Christians in the United States are Not Persecuted

Persecution: Noun. Hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of race, political or religious beliefs.

During a speech Sunday at the Holy Trinity Church of God in Christ in Raleigh, Tennessee, Bishop Vincent Matthews, Jr. called the occupant’s side kick “one of the most persecuted Christians” in the United States.

Excuse me, but did I miss something?

Positing that Mr. Pence has suffered because of the media, the Bishop went on to explain that “the biggest criticism that Pence gets all over television and everywhere else is that he actually believes the Bible. They hate him for believing in the Bible.”

I may be mistaken here, but I think it is far more likely that Pence is disliked because he is homophobic, misogynistic and judgmental of anyone who is not his particular version of Christianity. This is not persecution. It is discernment.

Here in the United States (at least before the occupant started erasing the lines between church and state), people were free to worship as they saw fit. This includes any one of 400-900 million  Protestant denominations, multiple Jewish traditions, multiple catholic traditions, as well as Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses and others too numerous to mention. Inasmuch as people are free to worship as they see fit, they are also free to not worship at all. Freedom of religion also means freedom from religion.

The right to worship, or not, is guaranteed in the First Amendment which prohibits the government from making any law “respecting an establishment of religion.” This clause not only forbids the government from establishing an official religion, but also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another. If Trump’s political base has anything to say about it, we will have a narrowly defined theocracy. The chafing against this has nothing to do with persecution, it is called religious tolerance.

It appears that the cry of persecution has more to do with losing exclusive clout than with actual persecution. Christian persecution is what is faced in other countries where something as simple as distributing a Bible can get one multiple years of hard labor in prison. Persecution is what happens when one professes their Christian faith and is beheaded. Around the world there is real persecution for many people of many faiths, not just Christianity.

One cannot speak of religious persecution without acknowledging the systematic extermination of six million Jews during the Holocaust. In China, the Muslim Uighur minority suffers regular persecution and mistrust for both religious and political reasons. There are religious and cultural genocides happening all over the world. To equate the unspeakable torture and violence some endure for their faith to the verbal criticism leveled at the “religious right” (which is neither religious nor right) is an insult to anyone whose life is endangered for what they believe.

So, it is time for Mr. Pence to put on his big boy pants and realize he is not being persecuted for his faith. He is getting pushback for socially conservative policies hung on the hooks of religious trappings that want to set back gay rights, women’s rights, reproductive rights, safety nets for the poor, equal employment opportunities, and gains toward racial equality. Mr. Pence and Trump’s cronies are indeed free to worship and believe as they choose. They are not free, however, to foist this on the rest of us.

There is a persistent, misinformed notion that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our government was secular from its very foundation. Our Founding Forbears were well aware of the caveats of state sponsored religion. The church state- partnerships in Europe sent many to the new world in search of religious freedom. Ironically, those same folks, once in the new world, created the same kind of religious oppression in the early days of our country. The Massachusetts Bay Colony had a state sponsored church. A state tax supported the church and dissenters were imprisoned. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for refusing to subscribe to the state sponsored church. Other original colonies had a requirement for public office that required candidates to be Trinitarian Protestants.

However, religious pluralism gradually became the norm, and the establishment clause of the first amendment guaranteed religious freedom to all. The Constitution gave government no authority over religion. Article VI, allows that anyone of any religious persuasion or no religious persuasion is eligible for public office and the ratification of the First Amendment created a permanent wall of separation between church and state. That wall has been challenged on occasion, but has always prevailed.

There is, however, a modern assault to the separation of church and state. As recently  as 2018 an article in the New York times reported that then attorney General Jeff Sessions referred to the book of Romans as a justification for separating migrant children from their parents at the border.  As the occupant’s re-election campaign is fully and nauseatingly in play, many of his rallies are being held in churches, a clear violation of the Establishment Clause.

In addition, theologically conservative judges are being appointed in a number of courts, assuring that their religious beliefs will influence their practice of law. The expected neutrality of the court and reliance on the law and the law alone is in serious jeopardy.

Now, more than ever, it is important for us to know our Constitution and know our religious rights. If we aren’t paying attention, they will both continue to fade into the pages of history in favor of a religiously unconstitutional, morally repressive social structure.