Meanwhile, particularly over the Christmas holidays but even now, during the summer, I hear silly things about Christianity in the United States such as: “Christianity is under attack on the political, educational and media front.” So said one John Newby with NewsWithViews, an online site, way back on December 26, 2004. The same sentiment continues just as shrilly today. It was not uncommon this past holiday season to hear report after report by religious commentators complaining about negative portrayals of Christians and Christianity in the media, and decrying the work of the ACLU to get Nativity scenes off of public property, and the like. A search on the web will find various sites devoted to “fighting back” and shouting about how religious freedom is under attack in America.
Frankly, people who say such things strike me as being wildly out of touch with reality. If Tutu’s rights had actually been infringed as he imagined, then that would mean he was arrested, his writings burned, and that he had disappeared into a jail cell. After all, that is what happened to him in
Likewise, if Christianity were actually under attack in this country, that would mean I wouldn’t find Bibles and religious books weighing down the shelves in the local library, Walmart and Barnes and Nobel. It would mean that the Christmas wrapping, cards, and trees would not be available any longer come Christmas. It would mean that the churches that one finds every few blocks would have been converted to museums of atheism and I would have to fear arrest if I muttered “God bless you” when someone sneezed. The youth groups who regularly go to Christian concerts and listen to loud rock and roll and rap done by famous and relatively well-paid Christian bands would instead be hiding in their basements sharing their hidden MP3s.
Real persecution against Christians is what happens in those parts of the world controlled by ISIS where they round up Christians and saw their heads off and sell their women into slavery.
What Tutu seemed to have been bothered by, and what some Christians today seem bothered by, is that there are people who actually dare disagree with them. Or that someone made fun of them. Or that someone said a harsh word. Or that someone argued against their political or religious point of view. Those who are bothered by public criticism of their words need to grow thicker skins and realize that they are not gods giving pronouncements from
To me, such public arguing sounds remarkably like freedom at work. If I hear someone say something that I don’t like or disagree with, I can speak up and tell them they are a bozo. If I don’t like what someone writes, I can write against them. I can create a blog, I can pass out flyers, I can write a book or letters to the editor, or leave vicious comments on websites or Facebook. I can create a website and shout at the world. And the government will never intervene. If people are speaking in public, I can heckle them. That might be rude, but hey, rudeness is part of life. I think there’s a rather long tradition of heckling in America.
The story is told of Calvin Coolidge that one night as he was sitting at the dinner table, his young son called him a name. Calvin just sat quietly, a thoughtful look on his face. His wife glared at her husband in shock. “Aren’t you going to do something about that?!”
“Well,” said Calvin. “If he’s speaking to me as his father, then I suppose I should probably spank him. But if he’s speaking to me as the President of the
Freedom is a wonderful thing. But I think that some people have forgotten or fail to notice that they are free, and that they are surrounded by a bunch of other people who are free, too, who might freely take issue with what they say or think or do. Sometimes rudely, even. That’s kind of the nature of freedom. It means everyone is free, not just me.