A lot of articles have come out recently outlining the subtleties of racism, homophobia, sexism, and every other politically expedient offensive behavior. One of the more popular topics is “institutionalized racism.” The idea being that while the civil rights movement did bring about an end to socially acceptable blatant racism, the institutions – apparently all of them – have ingrained in them a subtle but serious form of racism that in many ways is more serious than anything so superficial as “the ‘N’ word”. Or so the story goes one way or another. There are plenty such articles floating around.
What I haven’t seen is anything concerning religious persecution in America. Those same folks obsessed with rainbows and 15 year old children getting sex changes seem to miss the biggest problem our society continues to face. That of religious persecution.
Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of compassion for Mosques and Islam, especially in urban areas. The cause of the Buddhist monks in Tibet has caused rise of a bumper-sticker movement rivaled only by “co-exist” and “Obama-Biden”. However, the perception among Americans is that Christianity – much like white skin – represents the majority and therefore by default neither needs nor deserves any defense.
Ironically, this same society has actively proclaimed for decades now, more and more loudly, that we are “not” a “Christian nation”. Choosing whichever position – majority/minority – based on expediency. When convenient, Christians are the majority and must submit to the “underprivileged” minority opposition. When inconvenient, then Christians represent an obsolete part of our nation’s history. A part that we have “evolved” beyond. Yes society is by nature sociopathic. Adjusting its morals to its desires and effectively eliminating nearly all absolutes.
Therein lies the problem. Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 7 that Christians are always a minority:
“For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
So there aren’t 2 answers, there is only 1. True Christians always will be a minority. Such a fact will never stop a true sociopath though. When convenient, the sociopath will themselves invoke the name Jesus, as “evidence” of their assertion that Christians are the majority and therefore must relegate ourselves to silence.
Again from Matthew 7:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
So here is when religious persecution becomes common-place and socially acceptable. When much of it is coming from others that claim to be Christians. They come in all stripes. From those that have friends that are living in what Jesus would call “sin” and want to defend their friends as an act of supposed “love”. To those that know lots of people that claim to be Christian, reinforcing the idea that real Christians come a dime-a-dozen. Yet, again, the road is narrow. Yet again, not everyone that claims to be Christian is.
Therefore, in a nation, a world even, that protects “minorities”; the “few” that Jesus spoke of, those hated by the world because they are not “of the world”, they will be and are persecuted without hesitation and without criticism. The same as has always been.
Just try to be salt and light in a school, or government office, even most secular workplaces have tolerance for everything but the word of God.
If you would like to enjoy an excellent commentary on this topic I suggest you rent the entertaining movie “Time Changer” (2002). You may even be lulled into believing that the struggles you’ve faced are not persecution when they really are. Rest assured, the motivation can be subtle but the outcome is every bit as damaging as any “institutionalized racism” today.
