Happy Easter! Thoughts on Religious Persecution and Freedom of Religion

Happy Easter! Today, we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ that saves us and gives us Hope in eternal Paradise. As many of Jesus’ disciples were martyred, so Christians around the world have continued to sacrifice their lives to give witness to their faith. There has been persecution of Christians by non-Christians particularly in the Old World, as well as of the practitioners of other religions, but there is also persecution of Christians practicing their faith even in the New World. I have been posting about the repression in Nicaragua by the Marxist Sandinista regime against political opponents, civic and religious organizations, especially the Catholic Church, and how Bishops and Priests have been arrested or drive into exile. This Easter, for the second consecutive year, because of the intolerance by the dictatorship for the freedom of religion, there will be no public Easter processions. In Communist Cuba, there has been an increase in religious persecution, including preventing dissidents from attending Sunday Mass. A particular target for this crackdown on protestors I had posted about earlier this month is the women who demonstrate in favor of the release of political prisoners. Freedom of religion is fundamental to liberty, as it is the basis for all other freedoms for people to have the liberty to practice morality by expressing opposition to evil and support of good. And it is upon the natural law belief, as expressed in the American Creed in the Declaration of Independence that God created everyone equal and free, that the liberty of everyone depends. Freedom of religion is therefore a threat to tyrants or the powerful who are immoral, and a safeguard for those who oppose them. But like any freedom or right, it must not be used by the people like the jealous populist crowd who demanded the Roman Procurator of Judea free another prisoner over Jesus or for any other unjust reason, but used responsibly in a just manner.