If They Persecuted Me…

By: American Decency Staff

"…Animosity toward Christians involves racial, educational, and economic factors; the people most likely to hold negative views of conservative Christians also belong to demographic groups with high levels of social power. Rich, white, educated Americans are major influencers in media, academia, business, and government, and these are the people most likely to have a distaste for conservative Christians."

Sociologist George Yancey studies how race and religion affect society and he made this poignant observation after studying a survey by American National Election Studies.

Yancey followed up with a survey of 4,000 people who fall into that demographic.

'Their attitudes reflected the negativity toward Christians found in earlier research, with some particularly extreme and troubling remarks. Responding to open-ended questions, they said:

“Churches and houses of religion should be designated as nuclear test zones.”

“Kill them all, let their god sort them out.”

“The only good Christian is a dead Christian.”

I cannot determine by my data the percentage of Americans with such a level of vitriol, but judging by the comments, it’s not a trivial amount.

In the United States, hateful bigotry is directed not only toward groups such as racial and sexual minorities, but also toward conservative Christians. The survey comments evidence that some of the anti-Christian animosity veers into unreasonable hatred and fear. It’s Christianophobia."

We could add a few more examples from the reviews of our Facebook page:

"Get f***ed"

"ADA = American Taliban"

"One building for all those white trash folks to congregate.fish in a barrel."

We need to get used to this idea: Christians are not loved by American culture.

As if we needed reminding, this past week's news cycle on Indiana was even further proof.

One Midwest governor tries to take a stand for religious freedom and all Hell breaks loose.

One Christian-owned Indiana pizza shop says they wouldn't cater a hypothetical gay wedding and they're forced to close their doors and lock themselves in their house for their own safety.

Our deepest held beliefs are officially less important than others' sexual urges.

It is easy to feel victimized after reading what others think of us, yet this week's news also reminds us we don't have it so bad.

After all, we could be Christians in Kenya, where radical Muslim terrorists stormed a University, separated the Muslims from the non-Muslims (many of whom were Christians), and killed 147 of our fellow believers.

"If you were a Christian you were shot on the spot," one student said.

It's been a bad week for Christians in the United States, but it could be much worse.

And what a perfect ending to that week! As we've seen the signs of our religious rights narrowing, we can be reminded this Easter that it's all worth it.

Our Kenyan brothers and sisters remind us with the Apostle John to, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."

This Easter, we can remember that Christ suffered much more for us than we ever could for Him. His death and resurrection were all for the glorious purpose of restoring His creation to the way it was meant to be.

Jesus says, "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you."

We've had only a taste of that persecution here in the US, and our brothers and sisters around the world have experienced much worse, but Easter reminds us that it all works out in the end.

“I came, I saw, I conquered,” is a line which will be quoted to the end of time. Such is the life of our Lord Jesus, from the cross onward.
~ C.H.Spurgeon

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