November 3, 1999
EDITORIAL:
Are U.S. Christians persecuted?
___Do you, as a Christian, feel persecuted for your faith?
___People in this country have been talking quite a bit about religious persecution of Christians. They point to several incidents, like the shootings at Wedgwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth, the Columbine High School massacre, zoning restrictions in various cities and the occasional hostile bumper sticker.
___An awful lot of the folks who bring up the subject are either politicians who want your vote or TV preachers who want your money. However, many American Christians feel persecuted. This especially has been true in the wake of the Columbine and Wedgwood incidents, where murderers apparently singled out Christians for assault. The pain caused by these hostile incidents is real and deep and palpable.
___Still, with all due respect, U.S. Christians who complain of religious persecution in this country sound quite a bit like someone with a runny nose complaining of suffering to a cancer victim.
___To be sure, the 20th century has yielded more martyrs than the sum of all martyrs in the previous 1900 years. But very few of them have lived in this country.
___Christians die for their faith practically every day. They have been sold into slavery and buried alive in Sudan. They have been raped and executed in Central America and the Balkans. They have been burned alive, beaten and stoned in India, Indonesia and the East Timor. They have been imprisoned and abandoned by their families in the Middle East. And in Northern Ireland, Christians have killed Christians, with Protestants and Catholics fire-bombing the daylights out of each other.
___This is true religious persecution. We must support the International Religious Freedom Act and encourage the U.S. government to take action against regimes in seven countries cited for curbing religious freedom. We also should encourage close monitoring of other countries whose civil rights records are abhorrent.
___In contrast, most Christian "persecution" in America looks pretty tame. While Wedgwood and Columbine involved Christians, the perpetrators were pathologically troubled individuals, not systematically structured movements. Beyond that, we hear about Christians who are mocked occasionally, others who are offended because they cannot post the Ten Commandments in government buildings and some who become frustrated when their congregations are not automatically exempted from regulations required of other institutions.
___Unfortunately, we can only expect the harangue of "persecution" to get worse. With an election year just months away, we will hear the loud cries of those who attempt to turn popular frustration into countable votes and dollars.
___The ongoing outcry is bothersome for at least three reasons.
___In the words of Dallas Morning News columnist Steve Blow: "This 'poor us' stuff makes Christians look like the biggest bunch of whiners. And what kind of witness is that?"
___Life is difficult. The insults occasionally felt by Christians, particularly the white, middle-class folks who complain the most, are no greater than the insults felt daily by other Americans who are put down for their race, ethnicity, gender and physical ability. We weaken our witness when we whine.
___Furthermore, we diminish our ability to be persevering role models, people who are admired for the way they live life winsomely. And that's what we're supposed to be about--winning some to Christ.
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___Maybe we're actually weaker because we don't know persecution.
___ --Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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