Our world changed on 9/11/01 and nothing has been the same since. We should have expected it, but I don’t think we realized just how far reaching those changes would be. Have these changes been for the good? Probably not. Some, though, were necessary while others were an expression of a government wanting to reach deeper and deeper into our lives.
Such was the case with the Patriot Act, signed into law on this day in 2001.
The official name was USA Patriot Act which stood for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.” That’s a mouthful! After the attacks in NYC, the Pentagon, and Flight 93 that went down in Pennsylvania, something had to be done quickly to provide us with a sense of security that had just been ripped away.
“The law was intended, in [President George W.] Bush’s words, to “enhance the penalties that will fall on terrorists or anyone who helps them.” The act increased intelligence agencies’ ability to share information and lifted restrictions on communications surveillance. Law enforcement officials were given broader mandates to fight financial counterfeiting, smuggling and money laundering schemes that funded terrorists. The Patriot Act’s expanded definition of terrorism also gave the FBI increased powers to access personal information such as medical and financial records. The Patriot Act superseded all state laws.”1
It wasn’t long before this act was criticized, believing that it reached too deep into the private lives of American citizens. The law “significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The USA PATRIOT Act, as amended and reauthorized from 2003, made numerous changes to existing statutes relating to the privacy of telephone and electronic communications, the operation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, money laundering, immigration, and other areas. It also defined a host of new crimes and increased penalties for existing ones.”2
While the fear of more terrorist attacks may have warranted such measures initially, it wasn’t long before most Americans agreed that the law had gone too far. The law was redefining terrorism and terroristic acts. Would this affect the church? If a church stood strong for the Lord, seeking out and evangelizing lost people regardless of their ethnicity, gender, or religious background, and preaching the Word of God, would they be deemed terrorists?
Over the past few years, fundamental Christianity has been ridiculed and compared to being the same as fundamentalist Muslims who enacted their jihad on American soil. Dangers exist in other countries for those who would preach the whole truth of the Bible, especially when it goes against the social grain by pointing out the sin of homosexuality or tries to evangelize Muslims and others in world religions. These have been deemed hate crimes in countries as close as Canada. When will it come here?
The USA Patriot Act was repealed on “June 2, 2015, when President Barack Obama signed the Senate-approved USA FREEDOM (Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring) Act into law, which replaced the USA PATRIOT Act and curtailed the government’s authority to collect data. This revision was largely in response to Edward Snowden’s exposure in 2013 of the government’s bulk collection of phone and Internet records. The USA Freedom Act stipulated that the government can access such data only after submitting public requests to the FISA Court.”3
The question put before every blood washed child of God is this: will we do, say, and preach what is right regardless of what the government may say? Or will we buckle under the pressure and threats?
Acts 5:26-29, 40-42 tells the story of what could happen in our own nation. “Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. (27) And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, (28) Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. (29) Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men… (40) … and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. (41) And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. (42) And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.”
I don’t personally believe that the day will come where preachers and the church will be told not to preach at all. We will just be told what to preach and the instructions will sound similar to what was told to the prophets in Isaiah 30:10. “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” There are far too many preachers and ministries doing this already without the government telling them to do it!
Knowing we are in the last days, preach it anyway! Regardless of what the law, society, culture, or education tells us what can and cannot be preached, agree with the Apostle Paul’s statement in Acts 20:26-27. “Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. (27) For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.”
1https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/george-w-bush-signs-the-patriot-act
2https://www.britannica.com/topic/USA-PATRIOT-Act
3Ibid.
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