Christians in America, you aren’t persecuted…

.. so get over it.

I’m constantly annoyed when I hear Christians in America talk about persecuted for their beliefs. The Pastor who must not be named whines about it constantly as well as most of the evangelical Christian world, of which I’m apart. We hear of “evil” atheists degrading Christians or that we are not getting “equal” time.

Does that stuff happen here? Sure, it probably does. Everyone acts according their bias and sometimes, that means being prejudice against things we don’t believe or that might be strange to us. We all say and do dumb stuff towards people who are different than us.

But, do you we really want to call that persecution? First, if you are going to step into the ring with atheists, you gotta put your big boy/girl pants on. If you are going to stage something in public, you have to have a thick skin because you are guranteed to have critics. I was reading Blag Hag and the way Christians reacted to Jen’s words about their Porn and Popcorn event. I disagree with Jen’s position on this, but she has every right to air her critiques of the event. That’s how good, honest discussion happens. And, it’s hard to have a discussion with someone who complains about being persecuted.

Christians, when you hanging out with atheists, get used to the idea they won’t be won over by arguments they might have heard a million times before. And, if they dont accept your arguments, please don’t play the “you are persecuting me” card. They aren’t persecuting you. They just don’t believe you and think what you believe is absurd. I don’t agree with them, of course, but this hardly measures up to anything that measures real persecution. I know that we all love that word but it does us no favors in conversations with atheists as it just makes us look foolish.

Why does it make us look foolish? Because atheists know what real persecution looks like. Ask a Chinese or Sudanese Christian about persecuted for their faith. Then, see if you can look them in the eye when you try to describe the “persecution” you face on a day to day basis.

Further, ask this question, why am I being challenged? Is it because of my faith? Or is it because I’m being a jackass?

The answer might suprise you.