Governor Bobby Jindal (R-La.) spoke yesterday at the Reagan Library. His subject: a “silent war against religious liberty.” No one can reasonably dispute that. Obama administration policies and leftist politics both treat religion as the enemy of the people. Honest observers might dispute only one thing: whether the silent war is really silent.

Silent war – what Jindal said

Bobby Jindal gave this speech on the evening of February 13 at the Reagan Library. (Newsmax.com covered it here.) He first cited the Declaration of Independence, and specifically these words:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,…

In fact Thomas Jefferson referred to God repeatedly in his Declaration. The Second Continental Congress left those references in when they ratified and signed it.

Jindal also quoted John Adams:

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Last night, Jindal accused the government of “declar[ing] it no longer needs a ‘moral and religious people,’” and of waging “a silent war” against religion.

A Geneva Bible, translated 1560, printed 1612. Photo: Mike Quinn, CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic License

To show this, he cited the Hobby Lobby case. In it, the Obama administration declares no company, no matter how religious its owners, may refuse a benefit the owner holds immoral, unless said company has a purely religious purpose. Thus a Hobby Lobby must furnish “birth control pills” to its employees (directly or indirectly). While a Bible publisher need not.

But Jindal did not stop with that case. He cited another, the Hosanna-Tabor case,

which revolved around the ability of a Lutheran academy in Michigan to fire a teacher. Here, the Obama administration advanced another extreme argument, claiming that job regulations prevented the academy from being able to fire anyone over a difference in beliefs.

Consider: the Obama administration is telling an explicitly faith-based organization whom to hire and whom it may not fire.

He cited several other cases involving wedding photographers, bakers, and so on, who refuse to cater to same-sex roommates sharing bed on the same basis as a man and a woman celebrating a wedding.

This assault will only spread in the immediate future. We will see continued pressure brought on anyone who “refuses and refers” to be penalized for their views, denied membership in professional groups or even rejected from licenses.

Meaning: a Christian doctor might lose his license to practice medicine for refusing to perform abortions. Time was when a doctor could lose his license for performing them.

The silent war: really silent?

Bobby Jindal is not making things up. But is the silent war truly silent?

To be sure, Barack Obama paid a curious lip service to religious liberty. Jindal quoted him:

History shows that nations that uphold the rights of their people — including the freedom of religion — are ultimately more just and more peaceful and more successful.

All true. But: does Barack Obama mean that?

If so, why proceed against Hobby Lobby? (Even some secularists might dispute the specific “health care service” at issue: the birth control pill. For instance, Joseph R. Mercola, D.O., roundly condemns oral and other hormonal contraceptives. He cites them as promoting, or even causing, various ailments, from clots in the deep veins of the legs to cancer.)

And what business is it of the government, whom a religious school may hire or fire?

But of course, if one asks avowed atheists, it is everyone’s business. They don’t fight a silent war. They fight an outright, loudmouthed war. To them, religion is a delusion.

The Constitution does say no person should have to pass a religious test to hold government office. (See Article VI.) But to many in government, and to their allies, religion is an automatic disqualifier. (Islam might be the exception. Might be. More likely, the Obama administration is making false claims and promises to Muslims to gain, retain, maintain, and expand power.)

When did the silent war begin?

Nor did the silent war begin with Barack Obama. Nor with Earl H. Warren, Chief Justice of the United States. Nor with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Nor even with V. I. Lenin, the Russian (actually German) Communist. Nor with Charles Darwin. Nor does the silent war rage only in the United States.

The silent war against religion, and especially against Christianity, has raged since Christianity began. Arguably the war against the Judeo-Christian faith system and its precursors has raged since the Fall of Man.

I will make the woman your enemy, and her Seed the enemy of your seed. He will wound you in the head and  you will wound Him in the heel.

Genesis 3:15

Bobby Jindal was right to warn people of the silent war. But Barack Obama did not start that war. He has simply escalated it. Pastors everywhere must defend in that war until God sees fit to strike back openly. That strike will be the Second Coming of Christ.

Until then, all of us who keep the faith in God are the targets in that silent war, a war that will soon be anything but silent.

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