If you were running a Christian charity and an official of the government told you to eliminate anything indicating you were Christian or they would not allow you to be a part of their food network, what would you do? This is exactly what happened to the Christian Service Center in Lake City, Florida.
The Christian Service Center is a Christian social service ministry that runs a food pantry to provide food for the hungry in Lake City. The Center receives its food through local donations and also receives cheese through a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) which is administered through the State of Florida’s Department of Agriculture.
Recently, it was time to renew the contract and a state employee came calling. The Center was informed that there had been a slight change to the contract provisions, and in order to receive the cheese in the future they would have to remove all signs and posters which made reference to their faith, remove any Christian art and Scriptures, refrain from giving out any Christian literature, make no references to the ministry’s chapel, and do no Christian counseling with clients. Of course, this only applied in the presence of the cheese. They could put their Christian stuff elsewhere on the property and that would be okay.
It seems that the USDA now has rules in place which state that organizations which receive USDA nutrition assistance can distribute the food so long as it is in a place on the property away from anything that could be considered religious. The Christian Service Center, therefore, was forced to choose between God or government cheese.
Well, to make a long story short, the leaders of the ministry politely told the USDA what they could do with their cheese. They are very committed to their ministry which is to help people in need and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. They are determined to pray with them, offer them a Bible, and give Christian counsel in general.
As unfortunate as it is, this is the direction the country is headed. As Naturalists take over more and more of our nation’s institutions, they are doing all they can to push out those who hold Christian beliefs.
Actually, it can hardly be any other way. Naturalism and Christian Theism are based on different worldviews which contradict one another. The conflict in the culture is, literally, a religious war. The main problem for Christians is that too few have made any effort to get up to speed on the issues and be willing to stand up and share a witness to those who are trying to take us down the road to destruction.
The war is a war of beliefs. The only way to win is to demonstrate that faith in Christ is true and faith in Naturalism is not true. Who is ready to get their hands dirty?