We Don’t Want to Hear It 

SILENCING JESUS WON’T EASE OUR GUILT

Some people are surprised when we say our magazines get thrown in the trash by people who don’t like what we write. If you’re reading this, hey – thanks for not throwing this in the garbage! We aren’t surprised when we see it anymore. We can look throughout history and see that since the time Jesus was here on earth, His message was not well-received, so we don’t take it personally. Locally, nationally, and across the ocean, the world is telling Christians to shut up. 

OUT WITH THE TRASH 

College students at our local university tell Christians to shut up nearly every day. If we (writers for a college Christian magazine) want our publication to stay on the racks on our campus, we make rounds almost daily. Checking the trash bins around our magazine racks feels like winning the lottery (they could at least recycle them, jeeze…). We’ve sure learned our printer inside and out, but we’ll keep them coming. 

We’re not the only Christian group this happens to. Colleges are notorious places for Christians to encounter free speech issues. In February 2026, Atlantic Cape Community College in New Jersey U.S.A. was found guilty of withholding funding from a Christian club while providing funding to the campus’ Pride Club. When called out for it, the school officials told the Christian club it could not receive funding because it is Christian. Thankfully they revised their policy after they were called out by Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal organization, but it never should have had to go that far.¹ Back in 1995, the U.S. Supreme Court found the University of Virginia guilty of refusing student activity funds to be used to print their Christian student magazine.² Ouch. 

Not much has changed in the legal system in the last 30 years. U.S. courts tell Christians to shut up by hindering children from worshipping God even when they want to. In December 2024 after attending a church for three years, 12-year-old Ava decided she wanted to be baptized. Too bad her dad doesn’t like Christianity. He claimed her church was “psychologically detrimental,” and a U.S. district court sided with him. For over a year Ava’s mom was banned from reading the Bible to her daughter or taking her to church despite Ava’s wishes. The case was elevated to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where it stands currently. 

Some people try to silence Christians altogether. Last August, students Fletcher Merkel (8) and Harper Moyski (10) were shot and killed during a church service to celebrate the new school year at Annunciation Catholic School in Minnesota, United States. Church shootings have happened at Richmond Road Baptist Church and CrossPointe Community Church… The list could go on, and these are in the last year in the United States alone. Physical violence against Christians only amplifies when you cross the border.  

TAKE THEM DOWN 

The world tells Christians to shut up by brutalizing and murdering them. The violent persecution of believers around the world is a heinous attempt to silence Jesus’ message. Roughly 3,490 Christians were killed in Nigeria and across Africa in 2025 alone. Earlier this year, over 160 Christians were abducted by armed men in at least two Nigerian churches. The lack of news coverage on these cases until recently is startling. Just last month, March 2026, 12 were killed and several others were injured on Palm Sunday when gunmen attacked a neighborhood in north-central Nigeria, a largely Christian city. 

In China, churches must be registered by government agencies, which recognize only state-sanctioned Protestantism or Catholicism. Any house or underground churches are often susceptible to raids or arrest. In India, local monitoring groups reported close to 900 cases of physical assaults, threats against worshippers, and disruptions to church services in 2025.³ Islamic groups have a long history of targeting Christians in Mindanao, Philippines. 

Those who believe in Jesus are a reflection of Him to the world. Our lives show the world who He is, what He did, and what He’s like. We believe the truth that we are sinful and without Him, we’re totally lost. Only through Him can we be saved. Not everyone wants to hear that. Most people want to be told they’re a good person and be recognized for their great work, effort, and accomplishments. When Christians threaten that comfort with the message that something is wrong, they attack us, often vehemently. After all, if they can’t get to Jesus, all they can do is come after us. 

“Nobody else in history is as controversial or culturally impactful as Jesus.”

IT’S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY 

Dragging Christ’s name through the mud is nothing new. The Alexamenos Graffito in 200AD is said to be one of the first times Jesus’ image was mocked. Long before then, Jesus’ disciples discovered the cost of following Him. Nearly all of them died martyrs’ deaths, except for John who just wouldn’t die when they threw him into a basin of boiling oil. 

It was no surprise to Paul and the apostles that the world didn’t want to hear what they had to say. Jesus gave them fair warning the world would hate them. After all, it hated Him first. Ironically, the people who were the most religious in Jesus’ day were the biggest offenders – They ridiculed Him, hated the miracles He performed, and despised when He healed and changed lives in radical ways. It was these offended ones that pushed for His trial, mocked Him the loudest, and celebrated His gruesome death. They tried, in the most horrifying way imaginable, to silence Him once and for all. 

Something about the Christian message doesn’t allow people to stay neutral. They crucified Christ and mocked His images in the early centuries. Christian persecution continues around the world today, and even in small ways His followers are attempted to be silenced. Who is this Jesus that offends us so? 

WHO IS THIS JESUS? 

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6). The Bible calls Him the “rock of offense” (Isaiah 8:14, 1 Peter 2:7-8). When you actually believe this and say it out loud, people will get upset. Jesus offends because He claimed to be and is the Son of the One True God. Nobody else in history is as controversial or culturally impactful as Jesus. His claims demand an answer from all people of all time. Jesus is offensive because He challenges human pride (Matthew 23:12), demands complete self-denial (Matthew 16:24) and says apart from Him we can do nothing (John 15:15). You should be offended… He says you’re wicked to the core (Mark 7:20-23)! 

This is not the message of our world in 2026. The world says humans are basically good, we can do anything we put our hearts toward, and we should get rid of anyone in our lives that tells us we can’t or shouldn’t. But all our pride, self-indulgence, and independence from Jesus isn’t making our world (or our lives) better or happier. It’s rotting it from the inside out. 

At one point, all of us were against Him. We were all offended by Him. Follow Jesus? No, thank you. But everything changes when you realize all the ways you offend God. When you start to see your sin (your selfishness, your pride, all the ways you judge others, or the white lies you tell to save your own reputation…), you start to think about God. You wonder if He’s real and if He sees you as guilty, and He does. By default, we’re all against God. He is perfect and can’t be near all our imperfection, but this is exactly why Jesus came to die and be resurrected. 

When we admit our fault before Him and accept what Jesus did, the path to knowing God personally breaks wide open. Because Jesus took care of our offense before God, we can be close to Him. You start to understand how much God loves you, and how much He loved you even before you acknowledged Him (Romans 5:8). God starts revealing Himself to you in ways you can’t describe. Christians see God working personally–supernaturally–in their lives, and we want other people to experience it, to experience Him. 

So, we’re not going to shut up, even as the world gets louder. We’re going to hang up posters. We’re going to write because we believe that someone else out there wants to know Him too. We write because we want people to think about Jesus is an entirely new way – in a real way, which means in a controversial way, because there’s no neutral ground when it comes to Him. 

¹ adfmedia.org/press-release/adf-to-atlantic-cape-community-college-restore-student-group-funding-to-religious-clubs/ 

² americanthinker.com/blog/2026/03/n_j_college_allows_funds_for_christian_club_after_legal_threat.html

³ csi-int.org/news/2025-marked-fifth-consecutive-year-of-record-violence-against-christians-in-india