When Your Time Comes, What Will You Do?
In recent weeks, we’ve seen an escalation in the persecution of Christians here in America. Think about what happened to Carrie Prejean just last month (April 2009). She was representing California in the Miss USA pageant, and had been a clear front-runner up until the portion of the contest where the judges ask the finalists questions. One of the judges, known by his assumed name of Perez Hilton, maintains an openly homosexual blog site. He asked her a pointedly controversial question regarding same-sex marriage. Apparently it is okay to answer a political question in a contest such as that as long as the answer you give is the one the judge wants. Apparently you are not supposed to speak your own mind and have your own convictions and beliefs about anything.
Her answer was that she was raised to believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. The audience responded with enthusiastic cheers and applause. When the judging was completed, Carrie Prejean finished a close first runner-up. In an interview with abcnews.com, Hilton admitted that she lost because of her answer to that one question.
Carrie herself said, “It did cost me my crown. I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I said what I feel. I stated an opinion that was true to myself and that’s all I can do.” She told reporters on Fox News that her answer was not only the right answer, it was the Biblical answer.
On his blog site, Perez Hilton referred to Carrie Prejean with language so foul it will not be repeated here. Had she called him the names he called her, she would be guilty of hate crimes. She would be called a homophobe. She would be called a narrow-minded religious nut. She would be accused of being intolerant. Listen to what I am telling you: this is only the beginning of the kind of discrimination and persecution Christians can expect right here in America. In an editorial in the Baptist Record (Mississippi) this week, editor William Perkins observed, “She’s paying a heavy price for her honesty, and even though she is perfectly willing to do so, the whole incident is a sad, sad snapshot of the direction our country is going.”
This totally amazes me. For years the beauty pageants have been fighting the image that the women who participate in those contests are more than just a pretty face, that they actually have talents and intelligence. Yet when one of them actually demonstrates that she does in fact have a brain, and that she knows how to use it and is not afraid to use it, she is ripped to shreds. What hypocrisy on the part of the pageant officials!
When the time comes for you to stand for Christ, whether in front of only a few or millions of people, what will you do? What will I do?
--Rocky Henriques, www.timothyreport.com
