Misguided and Misplaced Zeal

After St Stephen was stoned to death, something to which Saul approved, we find out that “Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the church; entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment. Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains” (Acts 8:3,9:1-2). The pre-conversion Paul was zealous for his Jewish faith even to the point of kidnapping, violence, and murder. Going after Christians in Jerusalem was not enough. Damascus was over 130 miles from Jerusalem. Such was Paul’s zeal.

Paul’s zeal, however, was misplaced and misguided. He was among the first anti-Christian zealots but he was certainly not the last. We have had and will continue to have individuals “breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord” until the end of time. The Romans were hardly slouches when it came to persecuting Christians, but they too are but one government or state among many bent upon destroying the faith. Various political leaders also stand out as persecutors of the Church. There were various Roman caesars, Mohamed, barbarian kings, Holy Roman Emperors such as Henry IV and Henry V, King Henry VIII of England and his successors, Robespierre, Garibaldi, Marx, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and a host of others desiring the end of Christianity. The persecution has hardly come to an end but it has taken various forms. In Africa, Asia, and especially the Middle East it continues to be violent and bloody. Despite the bloodiness, it fails to make the news, perhaps because burned churches and murdered Christians are not newsworthy. In the West, it has been more subtile and subversive with battle lines drawn in the culture, the classroom, and often in the courts. Again, anti-Christian bias, especially anti-Catholic bias, is un-newsworthy. In fact, it is de rigueur. Antisemitism is the only other form of bigotry that outpaces anti-Catholicism.

That the attacks against the faith are not yet as bloody as elsewhere hardly means that the persecution is not serious. For example, the British have instituted draconian ‘hate speech’ laws resulting in 30 to 40 arrests a day, 12,000 arrests annually. Germany is not as aggressive with about 3500 arrests annually, but Russia and China, no friends of free speech, have about 600 and 1500 annual arrests for speech ‘violations’, respectively. With regard to the democracies of Britain and Germany as well as the thug-ocracies of Russia and China, they differ in the types of speech that are permitted and proscribed, but there is agreement that anti-Christian speech is tolerated. Anti-islam speech in Russia and China is acceptable, but just the opposite in Britain and other western countries. The hypocrisy displayed by the Europeans regarding free speech is stunning and likely headed our way.

The founding fathers certainly understood that free speech was essential for a free nation. They understood free exercise of religion to be essential as well. It is no coincidence that both freedom of speech and freedom of religion are listed in the First Amendment of the Constitution along with freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. Sadly, we have seen freedom of assembly encroach upon freedom of religion when dozens of protestors disrupted a church service last Sunday. The protestors entered into the Cities Church in Minneapolis threatening and intimidating the parishioners. The uninvited activists were asked to leave but didn’t. They thought they had the right to assemble on private property and to terrorize the parishioners for not thinking and acting the way the protestors thought they ought to think and act. No doubt they thought they were exercising their right to free speech even though they did so at the expense of the parishioners right to free exercise of religion.

We will likely see more of this sort of thing. Self-righteous activists will see it as their duty to persecute Christians and will insist that it is their right, nay their duty, to do so. Had those protestors confessed that they got carried away and regretted their actions, it is quite likely that that congregation would have been quick to forgive. But such a confession won’t be forthcoming. Like the pre-conversion St Paul, the persecutors of the faith have great zeal, zeal that is misplaced and quite misguided.

—Fr Booth