examples of Religious Hostility in the Public Square."

Just a few examples: A Houston teacher trashed two students' Bibles, then
marched them to the principal's office and threatened to report their parents 
to Child Protective Services for allowing them to bring their Bibles to 
school. A ninth-grader got a zero on her research project because she chose 
Jesus as the topic; worse, her teacher refused to let her submit a substitute 
project. A St. Louis public school student was "caught" praying over his 
lunch. As punishment, he was lifted from his seat, reprimanded in front of 
classmates, and ordered never to pray in school again.

At a New Jersey Veterans' cemetery, an honor guard member was fired for 
telling a deceased veteran's family, "God bless you and this family." A 
Minnesota state employee was banned from parking in the state parking lot, 
because his car had stickers saying, "God is a loving and caring God" and 
"God defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

McKinney, Texas, "has no problem with people meeting in their homes for 
football watch parties, birthday parties, or even commercial gatherings to 
sell Tupperware." But when a few couples gathered in a pastor's home, they 
were told, "The City prohibits a church meeting in a home unless the home 
sits on at least two acres." And on it goes, for fifty-one well-documented 
pages.

Make no mistake: Well-financed organizations are working hard to expel
Christianity from public discourse. If agitators try to do this in your city 
or school district, there are Christian attorneys and organizations that can 
help you. Call us here at BreakPoint (1-877-322-5527) for resources or for 
more information about worldview issues, something all Christians need to be 
aware of. If we stay alert and resolute, our adversaries will not succeed in 
"exiting Jesus."

-- 
"As Internet technology itself vaults into new areas, so too does the
Microsoft monopoly and its tried-and-true bag of tricks."
-US Senator Orrin Hatch, (R) Utah