Easter People

     This past week, I've done a lot of thinking about the future of religion liberty in the United States. It certainly appears now that the Obama Administration is fully ready to transform the country's two century-plus tradition of freedom of religion into a sort of constricted freedom to worship. For many, the difference seems fairly benign. But for those of us who acknowledge God's dominion and at least partially comprehend what that implies and requires, the change is simply unacceptable. The President would like to limit religion in this country to the free practice of our "rituals"--Mass, Baptism, Marriage (for now), etc--but not allow us to bring our faith and consciences into our public lives. He seems to fail to realize that we cannot capitulate his desires because our religion goes beyond what we do in our churches, our synagogues, our mosques; it is who we are, not what we do occasionally.

     As Christians, we have been specifically charged with the task of evangelizing and declaring our creed. Jesus' last words to His disciples (us) were: go therefore and make disciples of all nations. (Mt 28:19) As one can plainly see, this puts Christians in direct opposition with the President. Something has to give, and as the Church has shown in its 2,000 year history, it will not be us.

     The President is symptomatic or a larger societal problem. Just yesterday, the student government at Tufts University, outside Boston, voted to withdraw recognition of the student group Tufts Christian Fellowship. Their reasoning is that the group violates the school's non-discrimination policy because it requires its leaders be Christian! The claim would be comical if it wasn't so absurdly anti-religious. What would occur if the group was an African-american student association instead: would they force the group to allow a white supremacist be on its board?

      Make no mistake: religion is under assault by our government and by a large portion of our society. For myself, at least, there is a tendency to always view these types of battles in a positive light. After all, if God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:31) However, we can often forget that this does not at all guarantee that things will get better here in the United States, or for us in our Earthly lives, or for anyone anytime soon. We must remember that this world is passing away, and we very well might and very likely will see far worse days between now and its end. That is not to say that Christians are not obliged to try to convert hearts. What it does mean is we need to be chiefly focused on continual process of converting our own. We must be increasingly on guard to see that the delusions of the world--its pride, namely--do not come fester inside our souls, rotting our morality. We must remember the truth that Saint Augustine relayed: we are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.

     What does it mean to be "Easter people"? It means to know the love that God has for us. More accurately, it is knowledge of the love God is. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Dear readers, that is TRUTH. It is something the world cannot offer and simultaneously it is really all Christianity has to offer. What more is there? God so loves the world--this world that so despises Him-- that He will sacrifice Himself to make us partakers in His Divine nature for all eternity. If we believe and understand that, we cannot help but love God in return and seek to do His will.