Poor persecuted U.S. Christians

[pj]

Invisible Christian Privilege

I’ve been writing about Christians a lot lately. It’s seems largely unavoidable, as the influence of Christianity often haunts even the most Pagan of stories. We may be slowly moving into a post-Christian era, and some may question if the United States is really Christian at all nowadays, but the facts on the ground show that the vast majority of Americans (and Britons, Canadians, and Australians) identify as some flavor of Christian. Contrary to the fear-mongering of some about the evils of secularism, Christians still have massive influence on our culture, our economics, and our politics. The terms of debate on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion are framed by Christians.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2011/08/invisible-christian-privilege.html


Really. Really?? Still, always - my evangelical sister has whined about her supposed persecution. The bible admires her martyrdom.

Comments

[thejeopardymaze]

this is neither about mainstream or classical Christianity - those are not attacked in the above, which is strictly directed against the supposed fringe.

Fringe - whether Christian or (neo)Pagan - are both minorities.

So much for power issues!

[sashajwolf]

Yeah, but it's the fringe defining themselves as The Only True Christians that allows them to continue to see themselves as a persecuted minority.

[thejeopardymaze]

Any group with that much money and power on their side doesn't count as fringe, especially when it's a branch of one of the dominate monotheist religions. Sure, they don't reflect all or most mainstream Christian values, but when you label them as fringe, it diminishes their danger and underplays their potential danger.

I'd say similar things about the self help industry, even if the dynamics are a bit different. Far too cult friendly, but such a big money maker to the point insiders won't bother changing anything.

[pj]

That is one of the typical arguments of the privileged group and always a preferred tangent when they are accused of being discriminatory. As if the various sects do not benefit from the institutional privilege of the larger group because some of their specific beliefs vary. Of course their main beliefs: 1) Jesus is the son of God and through him they are saved 2) Persecution of their kind is a sign of their holy text's foretelling of the end times and various other goodies seem to bind them together quite well when it suits their needs.

Blinders. They haz them. ~sigh~

[herlander_refugee]

I'm not sure what accounts for the apparent upsurge in "persecution" claims. Certainly, there is the feeling of privilege, and to me is feels like an increasingly belligerent attitude of arrogance. While it used to be considered poor manners to flaunt religious affiliations or belief, now it sometimes comes across like a verbal demand (minus German accent, please) for "Papers!! Your papers please!"

I wonder, if like many unpleasant things, it is entirely fear driven. Those people who need to hem themselves in desperately with rules, in fear, literally of themselves...to see a society largely tossing rules (in suspicion of them being the WRONG rules) must really terrify them. Facing personal choice responsibly has never been high on the American priority list.

I can't find it in myself to call America a post-Christian society. I wish! Instead, I find more and more Americans acting like Christianity is an endangered species, without recognizing that Christianity's own worst knee-jerk, refuse-to-think sorts are killing it as surely as rabies kills animals.

I find myself in fear of the sort of reactive Christianity that seems to be the loudest of late. Even a rabid animal, down to the last moments, is at it's most dangerous. Even to its own kind...the quietly practicing Christian trying to imitate the gentleness of Christ.

[elf]

I'm not sure what accounts for the apparent upsurge in "persecution" claims.

"Oppression," for many Christian groups, is a codeword for "we are legally required to acknowledge the existence of other religions." If they're also required to admit those groups have legal rights, it shifts from "oppression" to "persecution."

As people of non-Christian religions are publicly lauded without "okay, for a Muslim" disclaimers, and as Christian greetings & decorations aren't the only ones in public view during holidays, they believe they're being "persecuted." It's not even that there's any more of these than there ever were... they're just not hidden anymore. Admitting in public that not every good American is Christian is perceived as oppression.

And there's huge swarms of them that believe that backlash for their anti-gay bigotry is persecution.

[herlander_refugee]

Oh, I know, they leap at any moment to claim they are persecuted by not being the only special snowflakes in the world.

Gee, poor poor them; having to act somewhat civilized and non-Talibanish with those terrible 'not us' types of people.

[pauamma]

http://montclairsoci.blogspot.com/2011/11/morality-drawing-line-and-erasing-part.html appears to be related to that topic.