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[Punk]

How are Christians persecuted? I would like to know mainly because I hear about Christians, especially western Christians, having a 'prosecution complex'. I have asked around at my church but would like to hear other perspectives. I just want to know the truth.

[jimwalton]

Open Doors ([url]Opendoorsusa.org[/url]) keeps a world watch list (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/) to monitor persecution against Christians around the world. They monitor pressure against Christians, violence against Christians, Christian churches or ministry buildings being attacked, Christians detained without trial (arrested, sentenced, and imprisoned), and deaths. You should be able to get reliable information and stats there.

There is also a website by "Voice of the Martyrs" (http://www.persecution.com) who also monitor persecution.

In the U.S. here we are subject to mostly intellectual persecution (marginalization, slander, exclusion, and cultural ridicule). There are many examples of this over the past 5-6 years, and the number of incidents is growing. U.S. Christians are not, however, being arrested, attacked, or killed...yet. Hostility against Christians and Christian ideology in the U.S. is definitely growing. I posted this partial list on the forum just 6 days ago in response to someone asking the same question.

• 2011. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship excluded from campuses across the nation because they had a policy that leaders follow Christian principles and the goals of their organization.
• 2016. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights argued that Bible-believing Christians employ the phrase "religious liberty" as a code for "discrimination, intolerance, racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, Christian supremacy or any form of intolerance."
• 2017. The SPLC labelled all Christian churches and ministries as "hate groups." Mark Potok, former SPLC spokesman, said, "Sometimes the press will describe us as monitoring hate groups. I want to say plainly that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, completely destroy them.”
• Dec, 2017. In 2015 a fire chief in Atlanta wrote in a devotional guide that he believed in traditional marriage and sexuality. All the writing was done on his own time and outside of work. He was relieved of his duties.
• Jan, 2018. There are numerous media articles showing that professors are hard on, if not discriminating against, conservative students, including Christian students. The articles talk about how any such student gets lower grades because they don't subscribe to the liberal and atheist worldview.
• Feb, 2018: University of Central Oklahoma welcomes drag queen shows and safe sex carnivals, but denies the Christian group their right to invite Christian speakers to campus.
• Feb, 2018. A Christian student organization at Harvard University was placed on probation as a "hate group," claiming the group gives a “platform to homophobia, conversion therapy, and hate," all untrue.
• Feb, 2018. South Carolina: The 4th church in less than a month was defaced by Satanic and anti-Christian graffiti.
• March 1, 2018. Actor Chris Pratt was severely criticized on social media for tweeting prayers to comedian Kevin Smith after a life-threatening heart attack.
• April, 2018. George Washington University offers a seminar on "Fighting 'Christian Privilege' " in the country. "The training sessions are designed to ‘equip students and staff with the necessary skills to promote diversity and inclusion in the different environments in which they find themselves frequently.' "
• May, 2018. A Michigan high school refused to let a motivational speaker on their campus (who was going to speak about his personal story as an adopted son and what it takes to overcome life's difficulties) when someone did an Internet search and found out he was a Christian. He was uninvited, even though he was not speaking about his religion.
• June, 2018. A Christian high school teacher in Brownsberg, IN, was forced to resign when he refused to call transgender students by their chosen names instead of—as was his policy—to call them by their last names.
• June, 2018. Indianapolis, IN. CrossFit fired a Christian employee over his religious beliefs.
• November, 2018. Isabella Chow, a student senator at Berkeley, UC, was harassed for abstaining from an LGBTQ vote because she was Christian. She made a statement decrying discrimination, condemned bullies and bigots, and called the LGBTQ community "valid and loved." She was accused of "hateful prejudices," "bigotry," and "disturbing" views. Over 1000 students signed a petition accusing her of hatred and called her comments "violent, hypocritical, and bigoted."
• March, 2019. Administrators of Rider University (NJ) refuse to allow a Chick-Fil-A to have a franchise on campus (despite that students voted for it) because the owners of Chick-Fil-A are Christians. Posters on Reddit (with many agreements) commented that Chick-Fil-A pushes hate, which it does not.
• March, 2019: A post on Reddit reposted a YouTube of Chris Hedges from 2007, claiming that Christians = American Fascists, with the comment that it was accurately prophetic.
• March, 2019: Chick-Fil-A has now been banned at the San Antonio airport and the Buffalo (NY) airport, along with Rider University, for their alleged "anti-LGBT rhetoric and views" and because they allegedly "spread hate and discrimination." This is contrary to any action, policy, or behavior on the part of Chick-Fil-A headquarters or their restaurants, but only because they have publicly declared that they believe marriage is between a man and a woman, and they also support groups who share that belief. To express a position is not hate speech or discrimination.
• June, 2019: National Guard in Fort Indiantown Gap, PA, banned a Christian scouting group from touring their facilities because of their religious affiliation.
• June 28, 2019: CA bill presented a bill (Resolution ACR 99) to force pastors, religious workers, counsellors and educators to stop calling homosexuality a sin.
• July 2019: A private Christian boarding school in northern CA may be force to shut its doors for not allowing same-sex relationships.

Taken together, one can observe a trend of oppression if not outright persecution. Anti-Christian sentiment is escalating. It's not hard to project that laws against Christian expression and belief, along with prosecution, putting out of business, and even imprisonment could be in the near future.