Religious Huddling From the Big Bad World

For a religion as predominant in our American culture as evangelical Christianity, it astounds me how its adherents go to great pains to characterize themselves as being persecuted. But then again, that shouldn't come as a surprise; they probably don't want to recognize the many centuries of Christian persecution of others, instead blindly reverting to "first-century" Christianity as a blueprint for their worldview.

The New Testament clearly paints a picture of persecuted Christians, either from the ruling pagan Romans or the Jewish religious ruling class in Judea. In order to escape arrest, they would secretly meet in believers' homes or in hidden underground locations. The meetings were a kind of "huddling", within which participants could discuss their various attempts to withstand the pressures of the evil outside world to make them renounce their faith. I have to admit to a degree of admiration for these brave early believers.

But it is nothing short of comical to attend family groups of evangelical Christians nowadays and hear people sit around in in elegant living rooms throwing out the same spiel about being persecuted. What they are really saying is that they don't want to have to see or hear anything in the so-called "outside world" that contradicts their religious dogma. So "secular" music, television, and movies are somehow persecuting them by existing. Even science (like evolutionary biology and cosmology) is a threat; hence a whole new branch of religious apologetics called "creation science". And if our democracy puts into office politicians whose priorities don't include discriminating against groups of people evangelicals disapprove of (like gays), then oh, how they are so persecuted!