It never ceases to amaze me that Christians can maintain a sense of persecution in modern-day America, but many of them do.Not in some faraway republic in the Middle East or Africa, mind you, where actual persecution of their faith might actually be taking place, but here in the United States, where there are more churches than you can shake a pair of crossed sticks at, where all their major religious festivals are legal holidays, where their God is regularly invoked when convening government councils and at every election stump speech, and even on the money.
The form this persecution takes is that Christianity is not given a favored position above all other faiths; we don't allow them to pray in schools, or teach their theology in science classes, or have chunks of their scripture carved into granite monuments on federal grounds.
The fact that other faiths aren't allowed to do those things either is beside the point as far as these guys are concerned. Because they have been in the majority in the United States for so long, and because they have long had such a strong political constituency, Christians have a sense of entitlement as profound as it is mistaken. To them, it is ridiculous that a Buddhist or Hindu should open Congress with a prayer; I agree, but they fail to see that a Christian prayer is just as inappropriate, despite the latter having gotten away with it for so long.
Yes, I said "gotten away with it" and that's exactly what I meant. It is simply wrong, and indeed unConstitutional, that people of other faiths, and no faith, are forcible proselytized by Christians under the auspices of what is supposed to be a secular government.
A good example of persecuting Christians is here; evangelical Christians in the USAF, feeling secure by virtue of being in the majority, mistreated harassed and threatened an atheist for no other reason than his nondeistic beliefs and his wish to set up a support group for himself and others of similar beliefs.
I'd be really interested in hearing from any Christians who want to support this kind of behaviour.
1 comment:
The NT says that Jesus's followers would be reviled and persecuted for their beliefs, so claiming such things is a means to affirm your Christian devotion. This is why religious wackos like the Westboro Baptist Church never disappear. Ostracism is taken as evidence that their beliefs are true. And if they're not being subject to ridicule, it must mean they're no longer godly.
It's a perfect circle: they're persecuted because they're Christians, and they're Christian because they're persecuted.
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