One of the highest ranking cardinals in the Vatican has said that the United States is “well on the way” to the persecution of Christians.
Cardinal Raymond Burke, former Archbishop of St. Louis and now the head of the Vatican’s highest court, told Catholic News Agency that he could envision a time when the Catholic Church in the U.S., “even by announcing her own teaching,” is accused of “engaging in illegal activity, for instance, in its teaching on human sexuality.”
Asked if the cardinal could even see American Catholics being arrested for their faith he replied, “I can see it happening, yes.”
In his remarks to several U.S. Bishops meeting with him Saturday, Pope Benedict XVI made similarly emphatic warnings about the U.S. The pope told the bishops that “the seriousness of the challenges which the Church in America, under your leadership, is called to confront in the near future cannot be underestimated.”
He added: “The obstacles to Christian faith and practice raised by a secularized culture also affect the lives of believers.”
In the interview published today, Cardinal Burke declared that “it is a war” and “critical at this time that Christians stand up for the natural moral law.” Should they not, he warned, “secularization will in fact predominate and it will destroy us.”
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Nevermind the fact that more Christians live in the United States than in any other country on the planet you guys. Just ignore the fact that 3 in 4 Americans are Christian. Ignore this recent study which shows that nonbelievers overwhelmingly don't give a shit if someone else believes in God. Or how that same study shows that believers distrust atheists as much as rapists. Nevermind the fact that the government of the United States disobeys its own constitution by endorsing Christianity.
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume this Cardinal has never taken an introductory sociology class. See, there's this thing called "privilege." Privilege belongs to the dominant group. As a white male, I am a member of probably the most privileged group in the country. But as an agnostic-atheist, I am also part of a separate minority. Most individuals in the dominant group are not aware of their privilege, because they have never lived their lives without it.
Everyone accepts privilege because it's practically invisible. "Chivalry" is an example of accepted privilege. It's sexist. It implies that men should be nice to women, not because they should act like normal human beings, but because women are weak and powerless and they'll hopefully give up sex. I hold doors for men too, but nobody thinks better of me for it. Nor should they.
When a persecuted group is given more rights, some amount of privilege is taken away from the majority. And when that happens, the majority group starts feeling like they're the ones being persecuted. There are a ton of examples of this throughout American history.
And it hasn't stopped. Here's some irrelevant racist feeling persecuted because the president of the United States is black.
And here's some bigot whining that it's no longer socially acceptable to beat up faggots.
Let me give an example of how privilege has negatively affected me as an atheist. According to the Bylaws of the BSA, Declaration of Religious Principle:
"The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God. In the first part of the Scout Oath or Promise the member declares, ‘On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law.’ The recognition of God as the ruling and leading power in the universe and the grateful acknowledgment of His favors and blessings are necessary to the best type of citizenship and are wholesome precepts in the education of the growing members."
They don't bother explaining why atheists and agnostics can't be the "best type" of citizen. They just assume it's fact, and don't question it. That's privilege. I've never done drugs or been arrested. I've never been pulled over. Shit, I don't even drink. Not that these things have anything to do with morality, I'm just going by what I'm assuming are their standards. I'd like to hear what their "best type" of citizen is, and why I don't fit it.
I'm an Eagle, and I've worked at a boy scout camp for three years. I've had to hide my lack of belief. And I'm not even complaining about that, I would never think of bringing that shit up at my job anyway, because it's completely irrelevant. Privileged groups don't have the same opinion though. Encouraged by likeminded people around them, they have a constant need to repeat their own opinions and stroke their egos. And they're not even aware they're doing it. As a result, their beliefs were constantly pressed on me. I once had to bullshit my way through a prayer that my boss asked me to lead so I wouldn't be fired. I was expected to go to a camp-wide religious service held once every week. When these issues are brought to the attention of a believer, they're often so unaware of their own privilege that it just doesn't compute. If someone says "Under God should not be in the Pledge of Allegiance because it's illegal for the government to endorse a religion," they warp that around to "What, so I can't believe in God now?" Whenever a persecuted group asks for equal rights, the privileged group suddenly thinks they are the ones whose rights are being attacked.
But as much as I'm whining about being expected to treat men and women differently, or about how people look at me as an atheist, I really don't have it that bad. At least I'm not constantly bombarded with advertisements telling me how worthless I am, or catcalls that make me fear for my safety. I've never been looked down on because of my race. And hey, it's incredibly easy to fake belief. All you gotta do is smile and nod. I worked with someone at camp who was fired and kicked out of the boy scouts for being gay. There was another gay dude who was fired a year or two before I joined. I've never met him, but I was told he was very loved among both the staff and the scouts (the gay dude I worked with was kind of an ass). The boy scouts are a great organization, and they gave me the best years of my childhood, but I'm am fucking ashamed to be associated with them.
And if you're curious, the reason why this policy is in place is because religious institutions provide over 60% of the funding for the BSA, mostly from the Mormon church. Literally every single person within scouting I've ever talked to about these things have told me that they consider homosexuality and atheism complete nonissues, and they want this policy changed. I've even had a 12 year old kid tell me it shouldn't matter if someone is gay. Religious institutions have enough money to bribe the BSA into discriminating against gays and atheists, and yet they are the ones claiming to be persecuted. It's just staggering.
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