Are Christians really as persecuted as they claim?

Question

A college professor, Steve Bitterman, was recently fired for suggesting that the story of Adam and Eve not be taken literally: http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20070922-17370900-bc-us-teacher.xml

He was terminated after a few students complained. Do you think this is an example of the choke hold Christianity has on politics and education? And can they really claim to be persecuted?

Answer 1

it's always difficult for a MAJORITY to be persecuted

however, it seems pretty easy for them to have a persecution complex

for example, our local paper published a letter today from some fundy upset that the paper even gave coverage to a local wiccan event a couple weeks ago. as if the whole world revolves around that fundy and her religion, and nothing else should ever be published in a newspaper she doesn't even own! how dare they!

it will be a long time before there is true religious freedom here in the south (USA), i dunno about your neck of the woods.

Answer 2

Jesus said, "Blessed are the persecuted" and other such sayings suggesting to a Christian that unless he/she is being persecuted, there is something wrong with their faith. Well, I for one, as do many in America, am hard put to prove my faith by being persecuted. No one has laughed at me, criticized my faith or in any other way discriminated against me since high school. Makes me wonder: What kind of a Christian am I anyway. Sometimes I almost wish I had been born in a less tolerant society so I could be really persecuted and thus given the opportunity to prove how good and devote I am. Is God testing me in some kind of reverse psychology kind of way? I don't know. Sometimes I do or say things just to get a rise out of nonbelievers, but I must say I am not persecuted just largely ignored.
Some have called me a fruitcake sometimes so maybe that will count with God.


Sending you a smile to help pick up your day.

Answer 3

before everything , as a goat herder myself I resent the insinuation they're some how stupid. yet, it is yet another tale. i will might want to ensure you position up the question...Why are goat herders so persecuted ? i don't think the Bible is complete of contradictions or blunders. there is not any thanks to get you to ascertain infinite issues with a finite ideas. The issues interior the Bible are revealed spiritually no longer mentally. formerly i replaced into saved ( became my existence over to Jesus) I felt the way you do about the Bible. Now I see this is truths. i have study it via many circumstances and anytime I study something new. it is (my) own beliefs. i'm no longer persecuted till this is performed to me in my opinion. i do not care what the international does with this is funds, or what of the international has what call. i believe this stuff might want to come to pass to satisfy scripture. Peter tried to quit Jesus from being crucified and Jesus observed as him a devil, the prophesy might want to be fulfilled. i'm no longer anti-American besides the undeniable fact that the structure isn't the regulation I stay by utilizing. I answer to a larger ability. You of direction do experience persecuted even as someone factors out you do not believe in God or your man or woman question does no longer be major to you. i'm a Christian you're an Atheist , We both will exist to the end, this is an rather distinct international isn't it?

Answer 4

Some Christians are, indeed, being killed for their faith. Google "Voice Of The Martyrs" and find out about it.

However, having said that, I think that the professor shouldn't have been fired in this case. I'm a Christian, and am getting tired of some Christians who act like prissy little schoolgirls who can't bear to hear any opinion different from their own. A professor in my area was fired because of complaints from Fundamentalists, and I think it was wrong. It should take a lot more than a complaint from an easily offended prude to get somebody fired.

I regard real religious persecution as being tortured and killed for one's beliefs. Yes, that's happening in some areas of the world, and not just to Christians. But it's not happening to me as a Christian in a college classroom. People using "naughty" words, expressing different viewpoints, and invoking their freedom of speech is not persecution.

Answer 5

Cristian's were persecuted at an early time in their history, then they took control, and got bored at not being the centre of attention any more, they sort of positioned themselves in the firing line.

If you jump in from of a charging bull, then you will get hit...

They are not persecuted, Some of the fundies however simply position themselves in silly positions which range from the irritating to down right obnoxious! If you have the audacity to question this flawed logic of why they have taken up this position, then you get the rhetorical reply that you are persecuting them for their religion - the truth that you find their medieval suppositions or hypocritical morals a bit too uncomfortable to tolerate in a modern society, is too much truth for them to swallow.

Answer 6

christians are not persecuted in he united states and may not be anywhere but look at the examples of how they attact the nobelivers like the canadian comedian that said Jesus didnt have anything to do with her emmy. Looks to me like the christians do the persecuting and really have a strangle hold on politics and education. Science in this country is lagging so far behind the other countries because religion holds it back with beliefs not based on fact.

Answer 7

Let's take a look at this...

1. Christianity is the religion of choice in the US, being practiced by the majority.

2. Anybody who is not a christian is looked down upon by the majority.

3. A majority of our political leaders are christian.

4. The slim majority voted an idiot into the White House because he professes to be a christian.

5. Anybody who is NOT a christian holds NO chance of being voted into any political office of much power.

6. Our leaders have enacted measures (not laws) which are religious in nature which interfere with political functionality. Just look at our Pledge of Allegiance and our currency. Both speak of a God that not everybody believes in. Any attempts to remove God from either have been ignored.

7. Christians have the ability to bring their Bibles into the public school system and read them on their own time. (Suppose a satanist child were to bring "The Satanic Bible" to school. What do you think the reaction would be? Or a muslim child bringing the Quran to school. What do you thnk the reaction would be?) They also have the ability to pray silently to themselves while in the public school system.

8. Offshoots of the christian faith go door to door attempting to convert others to their belief system.

9. Crimes committed by those claiming the christian faith are swept under the carpet and ignored.

Now you tell me if any of that sounds like christian persecution to you.

If anything they have it good. Our laws cater to their belief system. How much better could they possibly want it????

Answer 8

The persecuted Christians are in 3rd world countries and countries with cruel dictators.Over here in North America Christians haven't experienced real persecution yet,but the time will come!

Answer 9

No, but we certainly don't want any College Professors who mock God.
There is no one persecuted in America, whether they be Christians, atheists, Jews, Blacks, Muslims, Homosexuals, etc. When is the last time in America that someone could get arrested and beaten by police and imprisoned indefinitely for speaking their mind in public? Answer: Before and during the Revolutionary War.
What other country in the world allows the likes of mahmoud akmidinijad (tyrant from Iran, don't worry, he can't spell John the Baptist) to come speak PUBLICLY OUTSIDE his own little country?
The First Ammendment was NOT written to protect POPULAR speech. Have you ever seen one of those signs alongside the road telling you this certain stretch of road maintained by KKK? I have, and they're legal.
There is NO persecution in America. If you can't stand a little heat on Yahoo Answers, don't log on.
And wait til tommorrows paper; the ACLU will get this silly little teacher his job back, with back pay.
In His Service,
John the Baptist

Answer 10

It's a fund raising ploy to get people to send money to large anti-gay, pro-homophobia organizations and churches.

When Christians are not allowed to marry, work, or adopt children. When they cannot serve in the military. When they are not allowed to visit their dying partner in the hospital. When they cannot show affection in public without the threat of being beaten to a pulp...then their claims of persecution might be taken seriously.

Answer 11

Many Christains are currently being persecuted in many parts of the world like N.Africa... But certainly not in America in 2007.