honor from the very magazine that lauded that other visionary eugenicist, Adolph Hitler. The priest recognized the same hand of evil at work in the United Nations which once guided the National Socialists of Germany to their monstrous extremes of sin and depravity. He was not alone. Most Christians agreed. They balked at the changes the accord demanded of the country.
“Hail Mary, full of Grace…”
In response, secularists re-doubled their efforts to destroy Christianity.
“The Lord is with thee…”
Persecution of Christians was on the rise. Scores of churches were vandalized, attacked or burned every year. The body count of worshippers was growing alarmingly with every attack. The progressive government and their special interest proxies were assailing Christianity on all sides as well. ‘Priests,’ a pundit recently observed, ‘were spending as much time in courts these days as they were in their churches, and church coffers were being drained by legal battles rather than on the war on poverty.’ The Marriage Equality Act which legalized same-sex marriage across the country was being used by gay activist organizations as a legal pretext to shut down churches that refused to marry homosexuals. Seminaries that refused gays and women to the ranks of the priesthood were being charged with discrimination and closed. Churches that publically criticized the new laws were fined and often shut down.
The attacks were not limited to the clergy. Christian families could not escape the reach of the state. Home schooling was branded as subversive and outlawed as seditious. Parents were forced to send their children to schools whose curriculum not only preached that Christianity was a hateful creed but also encouraged and facilitated the exploration of their sexuality beginning at twelve years of age. Christian doctors who refused the United Nations mandate to add birth control and abortion counseling to their family practices were being fined, having their licenses revoked, and even imprisoned in a growing number of instances. Nurses who refused to assist with the procedures were summarily fired from their jobs. Christian hospitals which would not comply with the UN’s Global Healthcare policies were forced to close, their assets were seized and their protesting workers hauled off to jail.
“Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus…”
Monsignor Francis Green knew about that only too well. He was arrested in San Francisco for delivering a sermon without a permit outside the state’s new fetal stem cell research facility. Ordinarily, preaching without a permit in the state of California would have incurred a fine and no more than a night’s stay in central lock-up, but; the prosecutor, wishing to make an example of the priest, charged him with violating the state’s hate speech laws. Equating abortion with murder, the state argued, ‘was misogynistic and slanderous of women who chose to exercise their right to have an abortion.’ The judge agreed and sentenced him to a year and a half.
“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen…”
Portions of Christian doctrine were regularly labeled as hate speech in cities everywhere and the hate speech laws were becoming ever more vigorous, targeting anyone, laity or clergy, who promulgated traditionalist’s views on family, sexuality and personhood. If the High Court ruled against them in the coming spring, some of the more draconian, anti-Christian legislation would become the law of the land. It is this threat that brought Monsignor Green and two hundred fifty thousand other Christians to the nation’s capital.
“Hail Mary, full of grace…”
The door to the penitent’s side of the confessional opens and a figure slips in, drops to the kneeler and makes the sign of the cross.
“The Lord is with thee…”
“Bless me father, for I have sinned,” says the male voice behind the
Linda Barlow, Alana Albertson
Marion Zimmer Bradley, Diana L. Paxson