{"id":1297,"date":"2014-04-09T07:03:05","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T11:03:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/?p=1297"},"modified":"2014-04-10T09:24:15","modified_gmt":"2014-04-10T13:24:15","slug":"christians-persecuted-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2014\/04\/09\/christians-persecuted-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Christians Persecuted\u2026 In America?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christianoppressionpie\"<\/a>Look, I understand that in countries like China, Iraq, Egypt, or Israel, it is certainly possible and even probable that a Christian might be persecuted for his or her religious faith, but in America where 80% of the country is made up of Christians and roughly 95% of our government is made up of Christians (including the President), it is extremely unlikely. It is more likely that a Republican would be persecuted in Alabama than a Christian to be persecuted in the United States.<\/p>\n

That is why when I saw a story floating around the Facebook about a second-grade girl in North Carolina who had an assignment to write an essay on who impacted her life and was not allowed to write that essay on Jesus Christ, I was suspicious. For starters, we are talking about North Carolina here, not Vermont or California.<\/p>\n

Plus, we all know how many Christians (especially fundamentalists and \u201cnon-denominational\u201d Christians) have a persecution complex. Because they view Jesus as having been persecuted and the Bible claims that one of the signs of the End Times will be that Christians will be persecuted, they just can\u2019t get enough of the \u201cpersecuted card.\u201d In fact, many of these Christians seem to believe that not being allowed to shove their religion down everyone else\u2019s throat means that they are being persecuted just like Jesus was on the cross. The irony of course is that they are often the ones persecuting everyone else.<\/p>\n

I should also add that pretending Christians are being persecuted is a great way for Churches and ministries to raise money from the masses who have not yet learned that chain e-mails and anecdotal Facebook posts from strangers without citations are not reliable sources of information.<\/p>\n

The story seemed fishy to me, so I looked it up on Snopes<\/a>. I have found that Snopes is pretty good about debunking crap like this and sure enough this was crap. Not only is it flat out not true<\/a>, but because the \u201cstory\u201d gained so much attention, the Principal of the school issued an official statement. Here is an interesting part of that statement:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the student made it abundantly clear that she had never been forbidden to write about Jesus as her hero. As a matter, of fact, we congratulated the young lady on her courage, and encouraged her to continue through life with such a strong Christian faith.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not only did the school not persecute this girl, they \u201cencouraged<\/strong>\u201d her in her \u201cstrong Christian faith<\/strong>.\u201d I think that last part steps over the line a little bit. It isn\u2019t the school\u2019s job to encourage someone\u2019s faith. It is the school\u2019s job to teach their students the facts about reality. But it doesn\u2019t end there. The Principal ends the statement this way:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are a learning community that practices tolerance, where everyone is welcome, and Jesus Christ is still and will always be OUR HERO.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For the record, the Principal capitalized \u201cOur hero\u201d not me. In a school like this in which Jesus Christ is the \u201chero\u201d of the school, the likelihood of a Christian being persecuted is pretty much zero.<\/p>\n

Contrary to the Principal\u2019s view, I don\u2019t think it took any courage for this girl to parrot her parents to a crowd where everyone including the administration agreed with her. That\u2019s not courage. Courage would be if she wrote about how an atheist was her hero for helping her break away from religious belief. If she had done that, she really would be persecuted. But agreeing with the majority and the power structure? That isn\u2019t courage and no one is going to get persecuted for doing it.<\/p>\n

So here is a story of a girl living in a very Christian area where even the public school principal\u00a0encourages<\/strong> her strong faith and somehow Christians have turned the story around to say that she was persecuted for her very strong Christian faith. For the record, the girl is eight. How strong can her Christian faith really be? The sad part is that this young girl has been indoctrinated into her Christian faith by her parents and her entire community including her school. The real persecution here is on critical thinking and education.<\/p>\n

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