Aug 15th, 2020: The Subtlety of Hatred

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Someone asked what I think about all of the restrictions that have been imposed by the government(s) concerning church public worship. Different cities, provinces and states have come up with their own regulations for churches. The way Christians and Christian churches have been treated in Canada, I am grateful that God has given us this trial run in dealing with Covid-19 as our preparation for more severe persecution in the future. If nothing is going to change in Canada, Christian churches need to get ready to face these possible accusations as we proclaim our faith in Jesus.

A) The teaching of hatred: Expressing moral convictions can be seen as teaching hatred in Canada. Conversations about the human rights of the fetus and the nature of human sexuality are no longer welcome. We can see a "systemic accusatory politics" that has been applied against the Christian Church. There is no room for dialogues over some of the moral questions of the day. We either have to give up or taking the risk of being persecuted if we try to raise our voices.

B) The practice of hatred: we can counsel people on the various possibilities for human sexuality, but we cannot reason or talk to people about the different possibilities of looking at the real reasons behind their sexuality. Some conversations about human sexuality are now legally prohibited. In brief, some Biblical views of human sexuality can be viewed as propagating hatred.

C) The foundational right of practicing one's faith: we live in a time that your freedom of religion is protected as long as you are not Christian. Our school funding will continue to be scaled back, and the funding support for Christian organizations are not there if they happen to disagree with the government laws due to moral objections. By the way, we pay the same tax, and we will not get any benefits from it because of our stands in morality. That is outright systemic abuse from our government(s) towards Christians.

I purposely use the word systemic to make my points. More and more, we will see different levels of our government(s) systemically support, condone, and encourage various attacks towards some of the most fundamental tenets of the Christian faith (Bible burning incident in Portland). So Covid-19 is doing us a favor as we now have our opportunities to get ready and prepare for the future persecution. 

Matthew 5: 10-12
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way, they persecuted the prophets who were before you."



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