Free Exercise

Paul challenges his associate Timothy to be bold in proclaiming God's truth.  In 2nd Timothy 4, we read:
2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;
4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

The religious climate in our world can include difficulties in sharing the gospel message.  There will be restrictions, some enacted by government, others put into place by individuals or groups.  Hostility toward people of faith is quite significant.  But, into a world that can sometimes be hostile, Jesus represents the message of hope.  The cross and the empty tomb demonstrate to everyone that a loving God has reached out to fallen humanity to save and redeem, to bring each person into a relationship with Himself.

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There is a great lesson for each of us found in the 8th chapter of Acts, remind us of opportunities that may arise to reach out to people who are different than we, even those who would practice another religion:
26 Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert.
27 So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship,
28 was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet.
29 Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."
30 So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"
31 And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him.

We see later in the chapter that Philip "preached Jesus to him," and the eunuch believed in Jesus and was baptized.

The Pew Research Center has released the findings of study of almost 200 countries, measuring restrictions on religion, including those carried out by the respective governments.  After a two-year decline since a report of 43 percent of countries registering "high" or "very high" in the amount of overall restrictions in 2012, the number is up to 40 percent for 2015, according to a story from Religion News Service on the ChristianHeadlines.com website.  

The article states:

Of the 198 countries Pew surveyed, 25 percent reported “high” or “very high” levels of government restriction, up just slightly from 24 percent in 2014. And 27 percent reported “high” or “very high” numbers of acts of religious hostility by individuals, organizations or groups, a jump from 23 percent in 2014, according to the data.

The results were broken down by region, with the Middle East-North Africa region having the "highest percentage of countries registering government harassment or use of force against religious groups: 95 percent."

Europe had the largest increase; 53 percent of the countries in that region reflected a rise in government harassment or force between 2014 and 2015.  Overall, 89 percent of countries in Europe experienced harassment or force, second only to the Middle East-North Africa area.

Some of the activities contributing to the rise in Europe include the influx of refugees to the continent, as well as religion-related terror attacks.  The RNS story stated:

Muslims in France and other European countries faced violence by groups or individuals after those attacks, and the report noted a considerable uptick in social hostilities against Muslims in Europe in general, from 58 percent of European countries experiencing such hostilities to 71 percent, according to Pew. Those numbers rose less significantly for Christians (from 38 percent to 47 percent) and remained high for Jews (71 percent to 73 percent).

Regarding specific countries, "Egypt had the highest levels of government restrictions on religion in 2015, and Nigeria, the most social hostilities toward it."

I think a takeaway that readily comes to mind here is that, while we may disagree with the religious practice and perspective of others, we should always be mindful to be respectful of their right to embrace it.  Now, when religion becomes a basis for violence against others, authorities will need to get involved, and we need to be sensitive to those threats from people who use religion to do harm in the form of terror.  But, by and large, while should be firm in our religious convictions and grounded in God's Word, we can also be compassionate toward those who hold to different views. 

There was no mention of the United States in the RNS article.  But, a map from Pew was included showing that the U.S. is in the "moderate" category regarding government restrictions.  And, we can expect that governments will attempt to place restrictions on religion, either out of ignorance, misunderstanding, or under pressure from groups that feel threatened by our religious freedom.  That is not unexpected, and we can continue to be bold in the Lord, even though there will be those who will try to, in the name of tolerance, place limits on our expression in the public square.

Finally, Christians can be intent on building relationship structures through which the gospel can be shared.  We can be challenged to evaluate our interaction with people of different beliefs or no faith, recognizing that those people are candidates for a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We can be sensitive to the divine appointments that God may bring our way in order to speak His truth.