As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“The Russian government’s decision to invade Ukraine and to target Baptists and other evangelical Christians in Ukraine has been a tragic hallmark of the war.” - Baptist Press
In my previous post I introduced the subject of persecution and how the early church responded to it. As explained there, I’d like to take this post to summarize and extend an excellent discussion of Paul’s teaching on the subject in 1 Thessalonians by Michael Martin in the New American Commentary volume on Thessalonians.
“The Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court’s injunction on the state’s near-total abortion ban, giving another win to those who say the ban ignores their religious beliefs about when human life begins.” - RNS
There’s been a lot of talk lately about persecution of Christians in America. I suppose it’s true that there’s more than there used to be—there’s been some name-calling and a lawsuit about wedding cakes, though the defendant won that one.
“In America, we might assume that religious liberty is a given, but in many ways, it was Baptists who championed this belief. Religious liberty, and the related belief that there should be no state-established religion, flow out of Baptist distinctives.” - DBTS Blog
“Globally, the median score on our 10-point Government Restrictions Index rose from 2.8 in 2020 to 3.0 in 2021 – the highest level recorded since we began tracking this in 2007.” - Pew
“U.S. District Judge Daniel Traynor in Bismarck ruled that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cannot make the Christian Employers Alliance (CEA) comply with rules requiring that coverage.” - Reuters
“Today’s announcement establishes uniform policies to safeguard Americans from religious discrimination in social services.” - RNS
“Noncommercial religious broadcasters are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review copyright royalty fees, alleging they favor secular speech over religious expression.” - BPNews
Christian nationalists “are typically post-liberals who want some level of explicit state-established Christianity. [Conservatives] have been and largely still are classical liberals who affirm traditional American concepts of full religious liberty for all. - Mark Tooley
Discussion