A common refrain heard from many conservative evangelical Christians is that Christianity is being persecuted in America. Somehow, despite all the political power and influence they have, they are still managing to be oppressed. How can they possibly think this?

At Daily Kos, Irish Witch writes about a conversation she had with someone who insisted that Christians were being persecuted and losing their basic rights in America. After explaining the facts to her:

Alexis began to get a glimmer of understanding. Christians had been permitted to do things that were unconstitutional. All the courts were doing was leveling the playing field, and treating ALL religions precisely the same. The rights she saw as being taken away from Christians were rights they never really had. Non-Christians weren’t trying to persecute Christians or demanding “special rights” (whatever that means’ but merely asking that they be treated the same as Christians. Since the justices intelligently realized that there is no such thing as a non-denominational prayer that will not offend anyone’s religious beliefs (including atheists who have the same rights as believers to their lack of belief), schools cannot require mandatory unison prayers. Another solid reason for not permitting them is that while students whose religious beliefs differ substantially from the majority could simply ask to be excused, this marks them as ‘different’ and sets them up to be bullied, something that has happened to Wiccan kids several times (google Tempest Smith for a particularly sad example). [...]

When Christians talk about hatred for Christians and being persecuted, it is a sincere position and must be respected. They see a world changing fast, moving away from the traditional values they grew up with and which they cherish. This is a very difficult time in history, and many people don’t cope well with diversity. The anger we hear on these issues often stems from fear that they will be overwhelmed by these changes. With rare exceptions (the Christian Reconstructionists, who want a Biblical theocracy to replace the constitution) most just don’t know the facts of history and have never had the legalities explained clearly. Our schools do a miserable job when it comes to teaching history and the constitution.

I hope I’m not sounding condescending here. I’m trying not to. I am not singling out Christians or trying to paint them as dumb or uninformed. It’s just that in all the years I have posted on the Net in forums, it is almost always conservative Christians who see themselves as persecuted or hated, and who really don’t know why things have changed so much in a few decades. From their point of view they have lost something very precious, and their resentment and anger is perfectly understandable--and until we acknowledge that, dialogue isn’t possible, and the culture wars will continue to rage. And that hurts all of us in the long run.

Irish Witch is certainly right that, from their perspective, they are losing something important. The exact same thing was true when whites were forced to accept blacks as equals and give up their race-based privileged. The same was also true when men were forced to accept women as equal and give up their gender-based privileges. We aren’t seeing something novel and bizarre in America; sadly, it’s a story that has been repeated far too often.

Irish Witch is, however, a bit too optimistic I believe because she seems to think that people will change somewhat once the facts are presented to them.I’m sure that is true in some cases, like the one she experienced, but I’m not at all hopeful that it is true in most cases. Once again, as was true with so many whites and with so many men, there are too many people who may talk about the importance of equally in the abstract, but aren’t willing to accept it in practice.

Learning that they were unjustly privileged won’t cause a change of heart because that’s exactly what they want. Further use of the rhetoric about equality may not be sincere anymore, but that won’t necessarily stop them. There have been and still are men who sincerely believe that they should have more privileges than women because they are superior to women. There are and have been whites who sincerely believe that they should have more privileges than other races because theirs is the superior race.

And, finally, there are and have been Christians who sincerely believe that they should have more privileges than members of other religions because theirs is a superior faith. They may sometimes mask this by saying that they are due extra privileges because America was founded as a Christian Nation, but I think that feelings of superiority are ultimately the driving force — the idea that America was founded on Christian principles is simply an example of how Christians are superior, not an independent and separate issue.

 

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