Persecuted? Not hardly…

Jack Cluth chews up the "poor persecuted Christians" meme, and spits it out for the dishonest demagoguery it truly is:

If Jesus were to come back to Earth today, I seriously doubt he would recognize the religion being “practiced” by His “followers”. Too many of those narrow, judgemental trolls who call themselves “Christians” are nothing more than intolerant zealots using their beliefs as a ruler to evaluate and judge the worthiness of others by. These folks know nothing of the true meaning of Christ’s teachings and even less about Christian charity. They will take their families to their megachurches in their SUVs festooned with magnetic ribbons and leave feeling righteous and self-superior. The problem is that the religion they are “practicing” has nothing at all to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. No, their religion is all about intolerance, xenophobia, and self-righteous acquisitiveness. ‘Course, this isn’t about to stop them from playing the “persecution” card.

…I respect Christianity and those who actually endeavor to live by the teachings of Jesus Christ. The problem, though, is that far too many Christians have forgotten, if indeed they ever knew, what those teachings are about. Modern Christianity seems to have little to do with Christ and His teachings. It seems to be heavily infused with acquisitiveness, Conservative politics, and narrow, judgemental xenophobia. Those who follow this interpretation of Christianity see the world as a battle between the forces of Good and Evil, with themselves of course on the side of Good and America as the last bastion of Good in this world. It’s an amazingly self-absorbed, self-congratulatory view of their place in the world, but when you believe that God is on your side it would seem that all things really ARE possible, eh?

If the faux-Christians that Jack is referring to really wanted to spread their word, they would be spending their time emulating Christ instead of trying to force-feed their “gospel” in every public forum they could find. It’s easy (and for many, lucrative) to find imaginary enemies to mobilize against. It’s much, much harder to look into one’s own soul, find the flaws there, and work to correct them.