FAITH UNDER FIRE
50 YEARS LATER: GOD'S STILL NOT DEAD
Exclusive: Mike Huckabee and Pat Boone issue 'rallying cry for Christians to start a movement'
By Gov. Mike Huckabee and Pat Boone
Fifty years ago, Time Magazine famously featured a cover that rocked America, boldly asking, “Is God Dead?”
It was the first all-text, no-image cover for the magazine and broke the record for reader responses, with more than 3,500 letters to the editor written in protest. The article was later included, by the Los Angeles Times, among the “10 magazine covers that shook the world.”
While the content of the article was balanced in its approach, addressing the growing trend of atheism and the “Death of God” theology, the public took offense at the cover and the perceived attack on Christianity – the predominant religion of the day. Sound familiar?
Well, 50 years later, Time is still around and so is God.
God is not only not dead, he’s everywhere – including at your local box office, where a film we were featured in entitled “God’s Not Dead,” opened at No. 4, following a slew of similarly themed movies this past year.
It’s also the film that was savagely attacked by “Saturday Night Live” in a sketch titled, “God Is a Boob Man,” which mocked the convictions of a Christian baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple that demanded the baker say the words, “God is gay.”
(It should be noted that our film had nothing to do with any of that and that “Saturday night Live” “parodied” a film that doesn’t exist. It just made up a story and pilloried Christians.)
So, while it appears that far from being dead, God, and the belief in Him, is alive and well, his followers are facing hardships here and around the world that couldn’t be imagined a half a century ago.
Our film is a fictionalized look at a public high-school teacher put on trial for answering a student’s question regarding the teachings of Jesus, but it’s a reality that millions of Christian face every day:
How far can they go in practicing their faith without being accused of infringing on the rights of others?
Actually, they’re not “infringing on others’ rights.”
They all have the same rights we do, to express their opinions as loud and long as they want.
They just don’t want us to have the same right!
The “God’s Not Dead” series hopes to bring to light current pressures Christians are facing in society today.
Boycotts faced by Hobby Lobby, Chick-fil-A and various private businesses that have chosen to remain faithful to their consciences show that many Americans have had to make difficult stands to the point of having to shut their businesses down completely – or pay exorbitant fines for violating nonexistent laws, not because they refused to serve customers, but because they refused to participate in very specific ceremonies or provide specific drugs that would induce an abortion.
When the mayor of Houston demanded sermon notes from pastors, our cherished First Amendment right to the free exercise of our faith was severely challenged. Imagine the backlash if the city of Houston had demanded the notes of every reporter or editorial writer who took a position opposite the Houston mayor.
The filmmakers hope that their two current films, and plans for a third, will be a rallying cry for Christians to stand up and start a movement to protect the freedoms of Christians being suppressed in the United States.
It’s way past time. We’re still the majority, for heaven’s sake! But whether the majority or the minority, America is a place where we are to encourage free speech and belief – not squelch it with punitive laws and censorship.
Our film entered the marketplace at a time when the Christian faith is under fire around the world.
Our secular critics mock the idea that Christians in America face persecution, but the reality is that persecution is relative and can range from getting fired in the U.S. over the practice of one’s faith to getting one’s head chopped off in some Middle Eastern countries where lawlessness prevails.
Anybody who doubts that it can – and will – happen here is ignoring 9/11 and the recent San Bernardino massacre, among many other examples.
If left unchecked and unchallenged, the intolerance from the anti-faith minority will eventually lead to more severe restrictions on the Bible itself – which may one day be labeled a hate book. Lest anybody question that likelihood, please read the first chapter of Romans in the New Testament, written 2,000 years ago. It reads like today’s paper.
At the time the original Time article was published, according to Gallup, 98 percent of Americans believed in God. Today, that number has dropped slightly to 86 percent.
Fifty years from now neither of us will be alive. With the rapid advances in media technology, it’s quite possible that Time or “Saturday Night Live” won’t be, either.
But God will still be alive and in the hearts of those who love and serve Him.
One of our Founding Fathers proclaimed, “This government is created for a moral and religious people; it is wholly inadequate to the governance of any other.”
The only question that remains is whether Christians in America will still be able to worship him and practice their faith fully and robustly in the public square.
Gov. Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas. Pat Boone is an award-winning entertainer and author.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2016/06/50-years-later-gods-still-not-dead/#EgF2SzRMcIfzAyod.99My comments: While the godless have taken control of the better part of America, Christians have been SLEEPING! Many are still Sleeping. The Nation that was once Under God, is Under the Control of godless, Socialist, Secular Humansits who HATE God and His Word and seek to Eradicate Chritianity from America. They are making the Word of God "Hate" speech. The question is: Will Christians Arise and Defend this Nation and God and His Word or Submit to the godless?
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