Hate Crimes and the Abolition of Religion

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

5 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 29 March 2022

⏱️ 5 minutes

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Summary

Hank Hanegraaff, president of the Christian Research Institute and host of the Hank Unplugged podcast, reflects on an opinion piece in the Charlotte Observer, “Church Vandalism Is Soaring; Here’s Why We All Should Care.” The article begins with the words “Satan lives here”—these hateful words, along with graffiti and swastikas, spray-painted on a Cathedral in Denver. We are shocked, as we should be, when we read about such incidences. But as vandalism of this nature becomes increasingly commonplace, the shock wears off. The authors suggest that 2021 will set a record for hate crimes, as “religiously motivated attacks” increase. Why? The authors posit the Christian opposition to abortion as one motivation for such attacks. We shouldn’t be surprised. Karl Marx wrote, “The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo.” A rank materialist, Marx believed that “the physical facts fix all the facts” (as the atheist philosopher Alex Rosenberg pithily puts it). But Marx was wrong—Christianity is not an illusion. When you look at the heavens you see God’s “eternal power and divine nature,” and in seeing that, as Paul wrote, we are “without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Christians must become equipped to exercise truth and experience life.

See Samuel J. Aquila and Tim Busch, “Church Vandalism Is Soaring; Here’s Why We All Should Care,” Charlotte Observer, November 21, 2021, https://www.pressreader.com/similar/281779927385288

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, this is Hank Hennigraph, president of the Christian Research Institute, with another Hank unplug short. I was reading an opinion piece
0:23.7	on the Charlotte Observer, our local magazine, not long ago. And the first three words of that
0:33.1	article caught my attention. Those words, Satan lives here. The article is about church vandalism,
0:43.3	which is soaring. And it's an argument for why we should care about, about vandalism, about vandalism of that which is sacred.
1:00.3	The story revolves around an occasion in Denver,
1:06.7	where spray painted in blood-red text on the bronze double doors of a cathedral.
1:17.6	Were those hateful words along with graffiti and swastikas.
1:28.8	And of course, we are shocked, as we should be when we read about such incidences.
1:37.8	But that shock begins to vanish as this becomes more and more commonplace.
1:47.3	The year 2021, this year will likely set a record with respect to church vandalism.
1:58.6	And you have to wonder why.
2:02.2	Why is it that churches are being vandalized?
2:07.9	Well, in this article, one of the reasons that is proffered is abortion.
2:16.4	There is a desire on the part of some to forward the horror of abortion through brute force
2:31.5	any sense of losing the argument in the marketplace of ideas
2:42.7	is now met with a reaction and that reaction is is force, intimidation. And we shouldn't be surprised.
2:58.2	I memorized a long time ago what Karl Marx said when he talked about the abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people
3:10.5	and said that was the demand for their real happiness.
3:18.4	To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition
3:27.4	that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is therefore in embryo, the criticism
3:34.3	of that veil of tears of which religion is the halo.
3:41.6	Marx talked about the abolition of what he thought was an illusion
	...

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