Refuting The Christian Right’s Claim Of Religious Persecution

This week has seen the re-ignition of conflict between the Christian Right and the growing secular movement in the United States. Marco Rubio, in an interview with CBN, warned of Christianity becoming “hate speech” in the future, employing the same rhetoric as many before him.

Photo courtesy of sampaikini.com

Sean Hannity commented on it by verbally beating the crap out of an atheist with a panel of fundamentalist Christians, employing the same rhetoric. While newsworthy, this is, in essence, the same story that has been painfully covered over and over again for years.

The Christian Right has created headlines with the idea that secularism is “waging war” on Christianity and those of the Christian faith. Some on the secular side have used the same phrasing to describe Christianity’s responses to the movement. Ultimately, these are both merely perceptive ideas.

Consider, for example, any actual war that has taken place over the course of human history. For the sake of simplicity, let’s use World War II. The Allies rationalized the conflict by saying the Axis went to war with them, while the Axis said the Allies went to war with them. It’s typical human behavior — never the transgressor, merely the one transgressed upon.

However, in a social conflict like zealous Christianity vs. secularism, there is absolute legitimacy to the claim that zealous Christianity is the extreme aggressor in this conflict. Christianity has been given a pass for most of our history, despite the separation of church and state. Religious idolatry has made its way onto currency, into classroom indoctrination rituals, into federally-recognized holidays, and into courts of law, as well as other places where its presence should be viewed skeptically and measures should be taken to remove it. While the Constitution forbids the establishment of theocratic systems in the American government, such theocratic systems intermittently exist, thanks to the exceptions Christianity has been given in this country.

It makes sense for the rise of secularism to be a hot-button issue. It makes sense for the rise of secularism to be something Christianity vehemently opposes. The rise of secularism is a threat to the faith’s established supremacy over American culture.

But, that supremacy has come at a cost. Christian influence, at one time, justified?the slavery of Africans and now justifies LGBTQ Americans as second-class citizens. Christian influence, at one time, justified the systematic extermination and removal of American Indians and now justifies the systematic discrimination against non-believers. Christian influence has historically undermined the very principles on which America was founded and currently rejects the modern version of the intellectual revolution that founded it.

There seems to be some legitimacy to the idea that evangelical Christianity and secularism and theocratic governments and democracies cannot coexist. This is the reason why religion should not be governmental. Ultimately, secularism and democracy provides a broader social benefit than evangelical religion and theocracies.

This is, unfortunately, something the Christian Right does not understand, nor do they even want to. To them, the idea that their principles are worse for the social environment than the opposite, is, in their black-or-white thinking, an assault upon their livelihoods, an infringement upon their beliefs, and a violation of their individual sovereignty. Since black-or-white thinking greatly influences persecutory delusions, this idea automatically means, to the Christian Right, that Christianity will become “hate speech” or that Christianity is “under attack” or that Christians are losing “religious freedom” or that deviations from Christian sincerity will destroy the nation.

In some cases, these persecutory delusions manifest in violence toward the public, such as the bombing at the 1996 Olympics or the murder of George Tiller, and in its own twisted way, Christianity somehow ends up sympathetic in the wake.

It is no coincidence that religious zealotry and jingoism are commonly seen linked at the breast. It is identical to the Islamic extremism to which Christianity is so vehemently opposed. It really is the pot calling the kettle black. In our culture, an act of violence committed in the name of God condemns the perpetrator only and never the institution, but when jihadists kill 3,000 people with airplanes or open fire on a rally meant to deliberately offend them, the entire Muslim faith must be abolished.

At the end of the day, this is the Christian Right. A group of hypocritical religious fanatics bent on imposing their will on everyone, believers or not. Fortunately, it seems 23% of the American population is starting to figure that out.

 

Robert could go on about how he was raised by honey badgers in the Texas Hill Country, or how he was elected to the Texas state legislature as a 19-year-old wunderkind, or how he won 219 consecutive games of Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots against Hugh Grant, but those would be lies. However, Robert does hail from Lewisville, Texas, having been transplanted from Fort Worth at a young age. Robert is a college student and focuses his studies on philosophical dilemmas involving morality, which he feels makes him very qualified to write about politicians. Reading the Bible turned Robert into an atheist, a combative disposition toward greed turned him into a humanist, and the fact he has not lost a game of Madden football in over a decade means you can call him "Zeus." If you would like to be his friend, you can send him a Facebook request or follow his ramblings on Twitter. For additional content that may not make it to Liberal America, Robert's internet tavern, The Zephyr Lounge, is always open