Will Christians Finally Wake Up?

A good question! Each time something like Facebook banning the words of St Augustine as 'hate' happens, it wakes a few people, but is it enough? 

From Everyday For Life Canada 

Facebook recently deemed a quote from St. Augustine and quoted by blogger Domenico Bottinelli to be hate speech. As a result, the social media giant censored it. Here's the actual words:

'Let us never assume that if we live good lives we will be without sin; our lives should be praised only when we continue to beg for pardon. But men are hopeless creatures, and the less they concentrate on their own sins, the more interested they become in the sins of others. They seek to criticize, not to correct. Unable to excuse themselves, they are ready to accuse others.'

Where is the hate here? There is none. It's obviously not hate speech. After complaints, Facebook has come to its senses and restored the post. However, the writing has been on the wall for sometime.

Google that owns You Tube has censored over 100 Prager U videos they consider to be inappropriate for general viewing. This includes a video of the Ten Commandments. Prager U states on their website:

Conservative ideas are under attack. YouTube does not want young people to hear conservative ideas as they currently list over 100 PragerU videos-- over 10 percent of our entire library--under 'restricted mode' making it difficult for many young people to access our videos.

Many families enable restricted mode in order to keep inappropriate and objectionable adult and sexual content away from their children--not to prevent them from watching animated, age-appropriate, educational videos.

In fact, this past week Dennis Prager the founder of Prager U testified before a Senate Judiciary hearing about the issue of censorship by the giant social media companies. Why would Google/YouTube restrict videos by Prager U that build the common good? The evidence shows that Conservative and Christian voices need to rooted out of the public square. No phobia is tolerable today except for Christophobia.

In Canada, so many obstacles were put up in bringing the pro-life Movie Unplanned to big cinemas like Cineplex and Landmark. Even after these companies decided to screen the movie, it's being done for a week only. This in spite of a very successful week at the box office. There must be a great deal of pressure from abortion activists, organizations and possibly the Canadians Liberal government to have the screening of the movie shut down. After all, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau considers abortion a settled issue. He virtues signal at every chance that he's the poster boy for "reproductive rights." Trudeau won't allow anyone to run as a Liberal MP if he or she is not fully supportive of the culture of death. Where is his call for diversity as Canada's strength here?

The pro-life movie is about Amy Johnson. This woman has a charge of heart while managing an abortion clinic. Unplanned tells the truth about the business of unborn babies killed for profits. Johnson has a conversion and goes from being pro-choice to embracing the pro-life view. Many today don't like that message. Some have called the film "dangerous propaganda." It's been criticized on social media and petitions were started to have the movie banned in Canada.

Trudeau's chief of staff Katie Telford has spent a lot of time on social media depicting the movie as dangerous and accusing Conservative politicians for making the screening possible. Mélani Joly the federal tourism minister called the movie “anti-choice propaganda.” This government push for censorship is worrisome especially as it comes during 2019 an election year and when Canada prides itself about its new Digital Charter to protect free speech.

Finally, there is case of Pastor David Lynn, a Toronto Christian preacher who was recently arrested and charged with disturbing the peace at Church and Wellesley streets. He is presently out on bail, and will has appeared in court on July 10, 2019. His crime? He was sharing the Gospel to people on a public sidewalk. According to one report, police got a complaint that Lynn's preaching had attracted a large crowd. In short, some members of the LGBTQ community didn't agree with what Lynn was doing and wanted him to leave the public area. Where is Lynn's freedom of speech and the freedom of religion that Trudeau promised the Muslim community in Mississauga to protect? Lynn's next court date is in August. Let's hope the judge sees that the case is without merit.

These events have a disturbing anti-Christian trend in common. And there are many others. Christian voices are being silenced in the public square. They are being pushed out of public/separate schools, social media and government. Will Christians finally wake up? Where are the Catholic leaders? None of the troubling issues mentioned in this post has ever been mentioned in our parish. Where is the diocesan plan to deal with these attacks on faith? Canadian Christians sooner or later will have to realize that they don't live in a vacuum or merely in private spaces like church and home. Faith is both a public and private expression. It should shape the culture as it has done in the past. So, choices will have to be made. Silence and inaction only help those attacking and censoring the Christian view. So, the question remains: will Christians in Canada finally wake up before belief becomes not only illegal but irrelevant?