The Future?

[Valin]

Hugh Hewitt Blog:

John Schroeder

Friday July 22 2016

 

From Christianity Today:

 

 

Yesterday, Russia’s new anti-terrorism laws, which restrict Christians from evangelizing outside of their churches, went into effect.

 

The “Yarovaya package” requires missionaries to have permits, makes house churches illegal, and limits religious activity to registered church buildings, among other restrictions. Individuals who disobey could be fined up to $780, while organizations could be fined more than $15,000.

Now consider the survey I discussed last week, Consider the legal contortions that have transmogrified the right to bears arms into the heavily regulated state of firearms sales today. Consider the fact that religion-fueled terrorism is a very real thing. Consider some of the laws and decisions that have come down around same-sex marriage, likewise health care.

 

Is it really that hard to imagine something like what is happening in Putin’s Russia happening in the United States? I am not crepe hanging here. I am not predicting it will happen. I am simply saying it is within reason to imagine it could happen. Of course we will never outlaw religion, there is that pesky first amendment – but regulate it into an ineffectual corner? That is well within current conceptual boundaries. Of course for us it will not happening in the power-grabbing large lurches seen in Russia, it will be in small increments, each conditioning us for the next small step. A bureaucratic interpretation here, a legal tweak there, and finally a court decision to prevent that step from ever reversing.

 

(Snip)

 

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If it were illegal to be a Christian (or for that matter Muslim/Jew/Sikh/Hindu/Wiccan) could you be convicted in court?