While actions speak louder than words, words often predict future actions. When it comes to public policy, the words and actions of the secular left rarely align. Recently, however, we have witnessed rare moments of candor when our progressive friends’ rhetoric actually aligns with their intended actions.

Take the recent declaration by President Obama at Georgetown University. He was discussing his contempt for conservative new media in general, and Fox News in particular, when he commented that “we’re going to have to change how our body politic thinks, which means we’re going to have to change how the media reports on these issues.”

How Kim Jong-un of him.

Or take would-be President Hillary Clinton’s comments last month on the “rite” of abortion vs. the right of religious freedom. Reports LifeNews:

The comment has Hillary Clinton essentially saying that Christians must be forced to change their religious views to accommodate abortions.

“Far too many women are still denied critical access to reproductive health care and safe childbirth. All the laws we’ve passed don’t count for much if they’re not enforced,” Clinton said, using the euphemism for abortion.

“Rights have to exist in practice — not just on paper,’ Clinton argued. ‘Laws have to be backed up with resources and political will. And deep-seated cultural codes, religious beliefs and structural biases have to be changed.”

And then there is New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. In his April 3 column titled, “Bigotry: The Bible and the Lessons of Indiana,” Bruni approvingly quoted homosexual militant Mitchell Gold. Gold “told me that church leaders must be made ‘to take homosexuality off the sin list,’” Bruni wrote, and emphasized that Gold’s “commandment is worthy — and warranted.”

That’s a lot of “have tos.” See the pattern here? Whether it’s Obama saying government will “have to change how the media reports,” or Hillary saying “deep-seated religious beliefs have to be changed,” or Bruni relishing the thought of forcing Christians to revise how they understand sin, such despotic demands should spike the neck hair of every freedom-loving American.

Don’t these liberals respect free speech? They pay lip service to the idea, but they have a way around that old allegiance where the politically incorrect speech of religious conservatives are in the cross-hairs. “But this isn’t free speech, it’s hate speech!” they insist, afraid to debate the issues on the merits. “Hate speech is excluded from protection,” opines CNN anchor Chris Cuomo in a recent tweet on the topic.

“But there is no hate speech exception to the First Amendment,” replies UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh in a Washington Post op-ed. “Hateful ideas (whatever exactly that might mean) are just as protected under the First Amendment as other ideas.”

Indeed, one man’s “hate speech” is another man’s truth, and as I’ve often said, truth is hate to those who hate truth.

And boy do they hate it.

And so they mean to muzzle it.

The left’s full-on assault against freedom, especially religious freedom, is no longer a warning. They are no longer working in the shadows. They are emboldened, and are openly calling for suppression of free speech and the free exercise of religion.

Like our brothers and sisters around the world, American Christians must prepare for suffering. But, like them, we must not despair. For there are different kinds of suffering.

Suffering in sin leads to spiritual death, while suffering in grace leads to spiritual life. Suffering in grace is like the young mother who suffers through child birth. She may experience great pain, but through her actions she brings new life into the world. Her sorrow soon turns to joy. While one type of suffering leads to death, the other leads to life. While one leads to sorrow, the other ultimately leads to joy.

If we are faithful, then anti-Christian persecution will signify “the beginning of birth pains” (see Matthew 24:8). And birth pains lead to new life.

Matt Barber is founder and editor-in chief of BarbWire.com. He is an author, columnist, cultural analyst and an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. Having retired as an undefeated heavyweight professional boxer, Matt has taken his fight from the ring to the culture war. (Follow Matt on Twitter: @jmattbarber).