There’s a vocal subset of American Christians who delight in whining about an imaginary “War on Christmas” and proclaiming that “militant atheists” are waging a battle to outlaw their beliefs. From the depths of their persecution syndrome they’re unable to see that what they’re really complaining about is that they don’t have free reign to force their nonsense on everybody else (we have nonsense enough of our own to deal with already, thankyouverymuch).
I’d like to suggest that these folks look to recent events in India for a taste of what real persecution is like. Hindu extremists have driven more than 50,000 Christians from their homes, killed dozens at least, and forced many conversions at knife- or gun-point.
All because two groups of people disagree on which variety of invisible magician to believe in.
This sort of action is unforgivable, whether it’s done in the name of Ganesh or Allah or Jehovah or Odin or no god at all, no matter what religious or ethnic group is the target.
“This is what’s coming to America!” will argue the craziest of the conspiracy theists (a phrase which I hope I’ve just coined for the first time, because I really like the way it sounds and would like to take credit for it!), their heads filled with visions of demonic atheist hordes herding believers into forced abortion camps. Never mind that we live in a nation where it’s nearly impossible (and, in fact, illegal in several states) for an atheist to hold political office, and many elections for the highest positions in the land have boiled down to who can squeeze God into the most speeches.
These last 8 years under Bushevism have driven home the lesson that “it could never happen here” is a short-sighted statement, so I won’t say it here. But it’s clear that we’re a long, long way from becoming a society that would allow real persecution of Christians. On the flip side, we have politicians openly seeking endorsements from vocal anti-semites who celebrate the Holocaust, open rejection of the idea of a Muslim (or someone whose name sounds Islamic) holding public office, bad actors turned bad pundits suggesting atheists should be tattooed for identification, and even a former president making the claim that atheists are neither citizens nor patriots.
As an American atheist I don’t feel persecuted – certainly not in comparison to what’s going on in India – but if violence of that sort does come to this country, I can make an educated guess at who the targets might be.
I do agree that Americans certainly do a lot if whining! At the same time I do think that much of the antipathy towards atheism in American (which can be seen in this article) can be tied towards the banning of prayer in American schools and by the recent activities of the “New Atheists”. Of course, the cold war and militant atheism in the Soviet Union likely fueled a lot of anti-atheists sentiment as well in America.