by Stan Mitchell

I ran across a survey recently that polled American leaders in business, politics, and the media. They were asked what groups constituted the "greatest danger to democracy" today. Fourteen percent fretted about the dangers posed by racist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis. Interesting, you might say. But here's the shocker.

Twenty-four percent said that they viewed Evangelical Christianity as a threat to democracy!

Allow that to filter through your thinking for a moment. Greater than power-hungry politicians, greater than the attempts of the Politically Correct to dictate, greater than a one-sided, eager to "educate" media, greater than those pathetic, hate-filled skinheads. Bible believing, conservative churches are a greater threat to democracy than these! Don't be afraid of media moguls who brainwash us with PC thinking; be afraid of a Gospel Preacher in a church Sunday morning, be afraid of churches that stand up for scripture. (The Williamsburg Charter Survey on Religion and Public Life, Washington DC, 1988).

What are they saying? What does this tell us?

To begin with, this sort of thing is as silly as Letterman after his bedtime. Conservative church groups are simply not a threat to democracy and free thinking. Curbing their right to enter public discussion, robbing their ability to express themselves, tearing the Ten Commandments off court walls, removing the very name God from our pledges and commitments –- now that would be a threat to democracy!

What it tells us is that the world is still, and relentlessly, the implacable foe of what is right and godly. Why are we surprised? Did we forget?

"Dear friends do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you" (1 Peter 4:12).

The threat they feel is not to their democracy, but to their deviance from God's will. The world has always hated that!