Dinner Topics for Tuesday

History Timeline and Freedom of Religion

90 B.C.

Mormon abridges plates Once, many centuries ago in ancient America, there was a man named Nehor. He came among the people of a city named Zarahemla, teaching his system of beliefs. As Zarahemla was a free society, there was no law against Nehor’s teaching anything he believed. But then Nehor met an elderly man named Gideon, a Christian disciple. Gideon openly expressed his disagreement with Nehor. Deeply offended by Gideon’s viewpoint, Nehor brandished his sword and beat upon his opponent until the old man died from the attack.

Nehor was tried and found guilty, not only of murder, but also of what was known as “enforced priestcraft.” This meant that he had tried to enforce his belief system with his sword. When Nehor was executed according to the law of the land, Alma, a Christian prophet and also chief judge of the Zarahemla government, made a prophetic statement that has been fulfilled in America in our day. He said that “were enforced belief systems to be imposed among this people it would prove their entire destruction.”

Nehor died, but his followers kept alive the order of Nehor (enforced belief systems). Since then, the order of Nehor has emerged with various names—socialism, communism, fascism, terrorism, etc. Any political system that forces its ideas on a people is modeled after the order of Nehor.

Keep this little story in mind now while we review the following intelligence reports from the field. Let’s look at developments in the four corners of our society: science, academia, journalism, and government. Then you will see how this ancient prophecy by our Christian forbearers has been fulfilled in modern American society.

Intelligence Reports from the Field

Field of Science, 1925

Growing popularity of Darwin’s theory of evolution sparked a stormy debate between science and religion. After the Scopes trial, the Biblical teaching of creation was increasingly disparaged.

Field of Academia, about 1919

Progressive education, a combination of secular philosophies including elements of socialism, began to be implemented in public schools. Secularism swept through Columbia University, the main college that teaches teachers. These teachers taught students who became scientists, journalists, lawyers, government officials, and. . . other teachers in all levels of academia. By the 1950’s, textbooks were praising Karl Marx as a kind, peace-loving man. Eleventh grade history teachers were telling students it was time to “knock the Founding Fathers off their pedestals.”[1]

Teachers graduated from colleges of education bringing their heavy secular influence to other areas of academia. Author and Christian Apologist Frank Turek is concerned that “hostility against Christianity on many university campuses and classrooms can undermine the faith of those unequipped to defend their beliefs.[2]

Field of Journalism, 1915

March, 1915. J.P.Morgan Interests bought 25 of the most influential newspapers in the United States for the purpose of “controlling the general policy of the daily press throughout the country.”[3]

Field of Government, 1963

In 1963 the United States Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible-reading from public schools. Trying to avoid the “establishment of religion,” the Supreme Court actually “prohibited the free exercise thereof,”[4] and inadvertently established atheism as the state religion. Countless teachers and students have been punished for praying or reading the Bible in public schools.

Consequences

When God was removed from the schools, so was accountability. Over time, as Constitutional principles have been replaced by philosophies of progressivism, the slope toward the abyss of moral relativism has slickened, and slipping down it has accelerated. The destructive moral decline in our society can be traced back to the enforcement[5]of atheism, after the ancient order of the Nehors. We know. We were there, and we saw it with our own eyes! And what are the consequences of this enforced system of beliefs?

The theory of evolution has been taught as fact almost exclusively in the schools. Equal time to examine creation or intelligent design has been denied.
History is no longer taught in the schools. Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln are no longer honored by national holidays in many schools.
Fornication and abortion are taught as acceptable behavior. Nevertheless, sexually active girls are three times more likely to take their own lives than those who are abstinent. Boys are eight times more likely. Two thirds of teens who have committed moral transgression wish they could go back to innocence again and desperately wish they had waited.[6]
Widespread abortion is considered by many government leaders to be a national cost-saver.[7]

The infamous decree of 1963 has filled our schools with the pottage of atheism. Two or three generations of youth have been taught to turn their backs on Judeo-Christian values. Now, in the 21^st century, a new state religion has moved into the spiritual void created by that judgment fifty years ago. Masquerading as a religion, it is really a political system, brutally hostile to the Judeo-Christian culture, seeking to replace the United States Constitution with tyranny. The new order of Nehor is terrorism. As Isaac and Rebekah must have sorrowed together over Esau’s soul-damaging choices, many of us over the years have lamented the negative effects of evil influences forced upon our loved ones. But. . . No more!

Parents and Grandparents to the rescue![8] It’s time to act, and reclaim the Judeo-Christian culture for the rising generation. In today’s society of shifting values, as in the Biblical type-scene, the birthright blessings are in danger of falling into immoral hands. Are not we, rather than the schools, ultimately accountable for what our children are taught? Does not character education begin with us? But it certainly can’t end with us, can it? Once our own children have internalized righteous principles of self-government, will they be prepared to teach their children, and so on, to the third and fourth generation, and beyond? Only when our grandchildren answer this question with a confident “Yes!” can we know we have succeeded in our stewardship as parents.

[1] This was observed personally by the author in a 9^th grade history textbook, and 11^th grade history class.

[2] AFA Journal May 2010, p.14

[3] U.S. Congressional Record. February 9, 1917, page 2947.

[4] Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.(U.S. Constitution)

[5] The U. S. Supreme Court issued two bans on prayer in public schools. The first ban came in 1962 and the second was issued in 1963. The bans were the result of a court case sponsored in part by Madalyn Murray O’Hair. She was but one of the litigants in the lawsuit, but her name became synonymous with the case and the promotion of atheism. The ban not only outlawed prayer in public schools but it also banned Bible reading in public schools. Madalyn Murray O’Hair was the founder of American Atheists, Inc. which not only sought to ban prayer in public schools but also actively promoted atheism and the continued separation of church and school. Madalyn Murray O’Hair is survived by her son William J. Murray, the president of the Religious Freedom Coalition in Washington D.C. Unlike his mother who fought to ban prayer in public schools, William J. Murray is a strong Christian who fights for the rights of Christians around the world. http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/prayer-in-the-public-schools-faq.htm

^[6]Lundberg, Gary and Joy,^“Parents Must Boldly Teach the Consequences of Immorality”, Meridian Magazine, February 16, 2006

[7] Told to Rep. Bart Stupak (D., MI) by Democrat leaders. Quoted in National Review Online.

[8]Counsel from a Christian prophet, Thomas S. Monson: To the Rescue!