With a one-minute look at culture from a Christian worldview, I'm John Stone Street with the point.

According to Christianity today, Belarus is cracking down on religious descent.

These new policies come from an earlier case when a Pentecostal group was not allowed to meet together without registering with the government.

But they were also not allowed to register since there were only 13 people in the group.

When the group appealed the decision, they received unexpected support from the United Nations.

Eager to avoid any further international embarrassment,

Belarus is now taking steps to prevent minority face from getting outside help.

Of course, dictatorships are never keen on those who refuse to march to the state's drum,

especially religious dissenters.

As Francis Schaefer once argued, no state that claims total authority can tolerate those who recognize a higher power.

Thus, conflict between religion and dictatorship is inevitable, which is why religious liberty should never be reduced to just a special pleading by quirky groups to

practice their hobbies. Religious freedom makes possible the essential freedom to dissent

from those who hold the strings of power. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.