But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake.
This will be a time for you to bear testimony.

Two recent events point to the fact that Jesus’ words ring true even in “democratic” countries that proclaim religious freedom.

From LifeSiteNews via Catholic Online: UK Catholic Bishop Brought Before Parliament for insisting on orthodoxy in Catholic Schools

LONDON (LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic Bishop of Lancaster UK today gave a spirited response to accusations by secularist MPs in a Commons Committee who accused him of trying to establish religious “fundamentalism” in his schools.

Bishop Patrick O’Donoghue told the Committee that schools in his diocese should see it as their prime duty to teach the Catholic faith and to evangelise and that this constituted neither “proselytism” nor “fundamentalism”.

Crucifixes in every classroom, “sex-education” based on the principles of chastity and the sanctity of marriage, no school fundraising for anti-life groups and religious education based firmly in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: it sounds like the dream world of most Catholic parents.

But the scenario is one that was ordered last year by the Bishop O’Donoghue in a 66-page document, “Fit for Mission? – Schools”. The document was circulated to all teachers, staff, governors and parents in the diocese.

But the document that received high praise from parents, Catholic lay organizations and the Vatican, has drawn the ire of the increasingly aggressive secularist wing of the British government.

Earlier this year, the Labour MP for Huddersfield, Barry Sheerman, told the media that this new document was a worrying sign of a new “fundamentalist” direction on the part of the Church. Sheerman, the chairman of the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, called Bishop O’Donoghue to explain his intentions…

Of course there is the recent dust-up over Barak Obama’s Pastor. For example, from the NY Times: Obama Denounces Statements of His Pastor as ‘Inflammatory’.

The best line from the article was this one:

“If you’re black, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset white people,— said James Cone, a professor at Union Theological Seminary and the father of black liberation theology, who has known Mr. Wright since he was a seminary student.

Something easily said of Christianity ‘If you’re Christian, it’s hard to say what you truly think and not upset people.’

Opposing, and speaking against, racism, inequality, wars and insane foreign policies – spending billions per month while people starve, roads and bridges collapse, treating human beings as less than human… The sins are many – and good on Pastor Wright for speaking in witness against those sins.

—We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards,— he said. —America’s chickens are coming home to roost.— — Pastor Wright

Yes, we are guilty in our sins of commission and omission when our planes, guns, cluster bombs, and bulldozers are used against women, children, and innocent bystanders.

Thank you to the Young Fogey for some of the links in this post.