If you're reading this, chances are you're a Christian. And chances are, you've been told that Christians and Christianity are being persecuted in America: that the forces of secularism, liberals and political correctness have united to expunge religion from America's culture.
The Ten Commandments are being removed from our courtrooms; prayer, from our schools; Jesus, from Christmas and references to God are being scrubbed from our political and cultural dialogue. Faith in private and public is being assaulted from every direction.
The persecution of Christians and their religion is nowhere most evident than in the United States government. The vast majority of congressmen are devout Christians: there's only one atheist, one Muslim, two Buddhists and thirty Jews. The president is a born-again, Bible-believing Christian, and his father said in 1987, "I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." In the presidential campaigns this year, even the leading Democratic candidates are proudly and unabashedly Christian.
It's not just some abstract threat, either. The media and popular culture are replete with messages designed specifically and aimed directly for your faith. Every advance secularism and humanism make in this culture war increases the atmosphere of repression and persecution in this nature. The war is not a duel of abstractions; it's a battle for your very soul.
Christianity is so persecuted, rejected, and hated in this country, in fact, more than 80 percent of Americans are Christian. One in two identifies himself as "Bible-believing;" three in ten, "born-again." With statistics like this, it's no wonder that Christianity is under assault.
As anti-Christianity has grown in society over the past fifty years, the phrase " ... under God ... " has been added to the Pledge of Allegiance, and the motto "In God we Trust" was adopted over the secular, pluralist "E Pluribus Unum."
The struggle for American Christianity extends into the heart of the media. Christians are so rare, have been so driven from the media, that newspapers often sport a "Religion" section devoted to local church news, and many quote daily Bible verses. Televangelists are a dime a dozen, and there are even entirely Christian networks, such as CBN and TCT.
Secularism and atheism have so pervaded America that the Answers in Genesis ministry was able to raise $27 million in donations to build a giant museum that spreads distortions and falsehoods about science. The museum had 100,000 visitors during its first two months - more than its founders expected in six months.
Yes, my friends, as the atmosphere becomes increasingly intolerable, your right to believe as you wish has come under fire. Christians are being repressed; public displays of faith are being discouraged; prayer is being outlawed, and the culture is more and more hostile.
Well, maybe not. You see, the United States is overtly and dominantly Christian: so much so that cries of persecution are not only absurd but scary, in the same way that a man with a gun is scary when he walks into a room full of unarmed people and starts shouting at them to put their pistols away. Just because the culture may not in every way be conducive to your preferred version of Christianity does not mean that you are being persecuted for your beliefs; if you think that's not the case, contemplate coming out as an atheist to your family and friends.
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
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