{"id":29403,"date":"2017-09-12T05:30:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T09:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=29403"},"modified":"2017-09-12T07:33:45","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T11:33:45","slug":"hostility-to-religion-grows-in-u-s-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2017\/09\/hostility-to-religion-grows-in-u-s-a\/","title":{"rendered":"Hostility to religion grows in U.S.A.\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"1024px-Jean-L\u00e9on_G\u00e9r\u00f4me_-_The_Christian_Martyrs'_Last_Prayer_-_Walters_37113\"<\/a><\/div>\n
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The United States found itself in unfamiliar company when it made the\u00a0\u201cHall of Shame\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in a report issued by International Christian Concern, a global watchdog monitoring religious persecution. \u00a0Not that the U.S. puts believers to death, as in some of the other countries, but the study\u00a0<\/a>expresses concern about acts of violence against\u00a0people because of their religion, media attacks on religion, legal decisions restricting religious liberty, and university shut-downs of campus religious groups.<\/div>\n
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Similarly, a study from the Pew Research Center on global restrictions against religion, both from government action and from social hostility, rates the United States as\u00a0\u201chigh\u201d<\/a>\u00a0in both categories. \u00a0(See the maps in the study<\/a>.)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Kelley Shackleford, president of First Liberty, a law firm specializing in religious liberty cases, writes about these findings in the Washington Examiner<\/a>\u00a0and in her own organization\u2019s report\u00a0UNDENIABLE: The Survey of Hostility to Religion in America, 2017 edition<\/a>. \u00a0<\/em>She cites 1,400 cases, a 133% increase in assaults on religious freedom over the last five years.<\/div>\n
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She draws on sociologist George Yancey\u2019s book So Many Christians, So Few Lions: \u00a0Is There Christophobia in the United States?<\/a>, who documented, in her words, a \u201c<\/div>\n
\u00a0widespread \u2018irrational\u2019 animus toward Christian beliefs among those with higher educational degrees and privileged societal positions.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Shackleford comments,<\/div>\n
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Ironically, those who deny the rise in religious hostility in America are also among those who launched the very attacks that caused the crisis. In 2016,\u00a0a noted Harvard professor wrote<\/a>\u00a0that people of certain religious beliefs had lost the \u201cculture wars\u201d in America and should be treated with no leniency.<\/p>\n

Similarly, last year the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights sent a report titled \u201cPeaceful Coexistence: Reconciling Nondiscrimination Principles with Civil Liberties<\/a>\u201d to President Obama and Congress, denouncing routine religious exemptions as an infringement on civil rights and declaring that the phrases \u201creligious liberty\u201d and \u201creligious freedom\u201d are nothing but \u201ccode words for discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy, or any form of intolerance.\u201d According to the report, people of faith can and should be forced to do what their faith says they cannot \u2014 a direct prohibition of the free exercise of religion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We keep adding to the canons forbidding discrimination and bigotry on the traditional grounds of \u201crace, color, or creed.\u201d \u00a0Now a typical Equal Opportunity policy <\/a>forbids discrimination against \u201crace, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, age, veteran status, disability unrelated to job requirements, genetic information, military service, or other protected status.\u201d<\/p>\n

We have added to the list, but we haven\u2019t subtracted any categories. \u00a0But bigotry against \u201ccreed\u201d has staged a comeback.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

And yet, we mustn\u2019t exaggerate the problem. \u00a0In these studies, \u201chigh\u201d ratings still involve relatively small numbers of incidents. \u00a0Christianity in America is still the majority religion, and many of the anti-religion acts were taken against minority religions, such as Muslims, Jews, and Sikhs\u2013not that this should be a consolation, particularly since such\u00a0anti-religious bigotry may well have been on that part of at least nominal Christians.<\/p>\n

But the studies do show that Christians are widely hated on university campuses, among political liberals, and with other members of the cultural elite. \u00a0If \u201cIslamophobia\u201d exists, so does \u201cChristophobia.\u201d<\/p>\n

We must remember, though, that being disliked is not persecution, as such. \u00a0This is a new experience for American Christians. \u00a0But it is exactly what Our Lord Himself said that we should expect (John 15:19-21). \u00a0In fact, He said that it would be a blessing (Matthew 5:11-13). \u00a0How is it a blessing?<\/p>\n

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Illustration by Jean-L\u00e9on G\u00e9r\u00f4me [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/em>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/article><\/head><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United States found itself in unfamiliar company when it made the\u00a0\u201cHall of Shame\u201d\u00a0in a report issued by International Christian Concern, a global watchdog monitoring religious persecution. \u00a0Not that the U.S. puts believers to death, as in some of the other countries, but the study\u00a0expresses concern about acts of violence against\u00a0people because of their religion, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":29406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,42],"tags":[5748,1870],"class_list":["post-29403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religions","category-social-science","tag-anti-religious-bigotry","tag-religious-liberty"],"yoast_head":"\nHostility to religion grows in U.S.A.\u00a0<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Several studies show increased hostility against 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