Actually, there’s nothing funny about this NEWS out of the UK.  Mohler does an excellent job, as always, with the news and commentary.  It has long been anticipated that hate speech laws will eventually encompass religious free speech, making it not so “free.”  This is the developing case in the UK.  Those who follow culture and trends know that things move through Europe to northeast US, over to the West Coast, then back through the middle of the country.  That may be too generalized, but fashion, politics, and trends do have that tendency.  Essentially, in the not-so-distant future, there will be community “police” who will report that pastors are calling certain lifestyles “sin” and, therefore, disturbing the peace.

Scripture is clear that the fuzzy middle ground of lethargic Christianity is regularly undone and will be removed before Christ’s return.  So, this isn’t the worst of times for the church.  The church is called be holy.  This means we are to be distinctly God’s people in Christ Jesus.  The church today is full of people who live indistinct lives spiritually.  Besides church attendance, they revel in this milieu of moralistic, Christian-esque kind of living, yet without real passion, zeal, or power in Christ.  Increased persecution will produce lower church attendance, but perhaps a purer church.  History has proven this — when things are easy, the gospel is compromised…when things get difficult, the true church arises, though bleeding.

I’m not trying to be fatalistic or doomsaying.  We should battle the potential loss of free speech whenever we are able as citizens, voting our conscience.  However, we should ultimately battle on gospel grounds.  What I mean is, we do not lose hope if we “lose” a political battle to speak / preach truth.  At that point, we obey the King of kings rather than the rulers of men, and civilly disobey.  Hence, our mission dollars may need a new “bail” category at some point.  Who knows, but God?  Either way, I still want to be out of debt!