What we have seen in recent years in the United States is the church's rights to express itself, and to conduct its own affairs, being insidiously eroded.

Fortunately, Judge Richey's decision was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but it is an example of how far the purge of Christian values has gone in America.

The schools, the courts, the media - all seem determined to erase Christian influence from public life and confine religion to the four walls of the church or home.

Today's secular libertarians, who want to remove biblical religion from public life, have trouble making sense of the civil rights movement because it was so clearly a religiously inspired movement that entered the public arena and made a major difference in American life.

What we have seen in recent years in the United States is the church's rights to express itself, and to conduct its own affairs, being insidiously eroded.