So why do Christians here in the United States have such a persecution complex

[Minimalist]

Kitan,  when was this history supposed to be when they were historically nice,  but killed for merely believing in god?

Brush up on the history of religion.  In the very beginning, when the word of Jesus was first spreading and Christianity was first beginning to be created, Christians were good people who died merely for believing in the Christian concept of God.  They were killed by the Romans.  I am certain Min can verify this.

Actually, no.  That's mainly horseshit from a later time.  I highly recommend Candida Moss' "The Myth of Persecution."

http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth...ersecuted/

Moss, professor of New Testament and early Christianity at the University of Notre Dame, challenges some of the most hallowed legends of the religion when she questions what she calls “the Sunday school narrative of a church of martyrs, of Christians huddled in catacombs out of fear, meeting in secret to avoid arrest and mercilessly thrown to lions merely for their religious beliefs.” None of that, she maintains, is true. In the 300 years between the death of Jesus and the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, there were maybe 10 or 12 scattered years during which Christians were singled out for supression by Rome’s imperial authorities, and even then the enforcement of such initiatives was haphazard — lackadaisical in many regions, although harsh in others. “Christians were never,” Moss writes, “the victims of sustained, targeted persecution.”

These people have been bullshitting themselves for so long that they have made it into an art form.

[Silver]

Thank you for correcting me, Min.

[Cato]

Typical manufactured offense.

The unsportsmanlike penalty given to #15 on the touchdown at 4:40 left in the game was his second of the game, which, by rule, is an automatic ejection.  That is the reason he was ejected on the call.  The call by itself would not warrant an ejection.

This fact is strangely ignored by those making this a matter of Christian persecution. 

Form another report:

According to a source, the official called the pointing "taunting," and that Banda was warned earlier in the game about it.

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/high-school/2015/10/31/dysart-running-back-pedro-banda-ejected-pointing-sky-after-touchdown/74969096/?hootPostID=d3c233f0e9b1e18effc55e02426b261c

This idiot has no excuse. He was already warned via a previous unsportsmanlike conduct. Even if he disagreed with the interpretation, he was warned. Anyone who has participated in officiated sports knows all too well what happens when warnings are ignored. It's called showing up the ref/ump, doesn't matter a fuck if the ref/ump is right and never ends well for the player. This is a well understood part of the game. The kid deserved the penalty and consequent ejection. It had nothing to do with god.

Another aspect of this that the professional offense takers should keep in mind is that athletes are glorifying god all the time at all levels of all sports. It's reasonable to conclude that there is more to this than a simple acknowledgement of the glory of god on a high school football field. I would prefer not to see it because I think it's silly, even for those who believe for various reasons. I hate ubiquitous spitting in baseball far more than I do someone crossing himself before each at bat. The persecution reaction is simply ridiculous.

[vorlon13]

I'm reminded of something a Unitarian pastor told me long ago:

the Pilgrims didn't leave England and come to America to escape religious persecution, they came to America to spread religious persecution.