An article by Robyn Blumner, a columnist with the St. Petersburg Times, examines the reality of extensive religious intolerance in this land of the free and the home of the brave. He tells of harsh intolerance in portions of the Bible Belt where non-Christians are actually persecuted with cruelty. The intolerance is more severe in the more conservative "Christian" cultures. "Joann Bell, a member of the Nazarene church, was beaten by school personnel and had her house firebombed after she brought suit to stop teacher-led prayer meetings at a school in Oklahoma." She simply told the school board that "it's unconstitutional to prefer one religion over another," so "they told me that they have ways of getting rid of people like me." Blumner says that it is a "fearsome reality-that religious discord percolates just under the surface in some parts of this country." He concludes: "The people of the United States are just like people everywhere [citing Ireland, Bosnia, Israel, Nigeria]. The unique thing that keeps [us] in peaceful coexistence is the . . . First Amendment's religious clauses, promising religious freedom."

But oh, what thin ice we are living on! Strong efforts are underway to annihilate that First Amendment protection. The people of Germany once never dreamed that Krystalnacht could ever happen in their enlightened land. Revelation 13 tells us clearly that the nation foremost in providing religious freedom will someday abandon the principles of that First Amendment, unleashing the pent-up passions that "percolate just under the surface" in this fabulously wealthy land, symbolized in "the four winds" loosened at last (Rev. 7:1-4).

Enjoy your freedoms today; make use of them in serving the Author of liberty, leaving you under no vain regrets when they vanish.