Rep. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) addressed a crowd gathered Monday at a South Carolina Tea Party conference and resolutely concluded that “the greatest minority under assault today are Christians. No doubt about it.”…. Though Scott has yet to announce his support for a particular candidate, his comments about supposed anti-Christian sentiment in the United States would appear to put him in some agreement with Gingrich. Campaigning in South Carolina last week, Gingrich took a shot at the media for allegedly ignoring “anti-Christian” bigotry…. “The bigotry question goes both ways, and there’s a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concerning the other side,” Gingrich said during a discussion about gay rights, “and none of it gets covered by the news media.”
I can understand being concerned about discrimination and oppression if you’re a member of a minority class. America has a long, ugly history of majority classes oppressing a smaller class of people because they hate them, fear them, disagree with them…or just because they can. For some reason, though, there are a number of fringe Right-wing Christians who insist on crying to anyone who will listen (and many who won’t) about the oppression, bigotry, and hatred directed at Christians these days. Never mind the fact that the majority religion (80% of Americans profess to be Christians) in this country is…wait for it…Christianity.
I’m curious about how Rep. Scott defines “anti-Christian” bigotry. For some Christians, not being able to pray whenever or wherever they choose, not having their flavor of God take precedence over any and all other religious traditions, and/or not having our nation’s law based on Biblical principles is ample proof of bigotry and oppression. The reality, though, is that America is NOT a Christian nation, and too many Christians have forgotten that America was founded by people fleeing actual religious oppression. America is a secular nation with a Christian majority, but that majority status doesn’t connote the right to force Christian beliefs, morals, and expectations upon millions of Americans who happen not to share those beliefs. Those who I’ve heard described as “Talibangicals” appear to know little, and understand even less, of the teaching of the Jesus Christ they profess to revere.
Rep. Scott, and those who, like him, harbor a persecution complex, seem to have conveniently forgotten that the Constitution expressly forbids government promoting one religion at the expense of others. If this is what Rep. Scott views as religious persecution, he’d be well advised to actually READ the Constitution he’s sworn to uphold. He might just be surprised at what he finds.
I can only hope that God- if She in facts exists- will save us from those of Her followers who lack the tolerance gene.
