Don Wildmon
AFA/AFR founder
September 1999 – When preaching what is known today as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told those present: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Growing up, I never even conceived that I would see the day when Christians and Christianity were hated and scorned. But that day has come, and I look for conditions to get worse before they get better.
The leaders in the homosexual rights movement, and their supporters among the elite in our society, have a mission. That mission is to blame Christians and Christianity for their plight, and to create a hatred for Christians who believe and teach that homosexual behavior is wrong.
Some months back American Family Association cooperated with several other groups in placing newspaper and television ads offering hope and healing for homosexuals. The response from the leaders of the homosexual agenda was quick and vengeful, calling the ads hateful and those who were responsible for them hate-mongers. Many television stations refused to air the ads.
We are caught up today in a society in which many in leadership are determined to throw out two thousand years of Biblical teaching (not to mention common sense) and replace those teachings with a new moral order where good is called evil and evil is called good.
What should be our response to all this hateful venom? One doesn’t have to search too far in the Bible to find that similar conditions have existed before, and Christians were given a roadmap on how to deal with them. Peter wrote: “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
Look for the attacks and persecutions to continue – indeed to become more physical. And what should our response be? The answer is very simple. We are to live such good lives among these pagans that, though they accuse us of doing wrong, they will see our good deeds and glorify God.
That has always been, and will always be, the proper Christian response to hate and persecution. Indeed, it is the only response which will be successful in the long run. 
