As the Christmas season gets fully underway, I expect to hear more Christians claiming persecution; it happens every year. Do you know any Christians who feel persecuted by others during this season? Here is a simple chart you can share with them to determine whether or not they really are being persecuted.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! ~Tim
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This may be my favorite post of yours yet!
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Well, thank you Mark!
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you are correct. according to that chart I am not being persecuted here in the USA. But how long would my faith last in a communist or muslim country where christians face death and arrest every day just for being Christian? knowing me, not long.
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Esbee, this is one (of many) frustrating things about petty Christian claims of being persecuted in the USA during Christmas–there is actual real persecution of Christians in the world!
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Well said. A good question to ask is why so many Christians seem to need to feel persecuted. Maybe their lives lack drama. Waging “war” on “secular humanists” make their lives more exciting.
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Nowv, I think this IS a good question.
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I think end-times beliefs have a lot to do with it. Those Christians who believe we’re in the last days usually assert, based on their reading of prophecy, that believers will be persecuted–predisposing them to see persecution around every corner. Of course having to live in proximity to people of other religious and cultural backgrounds and maybe be sensitive to their beliefs and practices does not equal persecution.
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Alan, I think you are right; ideas on the end-times is an issue. In addition, Jesus warned his followers they would be persecuted (which they were), and this give some believers even more incentive to discover ways they are being persecuted.
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In the USA, at least, my experience is that Christians, sadly, are usually the ones doing the persecuting. Against homosexuals, against though that don’t share their beliefs, against those they consider too “worldly”, the list goes on… I have never, not once, met a single Christian in the US that was actually being persecuted in the way that they often claim. What further frustrates me about this is that many Christians will claim, when they hear someone say “Happy Holidays” for example, that it is because “the enemy” is at work because he is trying to use people to take the “Christ” out of Christmas. Ugh. 1) Merry Christmas isn’t going anywhere. It’s literally everywhere. You can’t pass a single aisle of decorations without seeing it a thousand times. 2) Happy Holidays is not some part of a master, evil plot to destroy Christ. It’s just a perfectly acceptable and kind holiday greeting. Nothing more.
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Strange Girl, I think you are absolutely right! Certain groups of Christians seem to persecute everyone of whom they disapprove–and then THEY claim to be the ones persecuted.
I really like your final conclusions: “1) Merry Christmas isn’t going anywhere. It’s literally everywhere. You can’t pass a single aisle of decorations without seeing it a thousand times. 2) Happy Holidays is not some part of a master, evil plot to destroy Christ. It’s just a perfectly acceptable and kind holiday greeting. Nothing more.”
The holiday season is mostly about Christmas, but there are more than 20 other religious holidays during this time as well. So I think ‘Happy Holidays! is very appropriate, especially in public. We can still wish a merry Christmas to family, church, and others we know. And no one is forbidding us to say ‘Merry Christmas’ in public as well, and chances are strangers will respond back with ‘Merry Christmas’.
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Tim and others, here’s a situation that I found difficult to decide. I had a choir teacher in high school who would have us sing some quite religious Christian music. Although much of it was beautiful, the older I got, the more inappropriate it seemed to me. After he retired, he became more and more fundamentalist. He used to send me Christmas cards that expressed sentiments about “Christ, Our Savior.” I told him I wasn’t a Christian and that I’d prefer he didn’t send me such religious cards…that it felt like he was proselytizing to me. But he persisted. Do you think his behavior was inappropriate or that it was silly to be bothered by it?
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Steve, I am very sorry about your pushy Christian acquaintance, but he is typical of some types of believers. I DO think his behavior is inappropriate even though in his mind I am sure he feels otherwise. And I don’t think it is silly to be bothered about it; I think, now that you have asked him not to send them, I would just drop them straight in the trash and forget about them.
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The thing was that, aside from the Christian songs in choir, many of us dearly loved this man who was an outstanding choral director, touched our lives, and enabled us to experience almost ecstatic moments of beauty. But then, some years after high school, when I refused induction during the Vietnam War, he supposedly wrote a character reference to the probation department and berated me for my immaturity. When I spoke to him about it, he asked, “What have you been reading, Steve?” as if I was reading propaganda and his mainstream network news gave him Truth. Later, the Christmas card problem arose and we stopped writing to one another.and it broke my heart.
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How sad. Steve, I really identify with your experience concerning the war. I also refused the draft during the Vietnam war and got a lot of grief over it from many people. My own Dad, an Air Force veteran, was also extremely disappointed with me.
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OMG, Andy Williams is part of the conspiracy! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhShYpOMENw
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Oh No! Not Andy Williams!!
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Just the tip of the iceberg: who would have a harder time running for office a Christian, a Jew or a Muslim? Speaking of which Jews and Muslims are persecuted not always by having their right to worship limited but because of who they are. And some fundamentalist Christians too….non-fundamentalist Christians, not so much.
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Steve, I think you nailed it about persecution: “Jews and Muslims [and others] are persecuted not always by having their right to worship limited but because of who they are.”
And guess who is leading the persecution?
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I say Merry Christmas, but have never felt threatened if someone else doesn’t. It’s all a crisis manufactured by those who’d like to FORCE others to do as they do. In other words, they’d like to persecute others. Motives? Insecurity in their own beliefs, or more likely, inciting false fear so they can manipulate others for religious and/or political purposes.
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Lilly, I think revealed the truth at the base of the ‘Christmas’ crisis: “It’s all a crisis manufactured by those who’d like to FORCE others to do as they do.” I agree! And I think you have good insights on some of the motives, too.
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Way to go, Tim! But wait!! Your questioning whether I am being persecuted feels like being persecuted. Ouch! Ouch! You are making me think.
Tom
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Tom, you are funny!
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Succinct. Clever. Spot on! Thank you for this.
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Thanks David!
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Currently, throughout the world, a Muslim is far more likely to be persecuted than a Christian. This can be seen in Myanmar, Yemen, Egypt and Syria. For the most part, this is sectarian Muslim-on-Muslim persecution, but in Myanmar it is Buddhist-on-Muslim. So much for the claim that Buddhism is a peaceful religion.
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Chas, I agree. There is a lot of terrible religious persecution throughout the world. But widespread persecution claimed by conservative Christians in the USA is a fantasy.
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It is really sad how sometimes people hurt and persecute each other instead of focusing their attention on religion for the betterment of the world, themselves and others!?
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For the most part, Buddhism is a very peaceful religion.
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Steve, I agree! The situation in Burma is an anomaly for Buddhism and one I don’t understand.
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In this (as in the longstanding Irish conflict), I don’t think the root issue is religion per se, but Tribalism. Religion is just a stand-in for political/racial/ethnic divides. (In Ireland, Catholic/Protestant is mostly about political loyalty or antipathy toward England stemming from centuries of oppression…) The Myanmar conflict looks very similar to the various ethnic genocides in Africa in the last 20 years. Different tribe? Let’s exterminate you. Sadly, this is pretty much endemic to human history around the globe. 😦
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Fiddlrts, Tribalism. I think there are benefits to having a group identity, but why is it that everywhere in the world, it seems, tribalism is used by groups against other groups. Hate, discrimination, destruction–even extermination. Why? I don’t understand it!
It would seem to me that accepting diversity would enrich all of us, yet everywhere we look we see conflict and hostility.
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Tim, you are right about tribalism. If it doesn’t exist, people seem to have to invent it. Look at the gangs in some cities, the only differentiation between their ‘tribes’ is their post code (zip code in USA)!
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Chas, I agree.
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” I think there are benefits to having a group identity,…It would seem to me that accepting diversity would enrich all of us…”
Tim, I also think that you are right!
And isn’t it also so interesting though how group identity seems to be like a natural part of the way humans develop…!? This is quite noticeable especially around the adolescence phase when self/ cultural identity/ acceptance and a need to belong (peers/social life) become such a significant part of how we perhaps even expect to be a natural part of growing up.
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“…I don’t think the root issue is religion… Sadly, this is pretty much endemic to human history around the globe.”
fiddlrts, I agree with you. It seems to me that this is more of an issue which relates to human nature than to spirituality itself.
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Good point, Paz. I suggest some reasons are fear, power, greed, and general self-centeredness. And something to organize the tribe against.
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Paz, I do. I think it is “interesting though how group identity seems to be like a natural part of the way humans develop.” I just wish there was a way that people could say ‘This is my group identity and this is your group identity; let’s get together from time to time and learn from each other.’
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The Christmas Wars were one reason we left our former church earlier this year. The fake “persecution” complex is deliberately stirred up by groups who stand to benefit from inciting fear and warfare against others. (Specifically, this is a favorite hobby horse of the American Family Association, a listed hate group with racist as well as anti-gay views.) Just stir up a fear of “persecution” and a feeling that everyone is against them, raise a bunch of money, and get people to vote GOP…it works sickeningly well, particularly with Baby Boomer Evangelicals.
On a related note, over the last couple of years, I noted that I was wished “Merry Christmas” by plenty of non-Christians. Atheists, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jews. And I wished them happy holidays back. It’s not that big of a deal. Unless your goal is religious supremacy and persecution of others…
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Fiddlrts, when I was a fundamentalist we thought the ‘world’ generally was against us–especially public schools that taught evolution and atheism (even though we still did daily Bible reading and prayer at that time).
But since the 1980s it is much worse. ‘Persecution’ of Christians is said to be everywhere in the USA, though I think we know that real persecution is mostly from conservative Christians.
I think you are right that the ‘Merry Christmas’ issue is not a big deal to most people of any religion, but it is one more claim of persecution to certain Christians.
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Luckily here in the UK we don’t hear much of this persecution talk. Christians are sidelined, ridiculed (generally mildly), sometimes distrusted and in a minority, but feel more isolated than oppressed. I think the general attitude and not just from Christians is distaste at the rampant commercialisation of the whole thing. Overall I think many if not most Christians are tense about living in a society which has many different values to them and this can cause friction, unfortunately this just leads to conservatism and wishing for a Golden Christian Past. They really do need to rethink this attitude and recognise that there was never a “Golden” Christian Age and people don’t turn their backs on something that was any good. As a bystander I think the most important thing for the US and Christians there is to shatter the delusional myth that the US was ever a perfect, or even good “Christian” Country. They need to start from now to discover who Jesus is and then proclaim his love and stop fighting battles that were lost over 100 years ago for very good reasons.
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Ross, I am glad you do not have much ‘Christian persecution’ talk there in the UK. And I very much agree with you that the US was never a ‘Christian’ country even when ‘Christians’ were in the overwhelming majority; and it certainly was not a ‘good’ Christian country as many people nostalgically recall.
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I agree that there was ever a “delusional myth that the US was ever a perfect, or even good “Christian” Country.” I completely disagree that “they need to….discover who Jesus is and then proclaim his love.” Living compassionately as the Buddha taught would serve at least as well–especially because it bypasses all the nonsense about salvation and eternal life. It moves us to live now and love one another without any thought about Heaven or eternal life.
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I would say that Jesus also spoke about living compassionately and had a fair bit to say about not chasing or hoarding wealth. I think the here and now was very important to him. Although not exclusive to Christians, there are many people following Jesus who do care for social justice, feeding and helping the poor and oppressed, overcoming inequality etc.
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And I would also add that there are perhaps more similarities than differences in the core beliefs of world religions. Ultimately,they all share the same principle of finding UNITY with GOD/Divine through LOVE and compassion.
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Paz, I agree that all the major religions have a strong emphasis on love, compassion, and finding unity with God. However, I think Jesus delivers an aspect that no other religion does. I talk about it here:
https://jesuswithoutbaggage.wordpress.com/2017/05/29/i-am-the-way-the-truth-and-the-life-is-jesus-the-only-way-to-life-yes-and-no/
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I couldn’t care less whether a person at the checkout counter says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. As others have pointed out, the latter is preferable and more considerate because other religions have holy days at or around the same time. On the other hand, it does pain me when someone flippantly dismisses the core beliefs of any world religion as “nonsense.” I think that the Buddha would have the same reaction.
https://newtonfinn.com/2011/12/16/the-answer-of-christmas/
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Agreed!
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Tim,
Well said!
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The dismaying thing is that some of us claim persecution while there are Christians in other nations (China, Iraq, etc.) who are genuinely being persecuted.
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Brendan, I agree!
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