American Christians, Liberals, Liberal Pet Groups, and Persecution
(This post has been edited and updated, especially towards the bottom, to add more commentary or links)
For about the past year, I have thinking about blogging about this topic but put it off until now.
I have seen liberal Christians, ex-Christians, left wing Non-Christians, and moderately conservative Christians complain or mock American Christians who claim that American Christians are being persecuted in the United States due to being Christian.
In the past, I’ve seen liberal Christian blogger RHE (Rachel Held Evans) comment on this subject on her blog, on her Twitter account, as well as the Liberal, quasi- Christian, Stephanie Drury bring this up on her (Link): “Stuff Christian Culture Likes” Facebook group from time to time (edit: see updated post about the hideous “Stuff Christian Culture Likes” Facebook group (link): here).
I’ve also seen moderately conservative Christians I am acquainted with discuss this in Tweets or on their blogs.
To reiterate a point I’ve made before, I do sometimes agree with SCCL’s Drury on some issues, and I even periodically Tweet her links to news stories I think she may want to share on her Twitter account or on her SCCL Facebook group.
However, I totally part ways with Drury on some topics – like this one.
The view of liberal Christians, ex-Christians, liberal Non-Christians, and even some moderately conservative Christians, is that American Christians are not under persecution in the U.S.A. for being Christian, or for practicing Christian beliefs.
I am not sure if the liberal or moderate conservative disagreement on this issue pertains to semantics (the terminology involved), or if they are actually blind and oblivious to the harassment that Christians, especially conservative, or traditional valued, Christians, face in American culture.
It is my position that American Christians do in fact face harassment – especially from the left wing – in the United States for being Christian, for wanting to practice their faith and carry it out in public, and for defending it in public.
If you are a liberal who objects to the term “persecution,” how about, instead, the words or phrases, “harassment,” “bullying,” “picking on,” “hounding,” or other terms?
I do not see American Christians getting a free pass in the United States to hold certain views or to practice their beliefs.
The left (and I’d include severe anti-theist atheists here, on this point, regardless of their political standing) insist that Christians keep their Christian faith walled off, private, and separate from all other areas of their lives.
Liberals, progressive Christians, and some atheists, do not want Christians to express their Christian faith or publicly live it out. They do not want Christians speaking out publicly in disagreement with liberal policies and view points (such as homosexual marriage, federal funding of birth control, and so forth).
Just as some conservative or moderate Christians mis-apply or misunderstand the Bible, so too do a lot of atheists, secular progressives, and progressive Christians (I wrote about that a little more (Link): here).
I do not claim to have all of the Bible completely and correctly figured out myself, but, I sure as hell am usually able to recognize when other people are getting the Bible wrong or mis-using it to further their agenda.
The fact is that some atheists, some secular liberals, and liberal Christians ignorantly mis-apply the Bible.
Take, for example, the Biblical text where Jesus Christ instructs his followers to pray in private rather than in public (which is mentioned in the Bible in Matthew 6:5-7).
Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of Non-Christians and liberal Christians, who have a huge bug up their asses about Christianity and Christians, who insist this Biblical passage is saying that all Christians should publicly S.T.F.U. (shut up) about their faith. However, that is not what Jesus was conveying in the passage.
Here is the relevant portion, where Jesus is speaking about public prayer:
And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. Truly I tell you, they already have their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your inner room, shut your door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen. And your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you
7 And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.… (Matthew 6: 5-7)
Jesus was instructing his followers not to make a false, fakey “show” out of their faith to receive accolades for it.
Jesus was not so much condemning a public expression of faith in and of itself as he was telling believers not to be hypocritical or egotistical about how or why they express their faith.
The motive of public shows of religious devotion on the part of the one engaging in it was the issue for Jesus here, not the act of public expression of faith itself.
In other words, Jesus was not against Christians praying in public per se or hanging crosses in public and so forth, so much as he was telling them if or when they do something like pray in public, do not do so to obtain favor or pats on the back from other believers.
The conservative Christian side sometimes mangles Biblical interpretation, but liberal Christians also mangle it as well.
Here I am going to paste in a portion from (Link): one of my older posts that I edited the other day, because it’s relevant for this post:
HYPOCRISY: LIBERALS WANT TO CLAIM PERSECUTION STATUS FOR LGBT & Other Favored Liberal Groups
Some time this past week or so, a liberal writer at left wing site “Buzz Feed” did a story saying that the Gaines couple, who host a home decor or renovation show on network HGTV, attend a church whose pastor is opposed to homosexual marriage.
From this, the Buzz Feed writer assumes that the Gaines couple must also be opposed to homosexual marriage as well, and tried to create controversy out of this – although up to the point of this writing (Dec 3, 2016), the media I’ve read say that the Gaines position on homosexual marriage is unknown, as the couple themselves have not stated publicly either way what their views are.
Only in the wacko world of myopic, rabid homosexual-behavior- or homosexual- marriage- supporting liberals, would a Christian couple allegedly not supporting homosexuality (either privately or publicly) be a pearl-clutching, deeply offensive affront (I posted about that more (Link): here, so I won’t rehash it to much here and now).
When liberal, LGBT-supporting Stephanie Drury mentioned this Gaines-Buzzfeed-HGTV story a time or two on her (Link): Facebook group, she prefaced one of the links she posted by saying, “Cue bemoaning persecution.”
In other words, she appears to be saying that…. if Christians quite understandably speak up about how unpleasant or unfair it is being hounded by liberals over holding to a centuries-old Christian sexual ethos (i.e., that homosexual behavior is immoral), the liberals start mocking them for this …that it is wrong for Christians to feel this way, to protest it, or view it as persecution.
As I was saying in my last post about this issue:
The Buzz Feed writer is on a quest to create controversy and stir up trouble where none exists, so all the LGBT supporters out there, such as Drury, can claim that homosexuals are being “persecuted” in the U.S.A or being denied their equal rights (cite example of that, please), which I don’t buy at all.
I find it hypocritical that liberals leer at Christians who claim Christians are being persecuted (or “picked on”) in the United States for being Christian, but then they turn right around every other day on their websites to complain that liberal pet groups, such as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transgender), are being “persecuted” by Republicans, Christians, or whomever else.
Pause here to reflect that the worst that may happen in the USA to a homosexual is that a Christian couple who owns a bakery may feel uncomfortable baking a cake for a homosexual wedding and will politely refuse, where-as, in areas of the Middle East, Islamist-based ISIS throws homosexuals to their deaths from rooftops for being homosexual.
To drive that point home, here are several links about it (I have more to say below this list of links):
(Link): Inside look at ISIS’ brutal persecution of gays
(Link): WATCH: ISIS Throws 2 ‘Gay Men’ Off Roof & Stones Them
(Link): Video: The Islamic State hurls accused gays off rooftops to screams of “Allahu akbar!”
(Link): Chilling new ISIS video shows ‘gay’ man being thrown off roof as another man is beheaded
(Link): Massive Crowd Watches as ISIS Hangs Homosexual By His Feet Then Tosses Him From a Building
(Link): Islamic State group targets gay men with brutal public killings
Before a crowd of men on a street in the Syrian city of Palmyra, the masked Islamic State group judge read out the sentence against the two men convicted of homosexuality: They would be thrown to their deaths from the roof of the nearby Wael Hotel.
He asked one of the men if he was satisfied with the sentence. Death, the judge told him, would help cleanse him of his sin.
—end article excerpt—
Which is true persecution: having problems getting a wedding cake baked by a person with religious convictions that don’t coincide with homosexuality, or being thrown to one’s death from a roof for being homosexual?
// ASIDE: The vast majority of self-professing Christians in the United States do not advocate for the killing of homosexuals for being homosexual.
I’ve seen maybe one or two Christian preachers pop up in the news the last two years – featured on liberal news sites – who say they believe homosexuals should be killed for being homosexual.
(As far as I am aware, neither of the preachers reported have literally murdered any homosexuals themselves or have tried to do so.)
The majority of Christians don’t feel that way and do not actually, literally push homosexuals off roof tops to their deaths for being homosexual.
Meanwhile, doing so is a recurrent phenomenon with Islamic extremists overseas.
But U.S. liberals continue to gripe about Christian bakers, florists, engravers, or photographers who express discomfort at providing their skills and talents for homosexual weddings and behave as though the Christian reluctance to perform such functions is all-out war and persecution of LGBT persons. //
I sometimes wonder why some homosexual couples wanting to get married are so darn insistent that their wedding cake be baked by a Christian baker, rather, than say, an atheist baker, or another homosexual baker?
How about trying a Muslim baker? Why do these guys seem to seek out Christian bakers?
(Link): Video puts Muslim bakeries, florists in gay-rights spotlight
April 2015:
The video showing Muslim bakers in Michigan reluctant to bake a cake for a gay wedding went viral last weekend, snaring more than 2.2 million views in three days and igniting debate over whether Christian business owners are being singled out for lawsuits, complaints and media focus.
FEMINISM, LIBERALS, AMERICANS, PERSECUTION OF WOMEN
I have seen liberal feminists get angry when an American conservative tells them to quiet down about sexism in the United States and to shut up about “micro-aggressions” against women in the United States, when being “micro-aggressed” against in the United States is hardly as serious or deadly as the type of sexism women in other parts of the world face.
For example, gang rape of women by men is pretty common in India. Muslim men regularly throw acid in the faces of Muslim women in Islamic countries.
Conservatives will point to acid being thrown in women’s faces by men as being TRUE persecution, while telling liberals that women being sexually harassed in the United States (such as, but not limited to, American women being “cat called” by men on city streets, not receiving equal pay for equal work, not having birth control federally funded, etc) is not “actual” persecution as liberals depict it as being.
This infuriates your average liberal.
I’ve seen some liberal feminists argue in response, well, yes, it’s more harmful or a more serious form of misogyny for a man to toss acid into a woman’s face than it is for a woman to be cat-called on an American city street, but both forms of mistreatment are immoral, sexist, and wrong and should be stopped.
Why are so many left wing feminists willing to regard lesser expression of sexism (such as cat-calling) against women in the United States as being a form of persecution, but not willing to concede that the same level of mistreatment of Christians over their faith (reluctance to bake cakes for homosexual weddings) is also persecution? It is a double standard.
Liberals, please stop equating American sexism (such as cat calling, no women appearing on political or university talk panels, federal govt. not funding birth control, etc ) to be a form of persecution against women – which many liberals do indeed do….
If you’re not willing to concede that Christians being mocked, ridiculed, harassed, or sued out of business for not wanting to provide their skills to homosexual weddings is also a form of persecution.
Remember, it was Hillary-Clinton loving and-or Donald-Trump loathing Liberals who needed THERAPY DOGS, “cry-ins,” and coloring books, to deal with the results of the 2016 American Presidential election.
Liberals were behaving as though the results of an election were “persecution,” when it was no such thing.
As such, I don’t think liberals have much of a standing to ridicule Christians who say they are being persecuted.
I have more comments below these links:
(Link): Post-Trump Liberal Meltdown: Counseling, Cry-ins, Therapy Dogs and Poetry
(Link): Ohio State Student After Attack: ‘The Left Is More Scared of Trump Than of ISIS’
(Link): Scenes from the liberal meltdown
(Link): Colleges Try to Comfort Students Upset by Trump Victory
(Link): Despondent Democrats Bring “Therapy Dogs” to Capitol Hill After Trump Victory
(Link): U. of Michigan Gives Students Play-Doh, Coloring Books to Cope With Trump
(Link): Yale professor lets students skip test in wake of Trump victory
I note that Liberals want every one to view American women and American homosexuals as being ‘persecution’ victims, but they scoff if and when Christians point out they also are on the receiving end of the same sort of “micro-aggressions” from liberals over their Christian faith.
Women and Homosexuals and other favored liberal groups are not the only people in the United States who are “micro-aggressed” against. (Not that liberals actually give a damn about women, as I’ve (Link): written about before.)
Christians are not always receiving “privilege” for being Christian in the U.S.A. but are sometimes singled out, discriminated against, or lose their livelihood precisely for being Christian.
This is reality, not hyped-up paranoia on the part of Christians, but the left wingers keep gas-lighting Christian victims into thinking no, liberals and LGBT groups are not out to get Christians over living out their faith – oh yes, yes they are.
Related commentary:
(Link): Transgender Activists Put Women At Risk, And It Affected The Election – Dec 2016
[Comment]
We Americans are by and large a live and let live people. When gay rights was about keeping the government and employers out of peoples private lives there was broad support.
Then on the heels of those victories it suddenly became about forcing Evangelical florists, bakers, photographers, etc., to choose between violating their conscious by actively participating in gay marriages or going out of business.
This was immediately followed by insisting that reasonable accommodations for the transgendered weren’t enough. Society at large has to suddenly proclaim that sex is no longer based on Biology or risk a governmental smack-down. Couple this with a lousy economy outside of urban centers, and you have a recipe for the revolt you just saw.
…The Bullying Tactics Of Transgender Activists [this can also be applied to Homosexual advocates]
There’s a swath of unsavory and perhaps illegal tactics used in the service of sexual and gender identity. Activists conduct witch hunts, and have blacklists with names culled illegally from IRS. Recall Brendan Eich.
Last week, BuzzFeed did an out-the-Christians hit piece—of HGTV’s “Fixer Upper” stars Chip and Joanna Gaines for theirmaybe maybe not religious beliefs. National sexual and gender identity organizations have blacklists of people often based on religious affiliations. They post these publicly on the internet and share these with federal and state agencies.
And it gets worse. Transgender activists have sent threats of violence and death to women, academics, researchers, feminists, and rape survivors, and pressed false charges.
People are realizing how political correctness silences, shames, and bullies. Sexual and gender identity politics amplifies an authoritarianism and caste system based on people’s feelings, with higher castes—the shamers and cry bullies—controlling the discourse.
Often, the goal of this is not just to silence but to isolate people from each other: from their jobs, their businesses, their families. “Get you fired,” “you will pay for this,” “good luck being bankrupt,” “kiss your business goodbye,” and “how can you family stand you”?
Edit. And as of now, in January 2017, “Stuff Christian Culture Likes” group moderator and host, Drury is at it again – website WND published this:
(Link): U.S. ON LIST OF CHRISTIAN-PERSECUTING NATIONS
‘Trend is extremely worrying in country that has long held ideal of religious liberty’
Drury took it upon herself to link to that WND article in her “Stuff Christian Culture Likes” group (Link): here, so her liberal buddies, Christian mal-contents, or ex-Christian visitors could mock the concept.
Drury and the people at her group are generally blind of their own biases against Christians and Christianity, which I again find ironic, as this is the same group that gets upset over things like Christian business owners hesitating or refusing to provide their services for homosexual weddings.
Instead, these Christian business owners are sometimes sued or harassed out of business all for not wanting to provide their services or skills for homosexual marriages (such as photography, cake baking, or flower arranging).
(A time or two on her SCCL Facebook group, I have seen Drury happily post links to news articles about Christians being sued out of business over refusal to provide services for homosexual weddings; she rejoices over this. She thinks it’s great. I find it very chilling and creepy she thinks it’s peachy keen.)
I hate to break it to the people at SCCL, but homosexuals and other pet liberal groups are not the only ones who experience “Micro-aggressions” in culture – because Christians and conservatives face micro-aggressions (and harassment) as well, especially from liberals, just like the ones in SCCL.
And, in the meantime, some Muslims, who are a pet group of Liberals, continue to throw acid in the faces of women in Muslim nations, to participate in honor killings of female rape victims, and, in Iraq, to push homosexual men to their deaths for being homosexual.
(This post has been edited several times to add new links and so on)
Relevant links (off site):
(Link): The Liberal Media’s Anti-Christian Witch Hunt of Chip and Joanna Gaines
Bullying Christians may be a favorite strategy of the left—but it’s not necessarily an effective one.
(Link): Bake Us A Cake, Or Else!
(Link): Christian Artists Could Be Fined, Jailed for Refusing to Make Same-Sex Wedding Invitations
(Link): Washington State Sues Florist Who Refused Flowers for Same-Sex Wedding
Some gay marriage supporters oppose state attorney general’s lawsuit.
(Link): Video puts Muslim bakeries, florists in gay-rights spotlight
(Link): BuzzFeed’s hit piece on Chip and Joanna Gaines is dangerous (written by a homosexual guy who is apparently a left winger)
(Link): Gay Writer Rips BuzzFeed for ‘Dangerous’ Anti-Christian ‘Hit Piece’
(Link): Christian Baker Forced To Bake Gay Wedding Cakes Or Make No Wedding Cakes At All
(Link): “Castro is a hero to the international Left — but he brutalized gay Cubans for decades.”
(Link): Keith Ellison’s Imam: Homosexuality Is ‘Not What God Intended’. Will @BuzzFeedBen “investigate”?
(Link): Former Oregon bakery owners must pay $135,000 for denying lesbians wedding cake
(Link): Meet the New Victims of So-Called ‘Marriage Equality’
(Link): CNN liberal EQUATES Christians to gay-murdering ISIS supporter, why not?
(Link): Hypocrite Liberals Silent on Muslims Murder of Gays While Christian Cakes Raise Their Fury
Excerpt:
Here is a fact: liberals and militant gays hate Christians more than they hate actual, real oppression of gays. This isn’t hyperbole, it is a foregone conclusion in light of the jihad that gays have launched for Christian bakeries while at the same time utterly ignoring the near daily murdering of gays in the Muslim world.
Take the newest outrage, for instance. In ISIS controlled territories Islamists are going undercover as gays in order to identify gays to be murdered later. The story from (Link): International Business Times
“ISIS is carrying out sting operations,” the news read, “in which jihadists pose as gay men. There have been instances, where families have even paid ransoms to prevent ISIS from stoning the arrested gay men, said Abu Mohammad of RBSS.”
Related Posts, this blog:
(Link): Liberal Identity Politics, Transgenderism, & Disregarding the Safety of Hetero Cisgender Women
(Link): Black Man Shoots, Kills Two Homosexual Men and One Transwoman Because Of Their Sexuality
(Link): Stuff that Stuff Christian Culture Likes Facebook Group Likes
(Link): Liberals Bully Porn Actress Online For Refusing to Film Sex Scenes With Homosexual Actors
(Link): Pew Report: Religion Plummeted During Obama Era
In the rollout of the report, Obama-appointed chairman, Martin R. Castro, stated that religious liberty was simply a justification for bigotry, prejudice and discrimination.
(Link): How Feminists Are Making Women Easier Rape Targets
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” data-lang=”en”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Christian Artists Could Be Fined, Jailed for Refusing to Make Same-Sex Wedding Invitations <a href=”https://t.co/GqvsYtaGNo”>https://t.co/GqvsYtaGNo</a></p>— Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href=”https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/805192392538136576″>December 3, 2016</a></blockquote>
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