Vice President Mike Pence delivered the commencement address at Liberty University in Virginia on Saturday. I urge every Christian in America to watch this speech. Share it with your children and grandchildren.

The vice president and his wife are very committed believers. Pence’s speech was based on an idea that would not have been true at any other time in America’s history until relatively recently.

It boils down to this: The days of easy Christianity in America are over.

People of faith have shaped this country since its founding. But sometime in the last century, things slowly began to change. That change accelerated during the Obama presidency, as the government tried to force Christian groups to be complicit in things that our faith teaches we cannot be part of, including the destruction of innocent unborn life.

Thankfully, the current administration is reversing many of those policies. 

But there’s a more pernicious trend that’s unrelated to the government. Until recently, being known as a good Christian was an advantage in your career, a signal that you were someone deserving of trust and respect.

Pence warned the young Christian graduates at Liberty University that their faith may cost them their job if they take their Christianity seriously on issues such as the sanctity of life and the meaning of marriage. He told them to be prepared to be mocked, reminding them that even his wife, Karen, was excoriated for merely teaching art history at a Christian school.

The vice president said:

Some of the loudest voices for tolerance today have little tolerance for traditional Christian beliefs. So as you go about your daily life, just be ready. Because you’re going to be asked not just to tolerate things that violate your faith; you’re going to be asked to endorse them. You’re going to be asked to bow down to the idols of the popular culture…

So, Class of 2019, my word to all of you is decide here and now that you’re going to stand firm … that you’ll persevere, and that you’ll always be prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have, and you’ll do so with gentleness and respect. Because our nation and our world need that message of grace and love maybe more now than ever before.

Pence’s message is one all of us should take to heart. We must not be afraid. We must not run from our faith. We must stand firmly and defend what God has taught us.