Right now across the USA, and especially in Arizona where Janzilla just vetoed one hate the gay bill, and in Ohio where a similar bill was killed off yesterday before reaching a vote in light of the media and public outcry at goings on in Arizona, the Religulous Reich KristyHuns have set off the Outrage Foghorns and turned them up full blast.
Whine One One switchboards have been inundated with petulant whiny calls from butthurt Christian bigots screeching about how they are being persecuted by secularist anti-Christians, atheists, and all other supporters of the dreaded glitter and sequin adorned "gay agenda". Whole fleets of waaaaaaaahmbulances, specially outfitted with satellite feeds of looping Pat Robertson and Bryan Fischer fire and brimstone rants, are heading out to tend to the butthurt, top up their persecution complexes and feed their righteous outrage addictions.
Oh how they scream, rant and gnash their teeth. Religious Persecution they scream! You are hating on me for being a good god fearing Christian(tm). I am being persecuted for my Christian beliefs they screech!
Meanwhile, across the orange barbed wire separating Christian sado-masochistic persecution fantasy land from hard reality......
Down at Pisgah High School, Canton, North Carolina a young student approached his school administration with the idea to open a Secular Group for non-religious students at the school. The school Assistant Principal Connie Weeks at first said she would "look into" the application. Then after shilly shallying about as much as possible, she told the student that the application by the group was refused. She said they should just join a different club, because the secular club didn’t “fit in” to the community at Pisgah High School, and there were no faculty sponsors available.
The students, being a deal smarter than the AP, knew that their rights were being trampled on, and so they approached the Secular Student Alliance, a national non-profit organization that empowers high school and college students to build communities for nonreligious students. The SSA attempted to reach out to the school with a polite but firm letter setting out the law and pointing out that the school, in refusing to help or allow the group to form properly, was breaking the law.
The school administration ignored the letter.
This had dragged on so long the original student who made the application had graduated. But he passed the baton on to his 15 year old sister and fellow secularist Kalei Wilson. Kalei, with the full support of her brother and parents, kept the challenge going and through the SSA managed to get the Freedom From Religion Foundation and NC ACLU on board. They wrote a much stronger letter to the school pointing out the potential legal ramifications should they fail to comply with the law.
And of course by now what had once been a small internal matter for the school had turned into a national and international media story, much to the embarrassment of the school district, state and everyone involved in the schools stupidity. Even some Christian friends of Kalei lent support and spoke up on her behalf, much to their credit.
So the school caved in and reversed its decision, allowing Kalei and her fellow non religious students to set the group up. A victory for what is right and proper, common sense, and a tribute to the pluck and vim of young Kalei and her friends. Let the celebrations and congratulations commence.
Or Not
You see because of the fact young Kalei was brave and smart, and stood up for what is right, she and her family, and even her and the family's friends have been subjected to a campaign of threats and intimidation by so called good Christians. A campaign so vicious and bad that Kalei and her family feel so intimidated she has pulled out of forming the club and fundraising for its set up. Here is the statement from the fundraising page.
It saddens us to report that due to the numerous threats and the verbal attacks on Kalei along with the vindictive which-hunt to hurt the reputations of affiliated local groups and our own family , Kalei will not be continuing with the group.
We have contacted GoFundMe and requested they return your generous donations. They have assured us that your funds will show back up in your respective accounts within 3 to 5 days.
Your love and support are priceless and we apologize in letting you down. It was our single goal to support Kalei in her efforts to start the much needed SSA club.
However, we never expected our family and friends to be sought out and demonized. Please know that we recognize the importance of the club but we can not justify our involvement with the risk of our families safety and well being.
Now
THAT my pedigree chums is what
REAL religious persecution
actually looks like.
Vicious, small minded, hateful buckle hatted bible bashing assholes intimidating non believers in an attempt to scare them into silence. Almost exclusively done, in the US at least, in Jesus' name by Christians to non Christians be they secularists, humanists, atheists or just members of another faith.
Of course, there is an established and well trodden 6 lane wide track history of this sort of persecution.
Ask Damon Fowler, Will Phillips or Jessica Ahlquhist.
Damon just protested against prayers being said at his graduation. After his graduation, at which police were in attendance to guarantee his safety in light of threats made against him, he was thrown out of his home by his so called good god fearing parents, driven out of town and now lives with relatives elsewhere.
Jessica protested against a Christian prayer banner at her school in Cranston, Rhode Island. The school eventually ended up in court and was forced to take the banner down as it was such an obvious and egregious breach of the Establishment Clause. Jessica was subjected to such a program of hate and threats she had police protection to and from school. After a mountain of threats posted to the schools own student message board, including threats to rape, beat and kill her, that police protection was extended to include accompanying her from class to class. Not only her fellow students, school admin and board jumped in on the hate, even the local mayor and state representative, who called her "an evil little thing", got on board with the hatin'. Jessica may have won, but it took a stack more bravery than most would have to weather the storm and come through smiling.
And then there is Will Phillips. Brave little 10 year old Will refused to stand and take the Pledge, as he rightly pointed out that the fact gay people were treated like second class citizens made that line about "Liberty And Justice For All" a damn hypocritical lie. Christians and right wing haters across the land bayed for Will and his family's blood. In the face of all the hate, threats and intimidation Will didn't surrender or give in, his family stood by him, and he won the day.
And just in case you think this is an isolated outbreak of Christian hate in North Carolina, may I recommend you watch the documentary In God We Trust by Scott Burdick - available online via YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/.... The documentary, in part, charts the self righteous Christian outrage and hate campaign leveled against the members of the King, NC secular group who protested against the Christian flag and paraphernalia draped all over the town war memorial. Seems that oldey timey pitchforks and torches Salem spirit lives on loud and proud down in NC.
These examples, and many many more, are what REAL religious persecution looks like. Whether its school kids like Kalei, Damon, Will and Jessica getting terrorised by Christians, members of secular groups fighting for their rights in the face of Christian hate and intimidation, or members of another faith just trying to set up a place to meet or worship in their own way the real religious persecution in the US runs mainly, almost exclusively, one way. FROM Christians and AGAINST all others.
So my pedigree chums, as we say over here in Limey Land, "Lead On McDuff".
Next time a whiny local fundy is bitching about how Christians are so persecuted, feel free to give them a verbal HitchSlap using any of the above examples of real and visceral religious persecution. Good luck trying, because their heads are so full of Faux Nooz, entrenched privilege, and religulous psycho-babble that you will need to knock all of that out before you can knock some sense in. Be prepared for the usual circular reasoning, loop logic and "No True Scotsman" defence. Just keep slapping them again and again till they shut up or waddle off to bitch and whine to their fellow bigots instead.
Chin chin mateys!