The War on Christianity
“Are U.S. Christians being persecuted — or just whiny?” asks Larry Eubanks, pastor of First Baptist Church of Frederick, Maryland, in an Ethics Daily op-ed. He contends that many of his fellow believers’ complaints of maltreatment are merely a smoke screen for their inability to take constructive criticism or their stubborn unwillingness to accept those of other creeds. Addressing these “whiners,” Eubanks accuses them of irrationally claiming persecution “when you are criticized, when someone disagrees with you and says so, or when you are prevented from using your religion to discriminate against others.”
“Some Christians equate not getting their own way in the political sphere with brutal and unjust persecution,” opines Adam Lee in The Guardian. He mocks American conservatives who cry foul “because they’re not getting their own way on same-sex marriage or the Obamacare contraception mandate,” labeling their claims “ridiculous and embarrassing” when compared to the “genuine persecution” of forced conversion and genocide that minority religious groups in other countries face.
Is this depiction accurate? Are American Christians nothing more than inflexible simpletons, unable to come to terms with a society outgrowing their comfort zone? Do they just need to grow up and learn to live with those who do not share their views? What about the Christian mandate to “love your enemies, and do good to them that hate you”?
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