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Forums - General Discussion - How to tell when you are being persecuted.

A lot of Christians have a weird thing about persecution.  I guess cause Jesus was so persecuted in the bible, they want to be persecuted, or they think that being persecuted is a sign that god really loves them because blessed are those who are persecuted and all that. 

And hey, if some Christians want to be persecuted that's fine.  But I'm a big fan of proper vocabulary and word choice, so let's be clear on the terminology.

Being persecuted means you are being treated unfairly due to your beliefs, or some other trait.  It means you are being stripped of rights, threatened with physical harm, actually subjected to physical harm, or otherwise punished due to your beliefs or some trait.  Here are some examples of persecution...

1)  Isis beheading Christians and others in the middle East.

2) Forcing Christianity on Native American children.

3) Slavery.

4)  Murder of dissenters in Soviet Russia.

5)  McCarthyism in America.


Christians (again some not all disclaimer) often seem to think that not being granted extra special rights is a form of persecution.  Not only do they need to be able to live by the rules of their religion, practice their religion freely, and express their religion freely, they also need to have the extra special right to make people around them support their religion.  Here are some examples of not persecution.

1)  People questioning your religion-  People disagreeing with Christianity, even if they're a dick about it, is not persecution.  Christians do not have the right to deny others their freedom of speech because it might hurt their feelings.

2) Not having the right to persecute others-   Many Christians believe they should be able to persecute others.  By, for example, preventing them from using healthcare for contraception, not allowing women the control their bodies, not allowing others to exercise civil rights like the right to get married, etc.  Not being allowed to limit the rights of others (i.e. persecution) is not persecution.

3) Not being allowed to control the education of others-  Another belief is that the public education should not be allowed to teach things that go against their religion.  For example teaching about contraception or about homosexuality.  They further believe that public schools should be required to teach Christian beliefs like creationism.  When the government says that your beliefs should not be taught in school, that is not persecution.  

 

So that's just some clarification.  If you're living in the Western World, the odds are that you are not being persecuted.  If you think you are, you're probably not.  But, if you really want to be persecuted, you could probably find other places that would be willing to accomodate you.



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Can't wait for churches being persecuted by losing their tax exempt status.



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Just wait for Fox News. I'm sure there is another War on Christmas incoming.  They fight a lot of wars between the War on Easter and Christmas.  The funny thing is that the real enemy of these holidays is the commercialization of them.  Not sure if Fox wants to fight big business.



sethnintendo said:

Just wait for Fox News. I'm sure there is another War on Christmas incoming.  They fight a lot of wars between the War on Easter and Christmas.  The funny thing is that the real enemy of these holidays is the commercialization of them.  Not sure if Fox wants to fight big business.


One day those poor oppressed people will escape the tyranny of happy holidays.



i feel like my right to have stupidly ignorant views is being presecuted by this intelligently written OP.



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padib said:
So christians disagreeing with homosexuality is not persecution.

I'm glad we can at last agree.

Of course not.  Christians are free to disagree with anything they want.  They are not allowed to deny the rights of homosexuals due to that belief.