{"id":3013,"date":"2011-08-07T16:00:14","date_gmt":"2011-08-07T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3013"},"modified":"2011-08-07T16:48:14","modified_gmt":"2011-08-07T22:48:14","slug":"christians-persecution-perplex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3013","title":{"rendered":"Christians’ Persecution Perplex"},"content":{"rendered":"

So there was some kind of big evangelical Xian pep rally in Houston, headlined by Gov., Perry of Texas, a possible presidential candidate, which is why that it is getting media attention.<\/p>\n

Jason Pitzl-Waters watches it nervously from the minority-religious-rights perspective<\/a>. Kallisti works it into a post on polytheism: “Powerful images and vengeful gods<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

The thundering irony is that the evangelicals see themselves as a persecuted minority in America<\/em><\/a>, although they are willing to admit that Muslims are even more disliked.<\/p>\n

The blogger linked, Bradley R.E. Wright, notes,<\/p>\n

Similarly, somewhere along the line we evangelical Christians have gotten it into our heads that our neighbors, peers, and most Americans don’t like us, and that they like us less every year. I’ve heard this idea stated in sermons and everyday conversation; I’ve read it in books and articles.<\/p>\n

There’s a problem, though. It doesn’t appear to be true.<\/strong> Social scientists have repeatedly surveyed views of various religions and movements, and Americans consistently hold evangelical Christians in reasonably high regard. Furthermore, social science research indicates that it’s almost certain that our erroneous belief that others dislike us is actually harming our faith<\/strong>. (emphasis added)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why this need to feel like victims? Is it a hankering for the good old days of the 2nd century C.E. when they were persecuted (although not as much as they think)?<\/p>\n

The Christians’ big mistake was when they stopped being at all “countercultural” and snuggled up to the emperor Constantine<\/a>, who then used his power to intervene in their squabbles (see Council of Arles<\/a>, Council of Nicaea<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Jesus had little to do with kings, but things sure did change after that.<\/p>\n

Soon there was no turning back. The Catholics adopted the imperial table of organization:<\/strong> Pope = emperor. College of Cardinals = Senate. Big church = city hall (basilica<\/em>, <\/a>lit. “royal tribunal chamber.”) In the Eastern Roman Empire, the Orthodox prelates generally were equally cozy with kings, right up through the\u00a0 end of Czarist Russia in 1917.<\/p>\n

(Muslims, of course, did not even go through much of a countercultural period, since Mohammed led armies, negotiated treaties, etc. Yet they have a martyr complex too.)<\/p>\n

On the principle that cornered animals are dangerous, this self-image of being a persecuted minority not only “harms their faith” but is indeed a potential seedbed of trouble for non-Christians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So there was some kind of big evangelical Xian pep rally in Houston, headlined by Gov., Perry of Texas, a possible presidential candidate, which is why that it is getting media attention. Jason Pitzl-Waters watches it nervously from the minority-religious-rights perspective. Kallisti works it into a post on polytheism: “Powerful images and vengeful gods.” The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,24,15],"class_list":["post-3013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-american-religion","tag-christianity","tag-islam"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-MB","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5321,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5321","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":0},"title":"Umbanda, Evangelicals, and Gay Marriage","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"A report from Public Radio International on the Brazilian Spiritist religion of Umbanda focuses on a same-sex couple and conflicts with evangelical Christians.","rel":"","context":"In \"Brazil\"","block_context":{"text":"Brazil","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=brazil"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":197,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=197","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":1},"title":"\"Rebutting\" Wicca I did write\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Rebutting\" Wicca I did write to National Public Radio reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty to share my question about why only Wicca, of the various new religious movements covered in her series, deserved to have someone outside its faith community comment on what was wrong with it--in other words, evangelical Christians.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":625,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=625","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":2},"title":"Bands that will be playing\u2026","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Bands that will be playing in Hell ... ...are listed in the Field Guide to Evangelicals.So have evangelical Christians developed a sense of irony, like those upwardly mobile black professionals who decorate with Aunt Jemima and Sambo advertising art?Maybe so, based on some of the reviews. Notice the lack of\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14050,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=14050","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":3},"title":"Will Christians Fulfill a Pagan Emperor’s Plan?","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Julian \"The Philosopher,\" Rome's last Pagan emperor (mid-360s), would get chuckle out of this. (Although to me he comes across as super-serious, he must have found some things funny. I hope.) While he was force-fed Christian theology by bishops, growing up in a royal Christian household, he later studied ancient\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Christianity\"","block_context":{"text":"Christianity","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=christianity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Julian_antioch-mint-bull.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1307,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1307","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":4},"title":"Air Force Academy "Turns Back Time"","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Back on January 27th, I mentioned that the US Air Force Academy, located near Colorado Springs, had created a ritual space for followers of Pagan religions.Jason Pitzl-Waters has been keeping up on various reactions, including some form of magic performed by (presumably) evangelical Christians, who think that putting two large\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1222,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1222","url_meta":{"origin":3013,"position":5},"title":"Ted Haggard is Back","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"You can't keep a good drama queen down.Ted Haggard, the disgraced pastor of the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs, whom you might of thought would never occupy a pulpit again, but rather skulk around Phoenix, Arizona, peddling life insurance, is ba-a-a-ack.Ted Haggard, who proves that the Elmer Gantry archetype\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3013"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3017,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3013\/revisions\/3017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}