For the first time in the history of the planet, a nation’s government is forcing its citizens to participate in human genocide.

Tragically, that nation is America.

Through Obamacare and other state and local laws, the “land of the free” is requiring Christian colleges and institutions who treasure the sanctity of life to provide abortion drugs and devices under threat of fines and penalties.

While we’ve previously seen countries engage in genocide through their military or police forces, only here and only now has a people had to participate in the extermination of helpless humanity as a prerequisite for conducting business, education and even ministry.

Churches in California are in the cross hairs of this, and other ministries all over the country are fighting it. Even individuals are being forced to pay a fee that goes to a segregated fund that has as its sole purpose the funding of abortions.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to challenge a law that forced pharmacists—even those with religious objections—to dispense abortion-inducing drugs. In a sobering dissent, conservative Justice Samuel Alito called it an “ominous” development for those who value religious liberty.

Without question, our religious freedom is in more jeopardy now than at any time since the founding of the country.

Unprecedented threats are coming through the militant LGBT agenda.

Same-sex marriage and the abolition of gender eventually will have an impact on every religious institution and person.

When human sexuality is elevated to a civil right on par with race, discrimination laws that are now applied to race and ethnicity will be equally applied to sexual behavior.

Despite its religious objection, Bob Jones University once lost its tax-exempt status for prohibiting interracial dating, a position it has since rightly changed. Christian schools now will face similar challenges over policies against sexual activity, marriage, same-sex dating and housing.

The LGBT agenda will influence the hiring and firing of teachers and affect admissions, disciplines, student loans and facilities. Even churches will not be immune from such challenges.

Make no mistake about it—this attack is coercive, unyielding and highly aggressive. No one will be exempt.

Because religious freedom is often fought in the courts, the future nomination of Supreme Court justices is a key issue in the election.

Hillary Clinton shares President Obama’s ideologies. In their world, religious liberty takes a back seat to abortion and LGBT rights. As a result, this one executive power of the president could transform the judiciary for decades, to the point where America would become unrecognizable. Absent revival and a widespread pushback, we would face the checkmate against Judeo-Christian values in America.

With Donald Trump, the judges he has told us he would nominate are much better. However, as with many things regarding Trump, he often changes his position. But at least we hear the right words and have a fighting chance.

Beyond the White House, it is critical that elected officials at all levels keep the government in check. We need public servants to pass laws protecting our religious freedom.

We also need leaders willing to say “We will not comply”—to the Supreme Court if necessary—in response to opinions rendered on such vital issues as the slaughter of innocent children and Biblical marriage.

Courts have limited authority, and when judges step outside the Constitution and their authority, their opinions are just that—opinions that do not represent the rule of law.

God will not accept an excuse from public officials, such as governors, who say, “I would have been impeached if I had resisted an unjust law.” The Lord wants us to stand for truth no matter the consequences—to be willing to walk into the fiery furnace and not bow down to manmade laws that directly conflict with His higher law.

It is easy for us to envision being among those who bravely resisted the Nazi regime. However, if we are timid and weak in our generation, it is foolish to think we would have been bold during that horrific time in history.

We simply must elect people at all levels of government who uncompromisingly defend God’s truth, because, quite frankly, we are in a life or death struggle for the future of our nation. ©2016 Mat Staver

Mat Staver is the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, an international nonprofit litigation, education, and policy organization advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and family.