Posted on 03/29/2006 1:04:29 PM PST by Crackingham
The "War on Christmas" has morphed into a "War on Christians."
Last December, some evangelical Christian groups declared that the religious celebration of Christmas -- and even the phrase "Merry Christmas" -- was under attack by the forces of secularism. This week, radio commentator Rick Scarborough convened a conference in Washington on the "War on Christians and the Values Voters in 2006." The opening session was devoted to "reports from the frontlines" on "persecution" of Christians in the United States and Canada, including an artist whose paintings were barred from a municipal art show in Deltona, Fla., because they contained religious themes.
Among the conference's speakers were former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) and Sens. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) and conservative Christian leaders Phyllis Schlafly, Rod Parsley, Gary Bauer, Janet Parshall and Alan Keyes.
To many of the 400 evangelicals packed into a small ballroom at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, it was a hard but necessary look at moral relativism, hedonism and Christophobia, or fear of Christ, to pick just a few terms offered by various speakers referring to the enemy. To some outsiders, it illuminated the paranoia of the Christian right.
"Certainly religious persecution existed in our history, but to claim that these examples amount to religious persecution disrespects the experiences of people who have been jailed and died because of their faith," said Hollyn Hollman, general counsel of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty.
"This is a skirmish over religious pluralism, and the inclination to see it as a war against Christianity strikes me as a spoiled-brat response by Christians who have always enjoyed the privileges of a majority position," said the Rev. Robert Franklin, a minister in the Church of God in Christ and professor of social ethics at Emory University.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I chalk that up to the inability of some people to distinguish between the subject matter of a performance and the quality of the work. Kind of like those folks who believe The Passion was the best movie of the last 50 years.
LOL. I am stunned by these posts. I am a serious Catholic and cannot believe that folks expect stores to represent Christmas as people run and get thousands of dollars worth of junk for their kids. It used to be that people would worry about comercialism now it seems the thing to do is get the stores to Sell Christmas to the highest bidder. The American Idol statement from that FREEPER is sad. Passion was an ok movie but I have only seen it once and probably won't again. It was a once in a lifetime look.
You start with scorn.
Then you make it fair game to penalize one person's holy things while allowing other groups pretty much free reign.
Zoning laws start cracking down about allowing you places to worship.
Eminent domain starts taking your holy places.
Serious belief becomes a mental illness category.
Schools try to outlaw your use of religious symbols on your person or during your free time.
A comic burns your sacred writings as part of a comic routine.
It's socially acceptable to make costumes based on your most holy persons that are satirical or sexually explicit.
This is not how it ends. This is how it starts.
"You start with scorn. "
I've often thought it would be valuable to go back and study in detail the stages of supression that took place in the German persecution on the Jews.
I have seen halloween costumes of pregnant nuns and of priests abusing children. They're funny.
Ake Green served no time. None. Zip, zilch, nada.
The "Repent Now" people were targeted for arrested solely because of the religious nature of their protest.
If by "religious nature of their protest," you mean "public disruption and disturbing the peace to the brink of possible violence, so that the police were forced to arrest them when they refused to move on," then yes, I would agree with that statement.
As for the EMT and the Nurse, they "lost their job because the would not [participate in] an abortion, just as I said.
Actually, you said "refusing to perform." Regardless, if you won't do your job, you get fired for not doing your job. That's how it works. Those two examples weighed the value of their religious beliefs against the value of retaining their jobs, and chose their religious beliefs. That's all well and good, and bully for them, but don't go crying about getting fired when you have clearly demonstrated an unwillingness to do your job.
While you may feel that these things are unfair, they hardly rise to the level of persecution, and frankly I don't feel that the results were particularly unfair.
It seems to me as though you wish to have total freedom to do or say anything as long as it conforms with your religious beliefs, and then expect that there should be no consequences when your words or actions bump up against the rest of the world. Sorry, you don't live in a bubble. When you break the law by actions that breach the peace, you get arrested. When you refuse to do your job, you get fired. IT IS NOT PERSECUTION, IT IS REALITY. Get with it.
Funny is an excuse.
It is used as a tool to belittle something that is on the list to be brought or kept down.
It's been used for forever as a wedge to start the demonization process.
Try doing that to some serious Native American symbols, or Moslem symbols or even Buddhist symbols, or, heaven forbid, gay rights.
PC police would be down your throat in a second, and if you didn't do it right, you could even been accused of hate crime.
Not on Halloween!
Why? Does it have a special exemption?
Everything's relative. My town sponsored an art exhibit in the front window of a gallery on Main Street which displayed two nude life-size plaster male mannequins hung upside down by their genitals.
It would still be there, traumatizing every young boy within miles, if we hadn't objected.
Sometimes even skirmishes are worth fighting.
I've seen some incredibly offensive Muslim, Native and gay-themed Haloween costumes, and nobody was arrested for it.
PC police would be down your throat in a second
Who are the PC police, exactly? I've never enocuntered them.
and if you didn't do it right, you could even been accused of hate crime.
People can accuse you of lots of things, but nobody is charged with a crime for wearing a Halloween costume that people find offensive.
Agreed, but that was a matter of decency. Not necessarily Christian persecution.
And I'd venture that some old boys were traumatized as well. ;-)
In other words, they want "special rights." And not giving "special rights" equals 'persecution.' Sound familiar?
Trauma all around. 8~)
Yes.
You're kidding, right? Come on, nobody in their right mind would believe that that is appropriate in public. I call shenanigans.
re: post 36
I took note of that as well.
jw
Yes indeed, cartoons depicting the Holy Prophet are a blasphemy, and the perpetrators must be punished so that no one dare again use the vile excuse of freedom of speech to mock the Holy one.
Oh wait . . .
"I swear to God I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says 'shenanigans."
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