schmendeler said:
AGC said:
So persecution must meet your personal arbitrary threshold to be considered valid? Because that's about all this highlights, other than perhaps your lack of empathy for other Christians.
if the persecution doesn't actually impact the free exercise of their religious beliefs, then I'd say it's fair to lack empathy when someone claims persecution.
Agreed. However, I don't think most people are crying persecution when companies feebly say Happy Holiday, especially when the word holiday means 'holy day' itself - not exclusive of Christmas obviously.
I think Christian persecution is happening in a slightly different, but related way to the happy holidays fiasco. According to your definition, persecution of Christians is happening here in the US, albeit slowly and gradually; maybe not in the strictly legal sense, but it is becoming less acceptable to voice Christian beliefs in a public platform, and therefore the free exercise of these beliefs are being impacted.
For example, the practicing Christians that believe gay marriage is not marriage, and that all abortion is murder are all but silenced on most public networks for fear from the producer of being labeled a 'bigot, anti-woman, misogynist, intolerant, hateful,' etc and losing viewers and followers. Another example of this intentional censorship of Christian beliefs is colleges across the country creating "safe-spaces" where students won't hear any speaker espouse Christian / conservative beliefs because they disagree with them. An even more surprising example of this is Catholic university DePaul not allowing pro-life posters to be hung up, while at the same time allowing Black Lives Matter material to be hung up around campus (
http://www.dailywire.com/news/10002/catholic-university-bans-unborn-lives-matter-amanda-prestigiacomo). Again, examples like this are not
completely restricting the free exercise of religious beliefs. However, like a drip in the bucket day after day, intentional efforts are being made by people to restrict the free exercise, censor, or otherwise demonize largely Christian-held beliefs. At the same time, you only need to partially impact the free exercise of a religious belief for it to be considered persecution. Definition of persecution: "a program or campaign to exterminate,
drive away, or subjugate people based on their membership in a religious, ethnic, social, or racial group:"
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/persecution?s=tIt may not be a physical / legal force driving Christians away, but socially it is happening more and more. To say Christian beliefs are being driven out of society in the public forum would be accurate.