Persecution Complex

[vulcanlogician]

How appropriate is it for Christians to have a persecution complex? I mean, Christians were pretty much in charge of the Western world since the fall of the Roman Empire. How did they treat those who were of a different faith than themselves?

The answer is simple. They killed them.


My question is this: if the way Christians are treated in modern times (ie having to bake cakes for lesbians) counts as persecution then what the FUCK do you call killing anyone who doesn't agree with you? How can any Christian fail to recognize that their perceived persecution pales in comparison to the shit they've been dishing out for centuries? If they do admit that what Christians have done historically is wrong, then they at least ought to humbly accept the fact that they no longer deserve to be in power. They had their chance and they blew it.

There seems to be some cognitive dissonance going on here. I'd love to hear from any Christians on the matter (whether you buy into this persecution nonsense or not). I understand that Christians actually were persecuted by the Pharisees in Israel and then under Nero in Rome. That was wrong. You'd just think that, since most of that was documented in the NT, that Christians would have not repeated it against others. "Do unto others" right?


Any atheists here ever been accused of persecution? IRL, I mean, not by some whackjob who strolled onto the forums...

[Fireball]

I recall hearing about how we would be picked on for praying over a meal if we were in public, by nuns. Never seen that happen. It's an indoctrination technique where people can actually do whatever they want, while (in their own minds) they are rebellious. Get that little frisson of rebellion while being a muppet for god.   And if anyone says 'Boo!" about god, they squeal persecution, while able to go into their churches unrestricted, anytime.

[brewer]

In my neck of the woods none (almost none) of the christians talk about their own personal persecution. They walk around and live their lives believing almost everyone is christian (which locally for the most part is true). But, they still get bent out of shape over perceived christian persecutions in far off lands.

Like California, Florida, New York, ................

[Minimalist]

then what the FUCK do you call killing anyone who doesn't agree with you?

God's work?

[Minimalist]

The OP reminded me of a passage I had read in J. P. Jenkins' "The Jesus Wars."

An event that occurred in Constantinople around the year 511 suggests the parallels. The church of the day had a beloved hymn, the Trisagion or Thrice Holy, which praised, “Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal” (Orthodox churches sing it to this day). But the emperor, Anastasius, wanted to revise it in the Monophysite fashion, by lauding this God “Who was crucified for our sakes.” The new formula proclaimed that it was God alone who walked the soil of Palestine in the first century and suffered on the cross, a view that ignores the human reality of Jesus. So angry were the capital’s residents that they launched a bloody riot:

Persons of rank and station were brought into extreme danger, and many principal parts of the city were set on fire. In the house of Marinus the Syrian, the populace found a monk from the country. They cut off his head, saying that the clause had been added at his instigation; and having fixed it upon a pole, jeeringly exclaimed: “See the plotter against the Trinity!”42

 

We can imagine the response if, in the twenty-first century, a Muslim mob beheaded a dissident theologian and paraded the grisly trophy around the streets. Not only would the crime be (properly) denounced, but Westerners would assume that such behavior was part of the fundamental character of that religion—a bloodthirsty, warlike intolerance that could be traced back to the sternest passages of the Quran. The beheading would be seen as a trademark of Islamic fanaticism. Surely, we would say, Christians would never act like that. But they assuredly did.

All fine xtians.  So Holy.

[vorlon13]

then what the FUCK do you call killing anyone who doesn't agree with you?

God's work?

PRAISE Jesus !!!

[Whateverist]

In my neck of the woods none (almost none) of the christians talk about their own personal persecution. They walk around and live their lives believing almost everyone is christian (which locally for the most part is true). But, they still get bent out of shape over perceived christian persecutions in far off lands.

Like California, Florida, New York, ................

Always happy to help keep them riled up for you.

[Godscreated]

How appropriate is it for Christians to have a persecution complex? I mean, Christians were pretty much in charge of the Western world since the fall of the Roman Empire. How did they treat those who were of a different faith than themselves?

The answer is simple. They killed them.


My question is this: if the way Christians are treated in modern times (ie having to bake cakes for lesbians) counts as persecution then what the FUCK do you call killing anyone who doesn't agree with you? How can any Christian fail to recognize that their perceived persecution pales in comparison to the shit they've been dishing out for centuries? If they do admit that what Christians have done historically is wrong, then they at least ought to humbly accept the fact that they no longer deserve to be in power. They had their chance and they blew it.

There seems to be some cognitive dissonance going on here. I'd love to hear from any Christians on the matter (whether you buy into this persecution nonsense or not). I understand that Christians actually were persecuted by the Pharisees in Israel and then under Nero in Rome. That was wrong. You'd just think that, since most of that was documented in the NT, that Christians would have not repeated it against others. "Do unto others" right?


Any atheists here ever been accused of persecution? IRL, I mean, not by some whackjob who strolled onto the forums...

 Christians in the US do not see themselves as persecuted, for the most part anyways. We do see that some of our rights have been infringed on and some may call that persecution but I don't. Of coarse you know the old saying give them an inch and they'll take a mile, we as Christians have to be observant and watch out for that very thing to happen. We do tend to get complaisant.
  Christians in other parts of the world are kill for their beliefs and that is real persecution. 
The Church was responsible for a great deal of killing and that Church is still powerful today, the Catholic Church wanted power and they got it and used it in the wrong ways, Today's church is not like that nor are we responsible for the terrible and callous acts of the past. 
 Even though some Christians are being killed in their church services I see that as individual crazies and not organized persecution.

GC

[vulcanlogician]

 Christians in the US do not see themselves as persecuted, for the most part anyways.

I don't know, GC. You see such things spouted by the likes of Jim Bakker and Pat Robertson. And, as far as I can tell, it's rubbing off on ordinary Christians. I've known quite a few people personally who have had this attitude. One guy I used to hang with in South Carolina was into it really hard. But it isn't something the majority of Christians subscribe to or anything.

[vorlon13]

Didn't take the Lutherans too long to figure out the home court advantage of executing dissidents for Jesus too . . . .

I think the Mormons also picked up on it themselves hundreds of years later . . . .