Greg Stier, who needs to step back from the gel for a moment, has a few predictions for us. They are ridiculous.
3. Evangelism will become a hate crime in America.
Maybe evangelism will be considered a misdemeanor as opposed to a felony, but I’m convinced that sharing one’s faith, with the intention to convert that person to Christianity, will be outlawed in the good ole’ US of A. The First Amendment will be “contextualized” for a postmodern culture by postmodern judges and, as a result, any speech or actions that seem intolerant will be considered intolerable.
. . .
The same brand of treasonous blasphemy that got Christians killed thousands of years ago will get Christians arrested in America over the next ten years. Hate speech will be the law that triggers the trials. As Alan Sears, President of the Alliance Defense Fund, once told me, “The persectution of the 21st Century will be prosecution.”
First of all, speech is not a crime in the US. You are more than welcome to stand on a street corner and shout your hatreds to the world. This is not going to change and certainly not in the next ten years. Secondly, Christianity, like all religions, has been protected by hate crimes legislation for 30 years.
Thirdly, "postmodern judges"? What does that even mean? Bush appointed 200* Federal Judges during his terms, and they are the most conservative judges in recent history. Those judges are still serving today. They seem somewhat unlikely to rule Christianity "intolerable".
A milder form of this persecution is happening right now in secular universities and Hollywood studios. How many evangelical freshmen in philosophy classes across America have been taunted by bowtie wearing, atheistic professors? Too many to count! How many unflattering caricatures of evangelizing Christians been painted in movies and television shows? Too many to count! And when the ideals of the secular university and Hollywood studios trickle down to the working class, a legal predisposition against evangelism (aka “proselytizing”) will be the result.
Yes, taunting, bowtie wearing, atheistic philosophy professors. They're everywhere! I resent the implication that atheists are poorly dressed, and where did he get this from, a Chick Tract? As for caricatures working their way to the working class, 75% of this country identifies as Christian. Also, does he think the "working class" just started watching TV and movies?
This next is so strange, I'm not sure what to say about it.
I love my job now but I think I’ll love my job even more over the next one hundred and twenty months. As the President of Dare 2 Share Ministries, an organization that mobilizes teenagers for peer-to-peer evangelism, I may get to, not only train teenagers to please God by sharing their faith, but to promote something illegal at the same time! When teens begin to realize that they could get thrown in jail for sharing their faith it could lead to an unstoppable movement of relational, relentless and rebellious evangelists who sweep the nation with acts of love and the message of Christ!
Maybe I’ll get to start a prison ministry as a result…from the inside.
I think someone's got a weird fetish for prison. I also think someone shouldn't be allowed within 20 feet of any teenagers if the greatest thing he can think of is encouraging them to commit crimes. Oooh, I know! Let's outlaw math and then they'll all be doing calculus in secret!
*I could be wrong. That's the number that I found with a google search, so feel free to correct me.
