Literally half of Americans believe evangelical Christians face at least some discrimination, despite them being the largest religious group in the country, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.

Christianity Today explains why this may be the case:

Recently, some evangelicals have grown concerned over perceptions of unfair treatment in various settings, like politics, schools, Hollywood, and social media — like when the Twitter account for the pro-life Christian film Unplanned was pulled from the site, or when a student government representative at Berkeley lost club membership and was called on to resign for declining to vote against her Christian views on sexuality and gender. “There’s more explicit hostility toward Christians in some sectors of power — that is real and not imagined,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told CT in 2017, citing Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich’s resignation in 2014 and more recent scrutiny over federal appointees with conservative Christian beliefs. “There’s always a tendency to have a siege mentality and to imagine that people hate us, when they’re just not thinking about us at all. But I do think there are several examples where that’s the case.”

First of all, regarding treatment in Hollywood and other media, many Christians need to stop taking themselves so seriously. If they don’t want to see themselves mocked, perhaps they should stop trying so hard to mimic secular culture or producing such laughably terrible movies. Regarding the anti-abortion propaganda film Unplanned in particular, that film deserved all the criticism it received for deliberately twisting the truth about Planned Parenthood to sell an agenda. That’s not an indictment against the Christian faith altogether; that’s an indictment against sloppy filmmaking.

Second, and more to the point, being mistreated because your anti-gay bigotry is no longer tolerated like it used to be is hardly persecution. Call it karma if you want. Evangelicals like Moore are upset because they have to deal with the consequences of their bad ideas. It’s progress.

Finally, the more Christians sacrifice their “family values” on the altar of Donald Trump, the more they will continue to be criticized. The hypocrisy isn’t lost on the rest of us and the criticism is wholly deserved.

As the adage goes, when you’re so used to privilege, losing it can feel like oppression.

It’s also worth noting that this survey is all about how many Americans think a certain group faces discrimination. It’s about perception, not reality. Considering how much time FOX News spends promoting the idea that Christianity (conservative Christianity, specifically) is under attack from liberal forces — while every other minority group has nothing much to complain about — it’s actually surprising that only 50% of Americans think evangelicals face discrimination.

