Persecution

"Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

"Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

-- Matthew 5:10-12

In many times and in many places, Christians have faced persecution because of their faith.

The United States in the early 21st century is not such a time and place. Right now, as you read this, people are suffering imprisonment, disenfranchisement and physical harm because they are Christians. None of these people live in the United States.

The United States is a liberal democracy with a Constitution that guarantees freedom of conscience. This makes it a haven against religious persecution for people of all faiths and of no faith. Christians in America enjoy rights and legal protections that Christians in other parts of the world -- China, North Korea, the Sudan -- can only dream of.

The United States is also a country whose culture is shaped by the mores and conventions of its overwhelmingly Christian majority. This culture makes it not only acceptable, but often popular and advantageous for Christians to be outspoken and public with their professions of faith. By culture and convention, Christians in America enjoy privileges and power that their coreligionists in other countries could never dream of. When or where in history was it ever easier to profess Christianity in whatever form you might choose?

And yet scarcely a day goes by, regardless of whether or not it is "Justice Sunday," in which some group of American Christians does not claim that they are facing "persecution."

They dare to use that word.

This is delusional, pathological. These people are insane. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ -- and the brothers and sisters of those Christians facing actual persecution in the world's forgotten corners -- but they are insane.

When protected, privileged and pampered American Christians claim to be facing persecution they spit on the wounds of their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world and in history who have known firsthand what religious persecution really is. They mock not only their fellow Christians in this great cloud of witnesses, but also those of other faiths who have suffered or are, now, today, suffering genuine persecution.

Such a person was recently interviewed on the PBS program "Now." He described both the real, physical suffering he experienced and how his faith in God gave him the strength to endure it:

... Nightmares come, because I stayed five days without food or water, with torture. I always have this feeling, like conscious dreams. Sometimes these scenes appear in front of my eyes, even while I am not asleep.

I put my faith in God. Our strength and our resistance come from our faith in God, especially a person who considers himself not guilty and he is the object of abuse and punishment. There were others who couldn't resist [the torture], and they gave up names of innocent people to trade for their release from prison. But God gave us the strength, and we believe in God. For a truly faithful man, God gives the person the great strength to be patient to endure the pain, abuse and insults that we were subjected to.

The man who described this persecution is named Haj Ali.

You may not recognize his name, but you've seen his picture.

Comments

[jim]

Excellent post.

I'm enjoying your blog.

[Sandals]

If enjoying is the word for this post...!

[Peatey]

Fred, I believe many are confusing prosecution for persecution. Allow me to use the words in a sentence: "Christians were prosecuted for persecuting homosexuals and abortionists."

[rob]

Wonderful post. Was this inspired by the recent interview with Pat Robertson, or is it just coincidental?

[R. Mildred]

He got a nice little rag on his head, and a free flowing skirt and he got to stand on a box with the fear of being electrocuted, what's the problem? There are children in afghanistani rape camps who would give their right legs (if a land mine hasn't blown them off already) for some of that frat hazing playfulness.

Now allowing tolerance and a hatred for bigotry to grow among our children, THAT's persecution, and must stopped immediatly, why next you'll be expecting the law to apply to senior members of The Partei, or coloured folk to eat in the same restaurants as white people, Where will it end!?

[Scott]

Make sure the persecuted Christian on your shopping list gets all the sympathy they deserve with our bright red 2-1/2" "Kiss Me, I'm Persecuted!" button.

http://www.misspoppy.com/catalog/xcart/customer/product.php?productid=16325&cat=257&page=1

[Chad]

They're just living up to their heritage. After all, the Puritans didn't so much leave England because they were persecuted as much as they left because they weren't allowed to persecute everyone else.

[Scott]

If you're persecuted, you close ranks around Your Strong Leader, hence the rhetoric about persecution from Strong Leader wanabees. It also proves that Satan is oh so worried about you and your power, and how right you are.

[Karmakin]

Bingo. One of the things that really hasn't popped up in the US about this stuff, but has in Canada, is the idea that the abisility to persecute and discriminate is a core part of the Christian religious tradition. That laws against discrimination for things like housing and employment literally are persecution against their beliefs. And that's the mainstream religious argument against things like gay marriage and discrimination laws. So that's mainstream.

[Thunder Jones]

Everybody knows it doesn't count if you persecute Muslims. They believe in the wrong god anyhow.

[Mike]

Jesus just called... he wants his name back.

[BrooklynRaider]

You know, there really is nothing worse than a bully with a persecution complex.

[RickinVa]

A young girl is slapped in the face by a bully...

An older woman is savagely beaten by her husband...

A college girl is raped by a drunken frat boy...

Each of these females have been abused to one degree or another, I think we'd all agree...

But if we adhered to the logic put forth by Fred and agreed to by the sycophantic bobble-heads who fail to think through what has been written, some of you would deny that all three of these females were abused...

Persecution can take place in varying degrees is my bottom line.

[bellatrys]

RickinVa, care to try to rephrase that in Coherent instead of Gibberese?

[Pere Ubu]

some of you would deny that all three of these females were abused...

Boy, those straw (wo)men are just so convenient, aren't they?

You know damn well that has nothing to do with the areguement being presented. The point is that our culture is saturated with so-called Christanity these days, and because it isn't dominant in the same way, oh, say, Communism was in the CCCP or Islam is in Saudi Arabia, certain folks like to whine about how they're being "persecuted". A better analogy would have been a spoiled upper-middle-class Beverly-Hills-type teen who cried "persecution" because she didn't make Honor Roll at school, regardless of her grades.

I realize imagining you're in the waning days of the Roman Empire, crawling thru catacombs and dodging legionnaires to keep the word of Jesus alive is just so exciting and romantic, but please spare the rest of us your masochistic obessions.

[RickinVa]

I realize imagining you're in the waning days of the Roman Empire, crawling thru catacombs and dodging legionnaires to keep the word of Jesus alive is just so exciting and romantic, but please spare the rest of us your masochistic obessions.

Interesting that masochistic can be defined so broadly on the one hand and persecution so narrowly in the same breath...

The bottom line (again) is that persecution isn't limited to dying or being "tortured" for the faith... the dictionary definition seems to be more "liberal" in giving form or meaning as to usage.

Once again we have those who are so damned quick to jump on let's-criticize-conservative-christians bandwagon that they fail to see the huge hole in the construct of their argument.

Much to do about nada...

Or typical liberalism...

[bobbie]

alright, so they might be persecuted - but it's not for their christianity, it's for being jack asses.

[Beth]

RickinVa (and others who have made similar arguments), why not give us a few examples of this not-torture-but-still-persecution that American Christians are suffering?

[Hysteria]

Okay, RickinVa, I have to confess I can't understand the point of your post.

First of all, calling someone a "sycophantic bobble-head" is really non-conducive to arguing, so let's dispense with that, alright?

Secondly, you're comparing apples to oranges. No one on this board is going to deny that these three scenarios you put forth are hideous. What you may not understand is that when you give these examples and then say that according to the post these women are not persecuted, you have committed a non sequitur.

The point Fred was getting to is that in America, being a persecuted Christian is pretty comfy, as compared to the days of ancient Rome, where Christians were killed for their beliefs. In America today, Christians are persecuted, but nothing like what is going on outside of the U.S.

In fact, we may have become, in our self-righteousness, what we most feared, which is very, very bad.

Hope this helped.

[Pere Ubu]

In America today, Christians are persecuted

To quote Mike Malloy, "Batsqueeze".

I agree with Beth. How precisely are Christians "persecuted" in this country? Put up or shut up.

[Darren]

A year or so ago, during a drive from Knoxville to Atlanta (a three-hour drive), I heard David Limbaugh talking on three different radio stations about his book, Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity. (That I deliberately tuned into at least three conservative radio stations is another story entirely.) Limbaugh is persecuted, and yet he is able to hock his book all over the "liberal" airwaves.

This self-righteous posturing might be the single most important reason that I can't seem to get out of bed on Sunday mornings.

[Stephen]

There have been times that I have been verbally abused for my faith, especially for the ways in which I publicly express my faith. It is certainly not on the level of physical torture, but perhaps we can consider it persecution.

Of course, it has only been done by people who consider themselves Christians and yet cannot accept a fellow Christian who is a Democrat and is committed to social justice and individual dignity.

Excellent post Fred. I disagree with Haj Ali's religion, perhaps even to the point of calling it "wrong." But his faith I cannot doubt or denigrate. I know that he will be rewarded for it.

[Andrew Cory]

Stephen,
It all depends on what you mean by “verbally abused”. If someone sort of sighs and asks “must you pray at every meal?”, you’re probably not being abused. If someone says “how in the name of all the gods can you possibly believe that all human beings are born intrinsically [good/evil]? That’s the most [asinine/blasphemous] idea of all time”-- probably not abuse...

If someone screams at you and says “Ah, you [pejorative] [member of your religious faith]”, that might be a very low-level amount of abuse...

If someone loudly calls for all members of your religious affiliation to be kept from serving in a public capacity, on the grounds that you cannot possibly be moral enough to do the job because of it, this is a little bit of persecution...

[howard]

"If someone loudly calls for all members of your religious affiliation to be kept from serving in a public capacity, on the grounds that you cannot possibly be moral enough to do the job because of it, this is a little bit of persecution..."

To loudly call for something isn't persecution in any classic sense, unless this call is a reflection of the prevailing policy.

And currently, the prevailing political climate in our country does not exactly persecute Christians, at least not in any institutional sense -- certainly not the way folks in other countries, and at other times throughout history, have been persecuted for it.

I'm just getting a little tired of this whiny version of Christianity (i.e. - "oh, woe is me, I'm persecuted because I can't dictate policy according to my personal beliefs"), mostly because it gives the non-whiny Christians such a bad name.

It'd be so nice to see Christians following Christ's example, instead of trying to dramatize their relatively tame plight in this society.

[Andrew Cory]

Howard,
As far as I know, no one is saying Christians cannot serve the public because of their religious believes. I was referring to people of my own religious believes…

And I’ll agree with your qualifier…

[Hysteria]

Alright, just what is persecution?

Here's the dictionary definition:
1. To oppress or harass with ill-treatment, especially because of race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or beliefs.
2. To annoy persistently; bother.

Note that words such as "oppress", "harass", "annoy persistently", and "bother" are all rather open-ended.

So I'd say that if someone says "Must you pray at each meal?" to someone whenever they do it, then yes, that is persecution.

Let's quantify, though, because I've already had one quote taken out of context, and I'd be really ticked if the same thing happened to another.

There is a DIFFERENCE between someone insulting you for believing in what you believe and someone torturing you for what you believe in or opressing you, with my definition of oppression in this case being "forcibly held down by those whose position disagrees with yours."

Is someone complaining that you pray persecution? Yes. Is somone constantly snarking at you that you are a weaker person because you believe in a higher power? Yes. You can claim these as persecution.

But when you look at what was being done to the poor souls in Abu Gharib, the kind of persecution seen in the U.S. pales in comparison.

And when you compare either of those to the people who say that they are persecuted because people believe in a right to privacy, because people do not think that people who are not ultra-conservative Christians should be wiped off the face of the earth, and that just maybe things like abortions are not the devil's tools, well...to put it politely, they might want to see what they can do about boosting their IQ into the single-digit range.

[galnoir]

I disagree with Haj Ali's religion, perhaps even to the point of calling it "wrong." But his faith I cannot doubt or denigrate. I know that he will be rewarded for it.

Iraq has a sizeable Christian minority; since nothing in the NOW interview specifies whether Haj Ali is Muslim or Christian, we should not necessarily assume that the God he prays to is not the Christian God (though I suspect it is not the God of Fred Phelps and Pat Robertson).

[Jon H]

Here's an example of religious persecution.

"The target of this passionate hatred was the Ahmadiyya community, sometimes called Ahmadis or Qadianis.

'They don't obey our prophet as the last prophet,' shouted one supporter.

'We'll force the government to ban them,' added the protester next to him.

Another vowed: "We'll continue our jihad against them, we'll continue our marches."

There are 100,000 members of the Ahmadiyya community in Bangladesh."

I don't think I've heard about George W. Bush, Rick Santorum, or Phyllis Schlafly being subjected to this sort of thing.

Actually, though, that language sounds more like the rhetoric used against gays by protesting "Christians".

[Sophist]

Is someone complaining that you pray persecution? Yes.

Really? Fine, I'll just put "persecution" right next to "hero" on my list of words that don't really mean anything any more.

[Beth]

Note that words such as "oppress", "harass", "annoy persistently", and "bother" are all rather open-ended.

Yes, a lot of words are like that. That's one of the reasons that we combine words into sentences and phrases. In combination, they can provide a clearer and more specific meaning than the individual words possess. The words "oppress" and "harass", for example occur in the first definition in combination with the phrase, "with ill-treatment." This phrase limits the scope of the "oppress" and "harass" to only those cases involving cruel or inhumane treatment. Please note as well, my use of the words "first definition." In English, as in most languages, one word can have more than one meaning. In dictionaries, numerals are used a the beginning of a line to communicate that a different meaning is being given. It seems clear that in the context of this post ("religious persecution") the first meaning is the one that applies.

So I'd say that if someone says "Must you pray at each meal?" to someone whenever they do it, then yes, that is persecution.

I assume you mean by this that the person who prays is being persecuted, but that's a pretty one-sided view. The praying person is annoyed or bothered by the complaints, but the complainer is probably equally annoyed or bothered by the prayers. So why is the one who prays being "persecuted," but not the one who complains? This one-sidedness is typical of complaints of "anti-Christian persecution." People complain that they're "persecuted" for not being allowed to pray in school without considering that their classmates may feel equally "persecuted" by having to listen to their prayers. They call it "persecution" when a Ten Commandments monument is not allowed in a courthouse, but if they were faced with a monument that said "There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet," then "persecuted" would seem like too weak a word for what they'd feel.

If you're being insulted in your school or workplace because of your religion to the point where it's difficult or uncomfortable to be there, it's not religious persecution, but you are being harrassed. If it's not something you can resolve on your own, you should definitely bring the matter to someone in authority. If, on the other hand, you're upset because people sometimes respond critically when you talk about your beliefs, well, welcome to the real world. If you feel you're being persecuted because of that sort of criticism, then there's another term you might want to look up in your dictionary: "persecution complex."

[Hysteria]

Fair enough...suppose we agree to disagree and leave it at that?

[Evan]

Hear hear.

[Evan]

Um, "hear hear" was for Beth, not Hysteria. (Not that I have any objection to agreeing to disagree, mind you.)

[Hysteria]

Fair enough, Evan. :)

Before I retire for the night, I'll ask one question for the board:

Is it even remotely possible to have different degrees of persecution? My position is that yes, it is quite possible. I think the difference comes in terminology.

Oh, and Beth...I'm quite familiar with how to use dictionaries. ;)

[Sandals]

Perhaps the 'credibility' springs from Militant Atheist Teenagers (who haven't really done enough thought on it to really decide, but i digress) who it must be admitted do put the screws on christians. But it's hardly persecution; I see this online (I am nearly certain it is virtually all 13-15 y/os) but rarely in a public context. (ie with other people around). They're libertarians likely as not.

[Dan Lewis]

I'm a Protestant in Utah, surrounded by Mormons day in and day out. When I meet someone new, they ask what Ward I'm in. Since I'm older and still at university, they ask where I went on my mission (the two-year tour most LDS men take at age 19 or later, come back from and finish school late because of). People at work talk about their church activities incessantly. It is hard not to feel dumb and out when you say "Oh, we're not Mormon" every time it comes up.

When I got here from Seattle three years ago, I'd never been a minority before either, being white and all. At first, I felt an almost uncontrollable need to argue, to defend myself; I had bad conversations with LDS people; I felt surrounded.

But that's not persecution.

[Davis X. Machina]

"Persecution" is a term of art.

For example, the law of asylum requires a 'well-founded fear of persecution':

...it is generally agreed that, in order to constitute "persecution" within the meaning of Article 1 A of the Geneva Convention, acts suffered or feared must:
be sufficiently serious, by their nature or their repetition:
either
constitute a basic attack on human rights, for example, life, freedom or physical integrity,
or, in the light of all the facts of the case,
manifestly preclude the person who has suffered them from continuing to live in his country of origin;

[eric]

I'd like to add closure to this discussion:

[eric]

But unfortunately a closing italics tag isn't doing it.

[Alice Venturi]

Great post! The sort of rant I wish I could write with half as much eloquence.

The particular sort of Christian who pisses and moans about being "persecuted" is, thankfully, a minority in the Christian community. Unfortunately, this minority all have very large mouths, and a tendency to hog the spotlight.

These sorts of Christians tend to measure their innate moral and spiritual worth by how much their leadership tells them they are being persecuted; the more perceived persecution, the more righteous they feel.

And what does this "persecution" consist of? It consists of not being allowed to impose their beliefs on everyone as they please. It consists of being told that their revisionist history is nonsense. It consists of being told "Get lost" when they proselytize. It consists of not being allowed to proselytize at all. Good heavens! how these poor people are persecuted! People aren't letting them do what they want to do! Waaaahhhh!

The majority of Christians aren't like this, for which, as a non-Christian, I am eternally grateful. If you look carefully at the ones who whine about "persecution", you will find that the majority of them subscribe to a very narrow definition of Christianity. These beliefs have generally been infiltrated with Reconstructionist/Dominionist theology, a pernicious, non-orthodox ideology. It says (among other things) that most of the Old Testament laws are still in effect, that the right sort of Christian must take control of the American government, that no area of life is beyond the Church's control.

Most of these people aren't familiar with the terms "reconstructionist" and "dominionist", and are puzzled if you call them such. They just believe whatever their preacher tells 'em. But you can bet that their preacher knows those terms.

[Matt]

Don't mind me, just trying to clean up all the italicizing that's going on in my browser.

[Anna in Cairo]

In case anyone cares, I note that someone upthread said it was not clear what religion the guy in the pic belonged to. Yes, it is. The guy in the hood in the picture is Muslim. Haj is a title meaning the person has been to Mecca. Ali is a specifically Muslim name in the Middle East; Arab Christians do not use it.

[bellatrys]

Here's an example of what the Christians I was raised as, think of as persecution.

It also includes being "forced" to violate your morals by renting rooms or providing services to fornicators or other sinners; being forced to be aware that there are people out there who disapprove of your beliefs and behaviors just as much as you disapprove of them; and not being able to force out of the public sphere everything and anything which gives you the pip, which you can with a little work rationalize not as a personal disapproval but an objective, mandatory religious one. (Including your daughter-in-law wearing jewelry, and your grandchildren going to visit the neighbors, q.v. Tartuffe.)

We really did think that "freedom of religion" only applied to us, even though we'd have declared otherwise, and made all the currently in vogue arguments about how constitutional separation of church and state didn't mean what the Secular Establishment now declared it to be, back when I was a theocon like this chap here (scroll down to TradicalRC) who says he would rather live in a Christian Theocracy than a Secular Democracy. (He just better hope when that happens that the co-worker he can't stand isn't beer buddies with someone in the Inquisition, is all I can say after reading Liebrich's book.)

[Stephen]

I don't know if anyone is reading anymore, but FWIW. . .

When I talked about persecution, I was trying to use a thing called "irony." I found it "ironic" that the only times I've ever experienced anything akin to persecution (not actual persecution, mind you), it was from fellow Christians who felt I wasn't Christian enough.

The only people in the USA who experienc persecution do so at the hands of conservative Christians.

[Merlin Missy]

Of course Christians are persecuted in the United States. After all, everyone knows Christians can't marry other Christians (except in one state but nobody recognizes Christian marriages anywhere else and it's not like those are real marriages anyway), can't adopt ot become foster parents after they truthfully answer the "Faith" question on the questionnaire, can be denied housing and jobs for being Christians, and are regularly the butt of jokes where practitioners of other religions (especially Jews) are portrayed as kind and giving. In many parts of the country, Christians are afraid of walking down the street because they know people will shout at them for being Christian. They don't dare walk into some bars, knowing that their conservative clothing or a slip in conversation might make them a target for "beat the Christian in the backroom." When a Christian commits an act of terrorism against an abortion clinic, Christians lock their doors in fear of retaliation by complete strangers. Doctors who practice and promote Natural Family Planning are listed on websites with "Wanted" posters and regularly receive death threats. Halloween and Beltaine are paid days off regardless of a person's faith; anyone who asks to take a vacation day for Christmas or Easter is grilled suspiciously by coworkers and managers. Schools for other faiths are everywhere; there are only one or two Catholic schools per state and they don't advertise after three were firebombed in one year. The ruling party and all three branches of government have dozens of people who have made public statements that Christians are destroying this country and that the practice of Christianity should be banned by the Constitution. Christians are barred from military service. Every Christian has a friend or relative who was killed or imprisoned during the last world war because they were Christian. When Christians complain about the treatment they receive, they're told to move to another state / country with their own kind. People regularly picket the funerals of Christians with signs that read "The nameless forces that randomly shaped the cosmos into an appealing pattern hate Christos!" The word "christian" is used as an independent adjective to describe something stupid and/or undesireable. Christian girls who ascribe to Paul's teaching that women must keep their heads covered when they pray are suspended from schools for violating the "no hats" policy. The only movie most people have even heard of that features Christianity is "The Faith," a horror film that shows teenaged girls praying for bad things to happen to their classmates and committing cannibalism (using a phrase made trendy by the movie: "Body and Blood of Christ"). Politicians regularly end statements with "And Allah bless America," and when called on it, they claim they mean all gods when they say Allah. "In YHWH We Trust" is written on our money. Teenagers who tell their parents they're interested in Christianity, or believe they might be Chrisrians, are told they're "going through a (rebellious) phase" and are often sent to counselling to "fix" them. The first response people often make when they hear someone's family member is a Christian is to say "I'm so sorry." Christian clubs at colleges don't advertise their meetings because atheists regularly show up and hand out copies of "On the Origen of Species."

Or you know, not.

[R. Mildred]

Or typical liberalism...

Well that's me persecuted, thanks a lot.

Oh yes, please look up the term white burden while you're praying to mammon for my ever lasting holy wallet

[McDuff]

Steven

If it helps any, I spotted the irony train whoosh past people's stops without letting them get on, but unfortunately failed to get here in time to let them know about it.

[Beth]

suppose we agree to disagree and leave it at that?

I'm afraid I can't do that. "Persecution" is not just a series of random syllables that anyone can attach whatever meaning they like to. It's a word, and an important one, one with a lot of emotional resonance. It conveys oppression, suffering, and injustice all in just three syllables. When you stretch it to the point that it gets drained of all meaning, our language is weaker for it. In the hands of theocons like the ones Bellatrys describes, it's meaning gets twisted around completely, so that people who are trying to prevent oppression are described as "persecuting" those who are trying to create it. It's a different process from the one Orwell described, but the results are very much the same.

I was trying to use a thing called "irony."

That's always a dangerous thing to do in blogsphere, Stephen. I've gotten into trouble attempting it myself. If it's any consolation, from where I was sitting, your meaning was pretty clear.

[Scorpio]

gainor --

"Haj" is a title given to Moslems who have made their pilgrimage to Mecca. Calling the man "Haj Ali" is a statement that he is Moslem, and likely devout. So yes, his religion is right there for you to see.

[Dave Lartigue]

That was awesome, Merlin Missy.