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For at least a half century, the Culture Wars have both revolved around and engulfed religious beliefs. Devout Christians who believe the same basic doctrines Americans have held for hundreds of years and their forbears for thousands of years before that are now castigated as "deplorable." Although at one time, they claimed to be and largely were the "Moral Majority," it's clear that, in most parts of America and the country as a whole, they are a rapidly-diminishing and increasingly oppressed minority.
Although there are many ways in which
modern far-left elitists and woketivists attack Christians, the
now-unacceptable ideas of traditional Christina faith have
generated a lot of ink and a lot of anguish over the past few
decades. Books have been written detailing the utterly
incompatible worldviews of orthodox Christianity and leftists, but
there are several specific doctrines that lead to great heat:
Acting on religious beliefs in contradiction of modern leftist orthodoxy can cost believers dearly. We've described the travails of Jack Phillips, owner of the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, a Christian who refused to make a cake for a gay wedding. Mr. Phillips believes that "gay marriage" is a sin and that the Bible tells him not to partake of such sins:
...neither be partaker of other men's sins: keep thyself pure. I Timothy 5:22
You don't have to agree with his view that gay marriage is sinful to see why, given his personal religious beliefs, he would not want to make a cake for one. The state of Colorado levied a huge fine on Mr. Phillips for denying service to a bona fide member of the public.
Mr. Phillips went to the Supreme Court which issued a narrow ruling in his favor. He thought he'd won! But, he reckoned without the hateful bigotry of leftists. A man who was planning to declare himself to be a woman drove many miles to Mr. Phillips' shop to order a cake celebrating his illusory sex change, and sued when he was refused - Mr. Phillips considers transgenderism to be the sin of lying, and cannot in good conscience participate. The courts are grinding along.
There are many cake shops in Colorado which would be happy to make these cakes, so in reality, none of these people were in any way prevented from doing whatever they jolly well pleased - which, in fact, they ultimately did. Not being permitted to use government power to force Mr. Phillips to make cakes offensive to his conscience would not deprive the celebrants of the cakes they desire; they simply seek to establish the principle that all must submit to whatever woketivists decree to be normal for our society at any given moment.
The requirement that people show proof of covid vaccination in order to eat in restaurants in blue cities such as New York and Boston shows that Woketivists will shortly have yet another club to wield against Christians. In addition to conventional printed vaccination papers, Microsoft News tells us
A Swedish start-up has created scannable digital implants that display one's COVID vaccine passport. The technology involves a small, grain-sized implant being inserted under the skin.
MSN quoted NPR as saying "thousands have had microchips inserted into their hands."
So far, so creepy, but this is a slippery slope. Canoe reports
In an attempt to convince holdouts to get vaccinated, the Quebec government has extended the vaccine passport to all stores with surface areas of 1,500 square metres or more, with the exception of groceries and pharmacies. ... [emphasis added]
Requiring the vaccine passport in big-box stores is the Quebec government's latest push toward further restricting access to those who are unvaccinated. Last week, the measure was also added to government-owned liquor and cannabis stores. [emphasis added]
The Book of Revelation describes a "beast" who gains political power through performing miracles:
And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. Revelation 13:16-17
Thousands of Swedes have happily had their vaccine records written on microchips embedded in their right hands. In Canada, non-vaccinated people are not permitted to buy in certain stores, and the list of stores which are off-limits to the non-vaxxed keeps growing. The trend is clear.
Being unable to buy from stores without a vaccine record embedded in your hand is not going to be accepted readily by part of our population. The Book of Revelation goes on to say that those who do not receive the "mark of the beast" will be rewarded along with others who were martyred for their Christian witness:
And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Revelation 20:4
Some of the people who haven't received the Fauci Ouchi are opposed because the manufacturing process relies on aborted fetal tissues, either for developing the vax or during its manufacture.
Some people who have avoided the "death jab" believe that highly undesirable side effects are being covered over and lied about.
As worrisome as these fears might be, they pale in comparison to
being doomed to the eternal fires of hell.
We know that there is no limit to the number of government mandates that our parasitic bureaucracy will want to impose regardless of effectiveness. Will vaccine passports be required for more and more activities in blue cities and states? Will people all over America be urged to switch to implantable microchips, to the greater glory of businesses which manufacture chips and readers?
For the moment, relatively few claim that the current vax contains microchips which constitute the "mark of the beast," but what will happen when an embedded vax passport is needed to buy and sell anything?
Mr. Phillips is convinced that furthering gay marriage or gender transition would damage his soul. The Bible says plainly that accepting the "mark of the beast" will send you to hell.
How many people would take a microchip mandate to court? How many would take up arms against authorities who seek to implant chips in unwilling people? There's no question that a large number of Americans, potentially tens of millions, believe that such a mandate would in fact threaten their immortal souls, compared to which their early life is "but a vapor."
Do we really want to find out how strong those beliefs are? What possible benefit to society could there be? After all, the supposed purpose of vaccinations is to save lives. If mandating the vaccinations touches off a civil war, then by definition the vaccines will have utterly and profoundly failed at their stated reason for existence.
No, even the Left isn't that stupid. It's far more likely that they are actively evil. As with Mr. Phillips, the vaccine itself is irrelevant, any more than was the existence or sourcing of a pink cake. The entire point was to oppress an individual on account of his religious beliefs, to make it clear that such beliefs have no place in society, to force those holding them to "bow the knee" to the opposite, to drive them out of public presence, or, indeed, to remove them from the planet entirely. It's now become quite common for leftist writers to encourage a civil war on the assumption that they control the military and can thus gleefully machine-gun and thus eliminate their hated conservative, white, Christian opposition.
The famous military theorist Carl von Clausewitz stated, "War is the continuation of politics by other means." For decades now, the reigning leftist elites have tried to drive traditional Christian faith, first out of power, then out of influence, then out of visibility, and shortly, out of existence entirely. Thus far they have done so by political means, but it's clear that where those means fail, they are entirely agreeable to the use of force.
And, if there's one thing that's known to cause the most bloody, barbaric, ghastly, and inhumane wars, it's religious disagreements which is why our Founders were so careful to write freedom of religion into our legal system from day one. The American civil war was nothing if not a disagreement over religious principles - slaveowners thought that the Bible favored enslaving inferior people, abolitionists disagreed and settled the matter with fearful slaughter. The Left should think carefully and deeply before going to actual war, or goad their opponents into it. Maybe for once they should listen to their own celebrities?
It's time that every state they would elect republicans to represent them, and all of the rest of us separate. You don't wanna live in my world and I certainly don't want to live in yours.
- Ron Perlman