From The Los Angeles Times: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-christian-persecution-20130815,0,4325438.story
By Michael McGough
August 15, 2013
The notion that religious freedom is under siege isn’t just an American preoccupation. Some Christian leaders in Britain also have sounded the alarm, prompting a pointed rejoinder from the former spiritual leader of the Church of England that also should be required reading for paranoid American religious conservatives.
Rowan Williams, who retired as Archbishop of Canterbury last year to return to academic life, said, “I am always very uneasy when people sometimes in this country or the United States talk about persecution of Christians, or rather, believers.”
Christians in Britain and the United States may fairly complain about being ridiculed, Williams acknowledged. But he contrasted that experience with the “murderous hostility” faced by Christians in other parts of the world.
“I think we are made to feel uncomfortable at times. We’re made to feel as if we’re idiots — perish the thought! But that kind of level of not being taken very seriously or being made fun of; I mean for goodness sake, grow up.”
To be fair, the U.S. Catholic bishops and others who have raised alarms about threats to religious freedom don’t talk only about rhetorical slights. For example, the bishops argue that when the government or the courts legalize same-sex civil marriage, “conflict results on a massive scale between the law and religious institutions and families…. Religious liberty is then threatened.” Really?
Legalization of same-sex marriage does create complications for churches that oppose homosexuality. For example, they might find themselves denied participation in government social programs that treat same-sex and opposite-sex couples the same. But that is hardly “conflict on a massive scale.” No one is going to force the Roman Catholic Church or any denomination to perform same-sex religious marriages. Nor is it likely that the church will lose its tax-exempt status because it opposes gay marriage (or contraception or female priests, for that matter).
Even when they don’t use the word “persecution,” some Christians use apocalyptic language to describe the supposed threat to religious liberty. In 2009, a group of Christian leaders, invoking the example of Martin Luther King Jr., reminded fellow believers that “Christianity has taught that civil disobedience is not only permitted but sometimes required,” and suggested that lawbreaking in a higher cause might be necessary because of legal abortion and gay rights.
Continue reading at: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-christian-persecution-20130815,0,4325438.story
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