LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

In this post, ginmar talks about the Christian persecution complex, and how it is becoming a bludgeon to spread the beliefs of a minority into the majority mainstream. Warning- Ginmar uses pithy and strong language, but she definitely gets the point across.

You know, for everyone who says that Christians are persecuted, I want you to go read crevette's rant on the subject. A Christian judge has decided that he doesn't like what religion a couple are practicing, so he ordered them to stop. Why? It wasn't a bone of contention in the marriage: the couple are pagans, and while they're divorcing, that wasn't a source of discontent. To them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can see the arguments now. But they're sending the kid to Catholic school.

Yeah, Catholic school may be the only option, like Catholic hospitals are the only option for a lot of women.

Pay close attention. That is persecution. When somebody you don't even FUCKING KNOW can step into your life and tell you you have to live by their rules, then, yes, class, THEN YOU ARE BEING PERSECUTED. Do I need to spell it out any more?!

If you're can't stomp right into someone's house and tell them to stop fucking, then YOU are not being persecuted, kids. You're the one doing the persecuting. See my post from yesterday. If you get taught that everyone has to bow and scrape before you and compliment on how good your ass tastes while they're kissing it, the sudden end of those practices is not persecution. It's called reality. Furthermore, when the people who've had to kiss your ass suddenly realize they don't need to do that any more, that is not persecution, either. When they start kicking your ass, that is not persecution, either. It might be karma, but it's not persecution. Just because it feels unpleasant doesn't mean it's unjustified.

The hypocrisy of these people is just astounding. "We have a long history of being persecuted."

"Are you sure you're not confusing that with prosecution?"

Yeah, there's something stirring about the All-American story here: Christians come to America to flee religious persecution. Then they inflict it on other people.

We live in a country where Christianity is the majority religion, and where it's getting really really hard to separate so-called mainstream religion from the wingnuts. In this case, a conservative religious council called this judge on his wingnuttery, but that's not enough. If you're wasting your breath telling me that Christians really are being persecuted in this country---despite the pesky fact that they're kind of like white men in the amount of power they hold-----then guess what? That's the wrong answer. Every word you waste bitching about this so-called persecution is a word not spoken to combat this bigotry. Because that's exactly what it is.

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Once you get the power or the delusion necessary to reach into someone's life, you've stopped being able to lay claim to being persecuted. You're not being persecuted when that someone tells you you don't have that right, but somebody needs to tell these wingnuts this.

In eighty five percent of US counties, a woman cannot obtain an abortion. In twelve US states, women have been prevented from buying birth control pills by Christian pharmacists, because it offends their religion.

You know, it's really funny. I've been hit on by some women, but they've never once tried to force me to marry one of them. I've had a couple pregnancy scares, but nobody from Planned Parenthood picketed my work, followed me home, or called me a baby factory or something. Nobody pagan has ever tried to force their religion on me on the street, on my front doorstep--despite the nifty sign!---or do away with all the birth control and abortion providers. As a matter of fact, I can't recall a pagan person ever embracing the idea of killing to get their way.

But for Christians, the idea that they're being persecuted and that they're deprived of the power they're entitled to is very popular. Why wouldn't it? It's like these people that claim that men are really secretly more victimized that women. (Significantly, actual male victims never make this claim. It's the people who use that pain for their gain---and then don't even help them!---that I'm referring to.) Once you're a victim--and a new and really different victim---the morals problem shifts. If you're a victim, you have less responsibility. There's a reluctance to kick somebody when they're down that kicks in. Well, at least if you're a victim that doesn't remind people uncomfortably of themselves. A lot of people don't actually sympathize with rape victims, battered women, or gays, because either actual victims, well----who wants the real life version? People want Hollywood victims, not the kind that have had the fight kicked out of them. People don't want to help those real actual victims. People don't want to help at all. They want to watch people fight it out and they'll hitch their star to the guy who wins, who quips, who looks good.

Victims don't often do that.

Everybody wants to be a victim---except the people who've been victimized.

Having been persecuted and victimized by people who think that they are 'victims', all I can say to this is "Amen!"

Oh, and can I get my Bible Scholars here to look up the NT (and any OT) verses that warn that Christians might be persecuted? I like to get the 'source documents' of certain behavior. Thanks.