Thanks; it's very valuable to learn from your perspective.
> Long term, religious people are worried that our institution and faith will not be allowed to continue if a super-majority deems us unworthy - as we have seen through history.
A sincere question: I can see that risk for small religious minorities facing a history of discrimtination (e.g., Jews and Muslims). But most people talking about this are white-skinned Protestants and Catholics. Have they ever been subject to discrimination in the U.S.? And aren't they the most powerful political grouping in the country?
There was discrimination against Catholics in prior generations, but I don't see that now (just look at the Supreme Court!).
It is indeed a sincere question! I'd love to whole-heartily agree with you that our country is a bastion of tolerance and courtesy, and in the grand sweep of history we could argue such.
But I would also say that we have persecuted the weak from the start - Native populations, African-Americans, Irish, and Japanese to name a few.
From a religious and biological standpoint our greatest persecution is our most recent - we have (in my opinion) disposed of 50,000,000 children in the womb during the last 40 years for various reasons.
So, while indeed Christians have nothing to fear based on our numbers, I could imagine that in the future that our claim a supernatural relationship with an unprovable entity will be deem us mentally unfit and not worthy of consideration.
Oddly enough our Bible acknowledges us as crazy " We are fools for Christ! [...] We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!" in 1 Corinthians.
The weird bit - from a Christian perspective, we Christians deserve persecution.
We have been given the faith and love of Jesus Christ, and we have not shared that love and kindness with our neighbors. From our standpoint, those that have been given much will be called to account, and (again from our standpoint) we have been given everything in Christ Jesus.
Thanks for taking the time to answer. There is too little conversation between different parts of the political spectrum, too much of an echo chamber for everyone, and we end up not taking other people's interests into account.
Certainly I agree that many groups have been persecuted, and I understand how abortion could be very troubling depending on your beliefs. To me, persectution of Christians seems to be a far-off, theoretical possibility at this point, but it's too easy to downlplay risks that won't affect me. I certainly see that, in some settings, taking a religious approach to an issue would be a non-starter, so in that respect people with strong religious beliefs are marginalized.
Thanks again. It's very interesting and enlightening.
That is because largely these laws won't be weaponized to stick it to them. There was a youtube video of a guy going around to Muslim bakers trying to get them to bake him a gay wedding cake, which they of course refused. And the US media collectively mouthed a we-do-not-give-a-fuck.
>And aren't they the most powerful political grouping in the country?
If they really were, they would have stopped this ruling presumably.
> Long term, religious people are worried that our institution and faith will not be allowed to continue if a super-majority deems us unworthy - as we have seen through history.
A sincere question: I can see that risk for small religious minorities facing a history of discrimtination (e.g., Jews and Muslims). But most people talking about this are white-skinned Protestants and Catholics. Have they ever been subject to discrimination in the U.S.? And aren't they the most powerful political grouping in the country?
There was discrimination against Catholics in prior generations, but I don't see that now (just look at the Supreme Court!).