Persecution & Other Tragedies Not Talked About

[Excel]

 

Let's imagine we asked an observant Muslim which popular religion is the most persecuted these days, what would he say? I'd bet he'd say Islam:

 

 

Based on biased and anecdotal evidence. Not that Christians wouldn't say the same thing, but the ISHR is a self-described "secular" group that estimates 80% of religious discrimination is targetted towards Christians. I'm trying to track down the report, but even if their numbers are over-exaggerated, 80% towards one group? Idk man.

 

Regardless, still not the point.

 

 

...and it's based in Frankfurt and publishes its reports in German and English. I can almost guarantee you that there's some "Center for Islamic Learning" in Jeddah or Riyadh that disagrees.

 

I may be being biased though because I naturally assume that a LL thread is going to involve blowing something hugely out of proportion.

[BigRedBuster]

What I find odd in this conversation is that so many on here show great compassion for various groups because of various bad things that are done to them. However, when someone posts facts about Christians being killed because of their religion, it is..."laughable" or people have a "meh....not a big deal" attitude. No matter statistically how it stacks up, I find it troubling that people are killed because of their religion no matter if they are Hindu, Muslim or Christian or what ever. But, when Christianity is brought up as one of the religions that is being persecuted, it's basically laughed off as no big deal.

[Landlord]

 

I may be being biased though because I naturally assume that a LL thread is going to involve blowing something hugely out of proportion.

 

 

 

Lots and lots and lots of people regardless of faith are being killed. I hope I will be the kind of person that always errs on the side of getting too worked up about stuff like that than on the side of diminishing it for a good laugh or something.

[Excel]

What I find odd in this conversation is that so many on here show great compassion for various groups because of various bad things that are done to them. However, when someone posts facts about Christians being killed because of their religion, it is..."laughable" or people have a "meh....not a big deal attitude". No matter statistically how it stacks up, I find it troubling that people are killed because of their religion no matter if they are Hindu, Muslim or Christian or what ever. But, when Christianity is brought up as one of the religions that is being persecuted, it's basically laughed off as no big deal.

 

I never laughed off people's deaths, I laughed off the idea that they were part of some gigantic worldwide campaign of persecution of Christianity there's a difference. Do you laugh about 9/11 or the Kennedy assasination? No, most people don't but many people laugh at their related consipracy theorists.

[Excel]

 

 

 

I may be being biased though because I naturally assume that a LL thread is going to involve blowing something hugely out of proportion.

 

 

Lots and lots and lots of people regardless of faith are being killed. I hope I will be the kind of person that always errs on the side of getting too worked up about stuff like that than on the side of diminishing it for a good laugh or something.

People have always died and a fair amount of them get killed by other people. It's always been this way and no amount of emotion or compassion will prevent it in the future. You will die, I will die and eventually (fairly quickly) no one will remember and the world will keep spinning. You're trying to make sense of these things and apply broad labels to them like "persecution" or painting me and others with very very broad strokes, that's fine because it helps you function. A world in which bad things happen for reasons that don't make sense is just too painful for you to handle. It has to be persecution or part of some huge plan or conspiracy. That must be very difficult.

[Landlord]

 

People have always died and a fair amount of them get killed by other people. It's always been this way and no amount of emotion or compassion will prevent it in the future. You will die, I will die and eventually (fairly quickly) no one will remember and the world will keep spinning. You're trying to make sense of these things and apply broad labels to them like "persecution" or painting me and others with very very broad strokes, that's fine because it helps you function. A world in which bad things happen for reasons that don't make sense is just too painful for you to handle. It has to be persecution or part of some huge plan or conspiracy. That must be very difficult.

 

 

Emotion and compassion save lives all the time.

 

 

I'm not making any definitive statements about you - only myself.

 

Yes, a world where bad things happen is painful to me. That leads me to want to make it better. Again, I'd much rather always stray too far that direction than the other.

[JJ Husker]

the idea of being upset with someone for not being concerned about the most egregious injustice is ludicrous. you can be a fighter for justice and only fight for animal rights or something. we are finite beings with limited resources (including time). odd to begrudge someone for your valuations of injustices.

Had to +1 this. I think of this often because we are constantly bombarded with requests for financial support for this or that cause. If we gave even only $5 to every worthwhile request we would all soon be broke. There is only so much a person can do or truly be concerned with.

[Landlord]

the idea of being upset with someone for not being concerned about the most egregious injustice is ludicrous. you can be a fighter for justice and only fight for animal rights or something. we are finite beings with limited resources (including time). odd to begrudge someone for your valuations of injustices.

 

 

I really don't disagree with this and probably expressed myself poorly.

 

 

There is a difference between someone who has found or decided their calling to do their individual part towards certain things, and someone that just gets worked up about certain issues 'just because'. Not accusing anyone of being either of those things, as it's a matter of motivation and intent and nobody else can really say what those are for someone other than themselves, but let's not act like that isn't the case for plenty of people.

[sd'sker]

Had to +1 this. I think of this often because we are constantly bombarded with requests for financial support for this or that cause. If we gave even only $5 to every worthwhile request we would all soon be broke. There is only so much a person can do or truly be concerned with.

i always feel bad whenever mcdonalds or walgreens asks for a dollar donation. sometimes i say yes, usually i try to say no (and feel selfish). but i am only buying a dollar coffee or something. and i do not even know where that money is really going. ugh. i guess i should just budget and specifically allocate certain funds to charity.

 

obviously any persecution is extremely serious. but the christian church is a powerful, worldwide organization. it can handle this problem, or influence those who can, as well as anyone. i usually save my ire for the groups that are marginalized and persecuted.

[strigori]

The issue isnt necessarily Christians being persecuted as it is the minority religion being persecuted in many of those parts of the world. There is just people who have an interest in writing about it in this part of the world. And generally speaking, every religion tends to say they are the most persecuted religion. Being attacked from the outside tends to draw groups tighter, giving more money and power to the leaders.

 

For most of American History if you were non-Christian you were going to have problems. Its nothing new.

[EbylHusker]

The issue isnt necessarily Christians being persecuted as it is the minority religion being persecuted in many of those parts of the world. There is just people who have an interest in writing about it in this part of the world. And generally speaking, every religion tends to say they are the most persecuted religion. Being attacked from the outside tends to draw groups tighter, giving more money and power to the leaders.

 

For most of American History if you were non-Christian you were going to have problems. Its nothing new.

This is it exactly. Whether you're a minority in terms of religion, ethnicity, or whatever - you're probably going to run into persecution in various regions around the world and to varying degrees. That's how it has always been and isn't unique to any one religion or ethnicity.

[BigRedBuster]

 

 

For most of American History if you were non-Christian you were going to have problems. Its nothing new.

So now non-Christians have been persecuted in the US for most of American History?

[strigori]

 

 

 

For most of American History if you were non-Christian you were going to have problems. Its nothing new.

So now non-Christians have been persecuted in the US for most of American History?

 

Fear for their lives persecuted, generally not. Have to deal with a mountain of crap? Yeah. Made to feel, or even outright told, they are not welcome in an establishment or community? Yeah. Hell, George H.W. Bush even made statements that the constitution should not apply to atheists.

 

We all live in the post civil rights era, where history has tended to be white washed to protect the image of the grandfathers and such. The world was not as rosy as those 'classic' black and white movies portray things.

[Landlord]

Click through for full size version and article:

 

 

[Landlord]

 

 

J-Man, we're sitting in front of computers on an internet message board. I'll agree with you that +1ing stuff as a poll is stupid (although it spreads +1s around, which is fun), but what are we supposed to do?

 

What do you do about this situation, this persecution that you're bringing up? How do you battle it, and how would you suggest we all battle it?

 

 

Talking about it is as good of a start as any. You can't tell me that silence is neutral, or that voices don't educate and help injustice. That's something that is so effortless but is so needed - it's a good return on investment.

 

 

 

 

Can't explain how much I stand behind this - voices talking leads to ignorance being exposed. Take the human trafficking thing for instance. How often did you hear about it before the last few years? But now we've got the End It movement and tons and tons of organizations and ideas sprouting up all over the place to fight sex trafficking and it's actually making progress and rescuing women and children.