That goo' ol' “Persecution!!!” argument
Fundies looove to claim they're persecuted by all those evil (atheist/evolutionist/pagan/satanist/whathaveyou) unbelievers. If you listen to them long enough (of course you've got to be a masochist to do so, but if it floats your boat...), you inevitably get the impression that to admit that you are “a christian” in the US means to flirt with a death sentence.
Strange how so many christians keep living in that country happily and freely.
Now, let there be no doubt, there are places in this world where people are being persecuted for professing belief in Jesus. Commonly these are places that are either hotly contested between different brands of morontheism (= fundyism), or where another morontheism has already won and is now trying to eradicate the last remaining “heretics”. The usual suspect in these cases is fundy islam, though I trust you'll find other examples if you search for a while.
But before we can tell whether the same can be said about the US (from whence the common complaints originate), we should first examine what exactly “persecution” means...
Have a look at the following definitions. One is that of “religious persecution” on Wikipedia, the other is the generic definition from... oh well, you are able to read, I stated the source.
Main Entry: per·se·cu·tion
Function:
noun
: punishment or harassment usually of a severe
nature on the basis of race, religion, or political opinion in one's
country of origin <claimed persecution and sought asylum>
(Merriam-Webster's dictionary of law)
Religious persecution is the persecution of individuals within a group in the struggle to maintain their religious identity, or the abuse of power by an individual or organization that causes members of a religious group to suffer. Persecution in this case may refer to unwarranted arrest, false imprisonment, beatings, torture, unjustified execution, denial of benefits, and denial of civil rights and liberties. It also may refer to the confiscation or destruction of property, or incitement to hate among other things.
(Wikipedia, definition of “religious persecution”)
With this in mind, I present two scenarios to you. Answer to yourself: Which one, if any, of these constitutes persecution?
1. You are allowed to do whatever you want to do provided you don't harrass, attack, or otherwise intrude on the freedoms of someone else. Trying to get your country's legislation to impose laws that make your, and only your, beliefs et cetera legal to the exclusion of everyone else's is, much to your chagrin, included in “intrude on the freedoms” here.
2. You have to control all your actions, all your spoken words (not yet your thoughts, but who knows what the future might bring?) whenever there is the possibility that someone who's not 100 % trustworthy might catch it up. Saying one wrong word may easily get you jailed. Or tortured. Or lynched by a mob. Or even made one of the countless victims of industrial-style mass-extermination by ThemTM, whoever They might be. Even if you're lucky and aren't in physical danger once you're cought, you may still lose all property you have and be forced from your home, your land, your country, with nothing but the clothes you wear and (hopefully!) your physical health.
So which one of these scenarios is “persecution” to you? The first one is basically the basis of modern-time human rights, in effect in the US and elsewhere – you're free to roam unless you intrude on your neighbor's freedom. The second one is freely modeled after totalitarian regimes like those of hitler and stalin in their times.
Now let's look at today's US.
Are christians, even fundamentalists, disallowed to believe in their respective interpretations of da wholly babble? Unless they want to convince others of their beliefs, no. And even in the latter case, are they being arrested or worse for the sole act of trying to proselytize?
No.
They may get in trouble if they keep preaching to someone after she said “No thanks, I don't want to know”... but then, that would happen eventually to everyone no matter what he's trying to talk about. But what gets them into trouble, then, has nothing whatsoever to do with their beliefs – just with their actions.
What else do we have? School prayer is sure to be mentioned. Fundies unthinkingly claim that “the bible is forbidden in our public schools” et al. You know the nonsense. I challenge every fundie who wants to claim this to present to me valid evidence of one single case where, say, a student got into any trouble for taking a bible to school, or reading it, or praying unless he's not paying attention to class, persistently tries to proselytize et al. And if that student gets into trouble that “unless” way, see above – nothing about beliefs here, just about obnoxious actions.
In a way, I think this partially is caused by some fundamental (cough cough) difference in how one defines “freedom”. Freedom to do whatever you want, no matter what others think, is actually more like anarchy to me. I don't like your face? Oh well, I'll just pump you full of lead. Hey, it's my freedom to do so! Cool! Wait a moment, why are you aiming a shotgun at me? What? You don't like my face? Gee, suddenly I don't find that total freedom that cool anymore...
Freedom in a structured society has to have exactly two limits if you ask me: Your freedom ends where it either intrudes on other's freedom (well, unless there's a damn good reason for that, like subduing a murderer caught in the act until she can be taken by the authorities), or where it is part of a collective effort to commit suicide (i. e. voters giving their votes to a party or similar that decidedly wants to impose a dictatorship). Yes I do think that in some cases people have to be protected from abusing themselves by using their rights. Granted that this second part is debatable, but to the German who I am, keeping in mind the recent history of my country, this makes a lot of sense. After all, the German voters and Reichstag once officially got hitler into power...
Oh, one last thing:
Even without thinking long and hard, there's at least one piece of damn strong evidence against that persecution babble from the fundies...
TBN.
As long as this obnoxious 24/7 brainwashing channel (and others just like that one) is still on air, each and every fundie ranting about being persecuted should better duck and run fast before he gets justly punished for revealing a mindboggling amount of idiocy. So your government is Anti-ChristianTM and wants to get rid of you “True BelieversTM”, eh? Then I dare say you don't have anything to fear – as long as They are so criminally stupid to allow their enemy's propaganda to be broadcasted nonstop, they won't be able to mount any major attack on you anyway. And while we're at it, allowing such money-machines like “Dr.” hoover's, err, hovind's Dinosaur Adventure Land et al to stay in business consitutes the same amount of idiocy by Them.
You can start considering whether you are being persecuted after TBN, DAL, and all your mega-churches have been force-closed by the government. Not one second sooner.
Just the facts ma'am.