How far is the courthouse from the church house?

Senior United States District Judge William C. O'Kelly rendered his decision in the Civil Action Case of John Doe v. Barrow County on July 18. He ruled that the defendant (the Barrow County Commissioners) must "immediately remove the Ten Commandments picture currently hanging on the wall of the breezeway connecting the Barrow County Courthouse and the Courthouse annex."

Interestingly, the plaintiff in the case was some spineless, pusillanimous character who insisted on identifying himself as "John Doe." Ironically, the judge concluded his verdict with the statement: " ... it is finally ordered that this matter is dismissed with prejudice." The use of the word "prejudice" has never been used with a more sinister ring to it.

To exacerbate the whole situation the surreptitious plaintiff was awarded $1.00 in damages and the County Commissioners were ordered to fork over $150,000 for the plaintiff's attorneys' fees and expenses.

What happened in Barrow Country last month is just one of a multiplicity of incidents that illustrate that Christians are being discriminated against in America and that we are losing our religious freedom.

We are well aware of the decision of the 11th U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals on July 5, 2003 when they ruled that Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore's 5,300-pound Ten Commandments monument was an unconstitutional state establishment of religion.

Earlier this year a King James Version of the Bible was removed from the 48-year-old, four-foot-tall monument in front of the Harris County Civil Courts building in Houston, Texas following a suit filed by a real estate broker, who claimed the display offended non-Christians. A judge ruled that displaying the Bible on county property represented an unconstitutional promotion of Christianity by the county.

In an Oakland, Ca. office a flier was posted promoting a gay and lesbian employee association, but a federal court ruled that a flier promoting family values could not be posted on the same bulletin board because it was "homophobic in nature" and labeled it as "sexual orientation-based harassment."

Agape Press reported in February "A student columnist at North Carolina State University says there's a climate of anti-Christian bigotry on campus." Junior chemistry major Daniel Underwood, says, "There's a marginalization of anyone who holds any sort of religious views firmly." He recalled an incident in which a professor asked a guest speaker not to mention the name of "Jesus" while addressing his "Social Deviance" class. Underwood contended that most of the university's professors are uncomfortable with born-again Christians, but seem open to embrace other religions - particularly Islam.

Also, at this years' Academy Awards ceremony, host Chris Rock lauded Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 9-11 as positive and creative, and yet decried Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ as divisive and discriminatory. This is typical of the leftist ideology, liberal worldview and godless secularism of "Hellywood."

We are also familiar with the exploits of Michael Newdow, who did not want his daughter exposed to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. After his valiant, but vain attempt to rewrite the Pledge of Allegiance, he filed another suit to ban prayer from the inauguration of George W. Bush.

The latest fiery dart hurled at Christianity has come from Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who registered her complaint against those who memorialize victims of vehicle accidents by placing a cross by the side of the road. She commented, "There's this tendency to litter our landscape with crosses without considering whether this is the best way to memorialize your loved one. We can all feel sorrow about a roadside accident, but do we have to be preached at every time we drive by?"

Do you see what is happening? The ACLU, the People for the American Way, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, MoveOn.org, the Gay and Lesbian Task Force and a plethora of other organizations are chipping away at our religious freedom. Once prayer and Bible reading are taken out of the public schools, nativity scenes are taken out of the public square, the Ten Commandments are taken from the courthouses of America and crosses are removed from the highways and intersections of life, what is next?

The voices from the pulpits of America may one day be monitored, governed or perhaps even silenced. Beware, it may not be all that far from the courthouse to the church house.