On the persecution of Christians

Taking a break from the Baby Jacob posts for a moment I wanted to vent a little bit.

I often hear it said that Christians in the West are not persecuted or discriminated against. As an absolute, that statement fails like most absolute statements do, but I will grant that the U.S. government and associated secular culture does very little if anything to prevent the free exercise of my religion. Sure there's issues with the HHS Mandate, adoption laws etc., but by and large, we Christians still enjoy a majority status that keeps our actions tolerated for the most part.

But here's the thing, the U.S. is still kind of a newbie on the world stage. Christianity goes back 2,000 some years and in that time it's enjoyed periods of great peace, and great tribulation, in many countries. Look at the Church in Russia, it was a state religion, then it was suppressed. Stuff works in waves.

Many of us think of Mexico as deeply Catholic, but just in 1917 it was illegal in Mexico for the Church to teach. From Wikipedia, "The 1917 Constitution outlawed teaching by the Church, gave control over Church matters to the state, put all Church property at the disposal of the state, outlawed religious orders, outlawed foreign born priests, gave states the power to limit or eliminate priests in their territory, deprived priests of the right to vote or hold office, prohibited Catholic organizations which advocated public policy, prohibited religious publications from commenting on public policy, prohibited clergy from religious celebrations and from wearing clerical garb outside of a church and deprived citizens of the right to a trial for violations of these provisions."

Look at Egypt right now. More than 50 churches have been burned to the ground and Christians are being killed. For that matter look at the laws concerning Christians in most Muslim lands, they're harsh. 

In Europe, England specifically, where same-sex unions were recently legalized, the Church of England is facing litigation that is is discriminating against gays by not recognizing their unions.

Here in the U.S., we might have to pay for contraception. By comparison, our problem isn't that bad, sure. And I do not see a direct slippery slope situation that turns us into Mexico 1917, or Egypt now. I don't think it's a stretch that we could end up in England's shoes, but I digress.

The point is, when our religious freedoms are abridged, even slightly, it does open the door to more. Politically, that's just how the government works. When the U.S. government takes an inch, it doesn't give it back. 

This is not fear-mongering. I'm not saying we're all about to lose all our freedoms because of contraceptive mandates. 

I AM saying that our brothers and sisters in other lands face a real persecution with some facing risk to their lives, and they're still going to church and standing up for the faith. If they can do that in the face of those odds, surely we can all stand up here where our freedoms are still respected.