From: rapa Sent: Monday, July 18, 2011 Subject: Yuma Padre
'Yuma Padre' is our parish Father Austin Mansfield -- A.
Posted: 14 Jul 2011
Roman Catholics were persecuted in England under Henry VIII (monasteries were looted, clergy executed for not declaring Henry was the leader of the Church over the Pope.) Under his daughter Mary's reign, hundreds of protestant clergy were burned at the stake for heresy. Some decades later, both were banned under the Puritan leadership of Oliver Cromwell. When Charles II took the throne, liturgical Anglicanism grew back in favor.
Against this historical backdrop, colonists sought freedom in the New World. The persecution they and their ancestors had faced under a national religion in England prompted them to ensure this would not happen here.
That's quite different from the secular revisionism foisted upon an unsuspecting public by our nation's atheistic fringe today. The persecution our founders faced made them determined to ensure religious liberty and free public expression thereof. That determination brought forth an endurance that eventually brought comfort and calm in the religious life of Americans in all our states, regardless of denomination.
That comfort, however, soon led to complacency, which led in turn to various degrees of apathy.
Our apathetic population began to seek commerce instead of Christ on Sundays, and Sunday mall shopping superseded worshipping. The absence of parishioners led to a decline in personal responsibility, and an increase in government programs that soon replaced the role of church communities.
As Christian communities became less relevant, their tax-free presence engendered more and more hostility. We are now on the cusp of persecution, with Christians labeled as haters for disagreeing with any political group about issues or positions antithetical to biblical direction.
I see the following historical pattern, and sense that things will get much worse for Christians before they get better. The cycle seems to begin with comfort.
- Comfort leads to complacency
- Complacency leads to apathy
- Apathy leads to absence
- Absence leads to abandonment
- Abandonment leads to rejection
- Rejection leads to hostility
- Hostility leads to persecution
- Persecution leads to determination
- Determination leads to endurance
- Endurance leads to success
- Success leads to comfort
Christians currently face the most intense persecution in Islamic and Communist nations. Yet those nations are seeing Christianity flourish exponentially. As more Christian beliefs and practices become illegal, we will face even greater hostility at home for our beliefs.
The only relief from this cycle is our hope in Jesus Christ and his grace. Despite the best efforts of forces bent on the destruction of all that is holy, holiness continues to thrive in this world.
A belief growing from the discovery of the empty tomb could have been easily snuffed out by producing the body. The belief in Jesus' resurrection persists today, 21 centuries later, because neither the Romans nor the religious leaders in the 1st Century could show more than grave clothes without a body.
Jesus will lead us through the coming tribulation, not just to it. In all our difficulties, he is always there with us. The days, months, or years ahead will test the mettle of American Christians. We will continue as a nation only if we return to our Lord and turn away from our habit of calling good evil, and evil good.
