By Tyson Thorne

July 11, 2018
 

BiM03 Large

"Media" used to mean "print media" like books and newspapers, but the world has grown. Today media can also mean radio, television and movies delivered to personal computers, tablets and cell phones. As the world's best selling book of all time the Bible continues to make headlines, both good and bad, across all forms of media. This week in the Bible and Media: China bans the sale of Bible's online, California makes a move to ban the sale of the Bible in their state, and a public US high school discriminates against LGBTQ students.

On February first of this year China passed new regulations on religious groups that, oddly, seem to only be impacting Christian churches. The country has many religious groups including Buddhism, Islam, Taoism, and folk beliefs but only Christian institutions appear to be targeted in the new legislation. Christian pastors report having difficulty registering in their local territories for meetings and even places of worship. One church had $1 million (US) and its property seized by the government without a court order. Then on April 5th another blow was struck against the Christian community.

Just before heading into a long holiday week in April of this year, China banned the online sale of Bibles. In one sense, it is keeping with current law that states Bibles may only be sold by church bookstores. Major online retailers have taken all Bibles off their sites but, along with them, so have online church bookstores. This limits the sale of Bibles to regions where registered churches are located. It appears that China is tightening, rather than relaxing its grip, on Christians. Pray for ministers as they try to appeal and fight this new legislation.

If you are thinking thtat what is happening in China could never happen in the USA, think again. California's House of Representatives have recently passed Assembly Bill 2943, which bans anyone from making a "transaction intended to result or that results in the sale or lease of goods or services to any consumer" that "advertise, offer to engage in, or do engage in sexual orientation change efforts with an individual." In case you don't see the relevance, examine 1 Corinthians 6.9-13:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

The bill passed the house overwhelmingly and it seems certain that the state Senate will do likewise. Governor Jerry Brown is already committed to signing it if it reaches his desk. The bill will likely be overturned by a federal supreme court, but the fact that a state in our union could pass such a bill is alarming to say the least.

In news from the Bizzaro World, A West Bend, Oregon high school allegedly persecuted gay, gender confused, and minority students. The abuses cited were calling them derogatory names and forcing LGBTQ students to read various passages from the Bible. The complete details may never be known as an out-of-court settlement was made between the school district and the ACLU who represented the students. I have to say that this concerns me greatly as I experienced all that and more for my Christian beliefs in my public high school.

My Christian friends and I fought hard to make inroads for our faith in public schools, and such behavior by others claiming to belong to Jesus is more than sad, it is grotesque. We may not agree with a person's chosen lifestyle, but Jesus provides us with plenty of examples of encounters with those who live apart form God's law and none of them include abuse of any kind. The whole of the Christian community needs to decry this incident as unacceptable and not part of the teachings of Christ.

 
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