[HMc]

Originally Posted by verbaljitsu

Your definition of persecution is hilarious. But even so, it is other religious people perpetrating the "persecution" you are talking about. You are subtly changing the definition of the word, and also changing the context of this argument. Christian person poses dumb video > some non-Christians making fun of it > leads to persecution complex from Christians. Nothing done in this thread could constitute persecution. Frankly I don't think anything done in any meaningful or significant way in this country could constitute persecution of Christians. Religion is not an immutable characteristic. To the extent that it annoys Christians that people don't immediately slob all of their knob to tell them how much they love their particular dogmatic bullshit, it does not constitute persecution. Disagreement does not constitute persecution. Since there is no way to tell what religion (if any) someone is, without them first telling you, and it is basically illegal under Title VII to so much as inquire in employment settings your persecution complex is laughable. Since roughly 3/4 of the country shares belief in the basic tenets of Christianity, your notion is laughable. Call me unsympathetic to even potentially legitimate claims of (for example) the Catholics being persecuted in the Bible Belt, since the entire history of the Catholic church is wrought with REAL persecution (you know, burning jews at the stake, torturing people on the rack, committing genocide).

You are right that Christians, Jews, and Muslims perpetually persecute one another. It is almost so ubiquitous as to be part of the character flaw that is religion. However, it has nothing to do with the context of the thread which is whining that non-believers are meany heads for making fun of a reeruned video in an internet message board. This is not and never will be persecution regardless of how desperately you want it to be.

Your point about minority oppression of majorities is completely vacuous. I've already explained several of the factors that contribute to that happening. None are present in modern day America. Minorities can oppress majorities when the minority has all the economic power (men vs. women), when they are backed by an outside power that is rich and technologically powerful (the Hutus and Tutsis + Belgium), or when the majority is only hanging on by a thread (men vs. women).

Christians make up 3/4 of the country, have vast swaths of economic power (largely because of the tax code), and America IS the most powerful country in the world which insulates American Christians from the effects of outside intervention. Generally and ironically, when minorities dominate majorities, there is a religious component. Religions generally have economic power and can inspire people to do cosmically stupid things. It is very difficult to muster secular forces to take on entrenched religious forces.

Holy crap. Can you throw a reasonable deep ball?

rep