ramblin_ag02 said:
The only place I've seen obvious "persecution" of Christians in my life is the public sphere when it comes to school prayer and the like. I grew up in a town that was small and rural and 99+% Christian. We had daily prayers all through elementary school over the intercom. Some point around middle school, a single atheist parent became upset about this and the entire thing shut down. Say what you like about laws and Constitution and the like, but a single family getting to dictate behavior to an entire community is ridiculous to me.
It was not just one atheist parent. It was many nonreligious parents and parents of other religions around the country, and it led to a supreme court case. And no one wanted to prohibit individual students from praying, it's the public endorsement of religion that is problematic. While it may seem annoying, there's not much defending that practice against constitutional scrutiny.
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The only other thing I've noticed, and I've complained about this before, is the completely legalistic and artificial distinction between religious and secular worldviews. Less than 20% of the country is LGBTQ+, but the US will fly that flag in embassies across the world. However, over 60% of the US is Christian, but the US would never fly the Christian flag from a government building. Public schools and government can actively promote Communism, fascism, racism, gender ideologies, and really any "secular" worldview without the immediate and harsh repercussions they would get from promoting Christianity.
Well, the USA shouldn't fly a Christian flag at government buildings because it would suggest an established religion. I also think it's dumb and virtue signal-y to do the same for gay pride flags.
I don't agree with the contention that public schools are actively "promoting" communism, fascism, gender ideology, or any ideology openly hostile toward religion. I think that is mostly fearmongering that comes from teachers doing their jobs and teaching about things that make people uncomfortable, such as the dark parts of US history, or teaching about communism and fascism in a historical (and present day) context. That's not the same as openly promoting these ideas.
And yes, I agree that teachers should not display pride flags or any political messages in the classroom. I don't think it's particularly common, but either way it's not appropriate.
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To address this coach, his experience is obviously very different from mine. He is black, has been in the athletics world his whole life, and is basically in an entertainment industry. If it's anything like Hollywood, then he probably noticed a lot of hostility towards traditional Christianity and Christian values. He's probably seen people get in trouble for advocating these, and he may have experienced that himself. If so, it would make perfect sense for him to say what he did. In his direct experience, he's probably seen a lot more overt and direct discrimination and persecution of Christians than against black people.
So I don't mean to be combative, but where exactly do people get the idea that there is hostility toward Christians in professional athletics? Athletes openly give thanks to God ALL THE TIME in postgame interviews. They pray before games. Some of them have crosses or bible verses tattooed on them. I've never heard of a player or coach getting in trouble for being open about their faith. I really am not buying this persecution argument.
