A brief consideration of the claim that Christians are persecuted in
America, from an atheist perspective.
Pew Research Center links:
http://www.pewforum.org/
2015/01/05/faith-on-the-hill/pr_15-01-05_religioncongress-01-new/
http://www.pewforum.org/2014/07/16/how-americans-feel-about-religious-groups/
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The persecution complex is an integral part of many religious ideologies including and especially
Christianity, and to a degree, I can understand why.
Jesus and his disciples (if they existed) endured terrible persecution, torture and eventually death for their beliefs so if you also feel that you’re persecuted for your religious beliefs, at least you’re sort of following in their footsteps toward living a “godly life”.
After all, the
Bible clearly states that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ will be persecuted. So if you’re a
Christian and not being persecuted, you must be doing something wrong.
The obvious problem with tying persecution to salvation is that it generates a necessity to perceive persecution where there may be very little or none at all.
American Christians that claim to be persecuted are a good example of this.
Let’s consider, again, the example of
Congress. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 92% of Congress members are Christian and 0.2% of Congress members are unaffiliated while 20% of the general public are unaffiliated.
Statistically this is nearly impossible, which brings up the question, why would they feel the need to claim a Christian affiliation when it’s very likely that at least some aren’t actually affiliated? If Christianity is being attacked or stigmatized in America, why are so many politicians practically required to claim a Christian affiliation in order to hold public office?
From a social standpoint, polls consistently show that Christians and
Jews are by good margins, the most favorably viewed and most trusted religious groups in the US. Atheists and Muslims routinely come in at the bottom of these public opinion polls, showing once again that by simply saying that you’re a Christian you’re granted special trust and favor that by saying you’re an atheist or Muslim you’re denied.
Christians in the US have long been a privileged group, the slow and steady deterioration of that privilege and return to our nation’s secular roots is often seen as persecution. Of course you’re going to see it as persecution when you’ve been part of the privileged majority that is finally held to some of the same standards as the rest of us.
Honestly, ask yourself, if you were non-religious or held another religious belief, would you willingly have your children stand up in class and swear to a god that you don’t believe in or have them be ostracized for opting out? Would you be willing to pay your money to erect statues on public land, honoring an ideology that you see as toxic? Would you look on while your kids are being taught in public school about another religion’s teachings rather than spending that time learning real science, mathematics and critical thinking skills?
It’s almost more than I can believe that Christians in America can be so overwhelmingly represented by the legislative branch, have the highest trust and favorability rating, have their god represented in our courthouses, schools, libraries, in our pledge, motto, oaths, and currency and still say that their persecuted while keeping a straight face.
The bottom line is that people can only be free to practice their religion when they have the ability to be truly free from others, the perceived persecution of Christians and Christianity in this country is really just the backlash from a fight to stop and reverse the institutionalization of Christianity that we, a secular nation have allowed to continue for far too long.
- published: 07 Feb 2015
- views: 8803