The False Belief of Persecution

WARNING: I'm about to be political because I can't separate my politics from my beliefs and point of view. There may also be swearing. Skip this post if you want. I won't judge.

In a previous post I talked about misogyny and it's role in the 2016 election. Misogyny is one of the reasons that is thrown up as a reason why some of the people I know voted for our current POTUS. As I stated in that post, the reasons are more varied than these three, but these are the three reasons I have heard in almost every conversation I have had. To recap these reasons are:

• Misogyny 
• Perceived persecution against Christians
• Illegal immigration

Today I'm going to try to tackle this perceived notion that predominantly white evangelical Christians in the United States, are being persecuted. I don't think I'll change any minds, for those who believe they are being persecuted do so with fervor and not many will be swayed from their belief. I'm not trying to be derogatory. When a person's belief is linked deeply to a person's identity and sense of self it can be difficult to confront that belief because to do so can be perceived as a loss of self.  If I am not my belief, then I am nothing.

That said, I've been hearing the message of Christian persecution since I was a kid living in Western Canada. I've had to parse out what this means because when I look at the USA I don't see the persecution of Christians. Let's start with a definition of persecution. According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary to persecute is :

[to] harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict; specifically to cause to suffer because of belief.  Merriam-Webster

This definition is really specific - to cause to suffer because of belief. There are Christians in this world who suffer because of what they belief, but Christians in North America are not among them. We aren't in danger of losing our jobs. We aren't in danger of being rounded up and being imprisoned. We aren't being harassed on the street for being Christians. We aren't being forced to renounce our faith. Our lives are not in danger. Our places of worship aren't about to be burned down because we are Christians, despite what people may believe was the motivating factors in the tragic mass shooting in Charleston, SC in 2015. (which was race related, in case you were wondering.)

What some Christians are experiencing is pushback. And why is there pushback? While I'm sure there are many reasons, the one that stands out to me is this habit of certain groups of Christians to want to impose their beliefs on everyone and to legislate morality. To create a Christian state instead of keeping a separation of church and state. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than these two things:  the fight for and against marriage equality, and the desire to legislate what a woman can and cannot do with her body. For this post I'm going to focus on the former.

According to Time magazine, while the Supreme Court ruled for marriage equality, making gay marriage legal in all 50 states, there are states that are retaliating by trying to passing religious freedom acts that, in some cases, discriminate against LGBTQA+ couples when they apply for adoption services, or try to find someone to officiate their wedding. Or even finding somewhere to hold their wedding. Cater it. In Kansas a freedom of religion bill was passed that discriminates against college/university students and their right to take any type of action against any religious student associations that reject them as members or deny them the use of meeting space. The legislation doesn't differentiate between those higher ed institutions that are subsidized by tax dollars and those that are private. This is important so remember this.

The LGBTQA+ community is pushing back. In Colorado there is an ongoing court case between a gay couple and a Christian baker who refused to sell them a wedding cake. This case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, but the Department of Justice has already come down on the side of the baker. You can read the article for the details, or review the court documents from the original case. What this boils down to is a Christian denied services to a gay couple on the grounds that making them a wedding cake would go against his moral beliefs. He discriminated against the gay couple. Because they are gay.

Christians have been weighing in on this case since this made news back in 2012. And what several conservative Christian leaders have said is that the baker is not in the wrong. The state is in the wrong to try to force the baker to go against his religious beliefs. I've read the phrase reverse discrimination. I've heard people say this is a violation of the baker's rights. But what about the rights of this couple? Isn't the baker openly discriminating against them because they are gay?

Other examples I've been given as proof of persecution are things such as the removal of prayer from public schools and the removal of Christian icons from state buildings. And I shake my head every time. Why? Because public schools, courthouses, state capitals, and other public spaces are paid for by taxpayer dollars. Which means it falls under the separation of church and state. Either we remove all religious symbols and activities from such spaces or we allow religious symbols and activities from all religions and belief systems in these spaces. Including Muslim, Wiccan, Pagan, Hindi, Native, even Atheistic.

Push back. This case, and all the other cases where states are trying to block LGBTQA+ rights, we are seeing push back by people who want the same rights as every cis* heterosexual person or couple in this country. The right to adopt and raise children. The right to marry and form a family. The right to not have to worry about discrimination on the job, at school, in the streets. The rights we take for granted. Rights that various Christians would continue to deny because their interpretation of the Bible and of God's will is that everyone be heterosexual and maintain the gender they were assigned at birth.

Christians aren't being persecuted. Christianity has been the dominant religion in this country for a very long time. And yet this country was founded on the separation of church and state as well as freedom of religion. This country has come to represent equality, a concept we seem to continue to miss the mark on. Either we treat everyone equally or we don't. Either everyone is allowed to practice their religion without fear or retribution, or no one is.

The older I get, the more I really wonder if certain groups of Christians are too literal in their belief in the Bible, and if that literalism is creating a culture of fear that requires a belief in persecution in order to exist. Maybe. Or maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm naive and a heretic for even thinking these things.

Either way, I'm okay with being the person who questions these things and who sees people as good and worthy as love now because that's how God created them. Not as people who need to be saved. But that's a post for another day.

*cis refers to cisgender

Gratitudes:

1. Gluten free sourdough bread. If only I could figure out how to make it for myself. 
2. Thug Kitchen. To quote their website: We’re the only website dedicated to verbally abusing you into a healthier diet. That's where the Internet bus driver just dropped your ass off.
3. ZZ Ward. Her music is the perfect soundtrack for my current book.

Photo by Fiona Moore via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 

Billy Graham: Beloved and Problematic

Billy Graham died today. In all honesty, I thought he passed away some time ago. When I heard the news of his passing, my first reaction was to shrug. My second was to mourn for those who have experienced harm due to his teachings.

Before you jump all over me for crapping on a beloved icon of western evangelicalism, let me state that the man was both great and problematic. He stood beside Martin Luther King Jr during the civil rights movement of the 50s and 60s. He believed there was no scriptural basis for segregation, and that Christianity was not a white man's religion (source).

He held an inclusive view of God's mercy, believing that God can and will save people in different religions, not just Christianity, and without an individual's proclamation of Jesus, or at least he did earlier in his ministry (source).

There are good things about Billy Graham. There are also problematic things. While he did support desegregation, he was slow to support it. Teachings attributed to Rev. Graham are anti-LGBTQIA. His interpretation and understanding of the Bible lead to the belief and reinforcement of strict gender roles. I know, because I grew up listening to and reading about these teachings. There are some who land these on Franklin Graham's feet (source), suggesting that there was elder abuse taking place (source), and that Rev. Graham's writings and sermons were ghost written (source), and that these views were not his own.

Whether that is the case or not, the teachings attributed to Billy Graham have hurt many. No grace has been extended to those who are gay. Marriage equality has taken far longer than it needed to because of people who took Rev. Graham's teachings and spun them out of control. LGBTQIA children and teens have been traumatized by people who tried to pray the gay out of them. They were told they were sinning, and their identities were denied them. Not all of them made it to adulthood. Girls were denied opportunities that were given to boys because of how far people took Rev. Graham's message of how he believed family was to function. Some took these teachings so far that they stole the female voice.

The very name of Billy Graham has been used as the boogie man in the closet who will sneak out and punish us if we step out of line.

I'm not going to get into what loving our neighbour means. And I'm not going to wish Rev. Graham to perdition. He was a man who had a sincere belief and a platform with which to share that belief. That doesn't make him 100% right. It doesn't make him 100% wrong. It makes him beloved and problematic. On one hand he taught love and acceptance. On the other hand, the very name of Billy Graham has been used to punish and revile anyone who isn't white, cis, and male. No where have I seen documentation that Billy Graham worked to reign in these messages of hate.

Maybe I'm wrong, and there is something I haven't found. I hope I'm wrong. I hope Billy Graham loved people just as they are, and didn't try to change them or vilify them because of their gender or sexual identity. I hope he wasn't as problematic as those who use his teachings as a blueprint for Christian living seem to be.

I hope I haven't offended you, but if you're reading this and you're thinking, "Naomi, you are walking very close to the edge of fallacy here," just remember, God is larger than we could ever comprehend and maybe what we believe isn't correct or right. Are you willing to die on that hill, or are you willing to cast a wide net and expand your definition of God and love? I hope Billy Graham was the latter, but when it comes to Rev. Graham, so many of us have experienced the former.


Gratitudes:

1. My editor, for being understanding when I can't hit deadlines.
2. Veterinarians who are kind and resourceful 
3. Virtue and Moir for being awesome

Shame

Gratitudes:

1. Vets with emergency hours who can talk me down when Velcro Dog is sick in the middle of the night.
2. Community. When you find that person/group of people who get you, it feels like coming home.
3. Sunshine that streams through the windows and creates little pockets of heat for Velcro Dog to nap in. 

I haven't blogged in a while, and that's because I've been tearing my novel apart and putting it back together. More on that on my author blog later. 

I've been thinking a lot about shame recently. I've been doing some research for my short series on what I feel are false beliefs within some flavors of Christianity. I have two more posts to write, and they will happen once my revisions are submitted to my editor. 

In the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about shame.  It's been a theme for me in the last couple of months. Someone may say something to me, something passive aggressive or casually judgemental, and I start to feel a fist close around my lungs. And my spirit shrinks, trying to take up as little space as possible. Any joy I felt prior to that comment leaches away.

The worst is when someone I care about, someone who cares about me, makes these comments and dismisses them because they don't understand why I enjoy certain things, -- Marvel movies for example -- or why I engage in social media. Or why I blog something for the entire world to see. Since they don't understand and their personal belief is that these things are a waste of time or worse, they feel emboldened to use shame to communicate their judgement of me.

And I deflate as shame presses in on me. My entire being feels...lost.

Shame is a powerful feeling. It encompases our entire identity.

Research indicates that when we feel shame, we globally de-value our entire sense of self. It is basically as if our physiology is telling us that (in our heads and hearts) we are a rather worthless person.  (Shame, Shame, Shame) 

That feeling you get where you feel you're completely unworthy and worthless - that's shame. And it eats away at the very core of who we are. So what can we do to counteract shame? According to all the reading and work I've done around shame, one of the keys is to become an integrated and authentic person. 

Shame is ubiquitous in our world. Parents shame children to get them to quickly fall in line. Spouses shame each other, either to mask their own pain or to get their way. Teachers shame students. Employers shame employees. Abusers use shame to make their abuse about the other person and keep them quiet. Christians shame fellow Christians and people outside their faith. Countries shame other countries. It's an epidemic. Why? My opinion, because shame works quickly to get people to shut up and step in line. It's a powerful tool, but one that should never be used.

Shame is all about identity. It cuts to our core and makes us doubt everything we think we know about ourselves. Of course it's going to garner quick results, but it devastates people in the process. There is no building up a person where shame is involved.

I'm learning to connect to my identity and to listen to that quiet voice inside myself that holds the truth about who I am. I'm re-entering therapy with a focus on identity. And to process some of my shame triggers. It's time to untangle the threads of shame from the tapestry of my life. I need to stop shame from eating away at me.

I hope your life is free of shame. If it isn't, it's important to figure out your shame triggers and false beliefs that surround them. You can do this in a few ways:

• Therapy - a good therapist is worth their weight in gold. 
• Read Brené Browns books, or watch her  TED talks, or YouTube videos - she discusses so much more than shame. I highly recommend her.
• Spend time journaling - you can gain a lot of insight about yourself through journaling
• Practice mindfulness - a great book on mindfulness is Mindfulness: An Eight-Week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World

Photo by frankieleon via Flickr (CC by 2.0)