Wokeness has struck the town of Palatine, Illinois, where woke activists are expending a whole lot of energy attacking a church over a message they posted on a sign outside of the building. Many of those opposed to the message claim that it’s mean-spirited, however the pastor is not afraid of ruffling feathers and has refused to back down.
Instead, he says that the message was purely spiritual in nature.
“Heaven has strict immigration laws, Hell has open borders.” the sign goes on to say. “
We want to be clear. We did not mention nor intend this sign to be about US immigration policy,” the church went on to say. “We understand that immigration is a hot topic today and wanted to use that to turn people’s attention heavenward. We did not mention any country or any people group. We do not believe that all go to heaven and wanted the community to examine their relationship with Almighty God.”
They then said, “People are getting triggered by the word ‘immigration.’ We took a stand on ‘immigration’ to heaven, not to the United States.’” More than a few local residents were angered by the sign, such as the president of the Palatine Elementary District 15 school board.
“It is unfortunate that a couple of phrases that some adults feel to be clever are posted in the face of many innocent schoolchildren having to ask parents, friends, and adults what they mean and why,” Lisa Beth Szczupaj commented about the sign.
So instead of using the sign as a teachable moment, why not bring the hammer of the justice system down on a religious institution and slap some proverbial duct tape over their mouths.
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Szczupaj continued, “Pulling kids into the edginess and politics of the moment is absolutely inappropriate and causes real fear for our school-age children.”
Another individual, Katharine Huddleston is in lockstep with Szczupaj about the sign, saying it was “really upsetting.”
“I am proud to have spoken out against the hate your ‘church’ is spreading. Our community is one of love and acceptance, and signs like yours have no room here!” she said in a post published on her Facebook account.
“Part of why we moved to Palatine was the diversity [and] being able to show our kids that everyone should have [the] opportunity to love each other, and seeing something like this is really upsetting,” Huddleston continued.
Senior Pastor James Pittman Jr. responded to the controversy by saying, “The immigration we were talking about is very clear in the sign: Heaven and Hell. And our message is very clear, the scriptures are clear, not everybody makes it to Heaven.”
If this story feels familiar, it’s because this attempt to silence free speech, especially when it comes to the Christian faith, has been gaining steam in recent years. One example is the sign at Transfiguration Catholic Church in Oakdale, Minnesota, which made a reference to drag queens. The church was forced to take it down.
The sign read, “Drag queen free since 1953.”
The church put out a statement saying they regretted the sign because it distracted from Jesus and the gospel.
“We firmly hold that all people are made in the image of God, and this innate dignity is to be respected at all times, even when serious disagreements emerge,” leaders of the church said.
In conclusion the church said, “Transfiguration is resolved to ensure such an incident does not occur in the future so that nobody ever feels again that our parish and school are unavailable for their spiritual and pastoral care.”
If we want to see the Christian church not only survive, but thrive, we’re going to have to stand boldly on the truth no matter the cost. Offending someone with truth is not a crime. Well, not yet anyway. And we need to protect the Constitution and ensure it stays that way.