Huh. I was under the impression that the whole persecution complex was a distinctly American curiosity. How persecuted are the religious in America? Id say not at all. Maybe there are some individuals out there attempting to persecute the religious, but there certainly isnt any indemic, systematic persecution going on at the governmental level. Take two 503(c) non-profits that do exactly the same thing, except one of them is run by a church: the religious organization gets automatic tax exemption, whereas the secular organization -- even though they do the *exact same work* hypothetically -- must fill out a Form 1023 to be considered for exemption. Why? Not because secular organizations are untrustworthy; but because religious organizations have privilege in the US: for good and bad reasons (a post unto itself, but suffice to say, religion has the privilege almost everywhere you look in US law). Want to have a building in your neighborhood where the community can gather to organize projects and perhaps enrich themselves and those around them every so often during the week? Well, you can fulfill the same community function as a church, or a mosque, or [whatever recognized house of worship here], but youd better be prepared to pay property tax if youre not including bronze age mythology and/or spirits or whatever else as part of some longstanding cultural heritage or, in some cases, recent spiritual movement. There are countless other examples -- the point is, the religious are PRIVILEGED in America, not persecuted. Im not even necessarily saying thats a horrible thing (I think it could be a little more FAIR with respect to secular organizations and the like, but, yeah), as Im glad this country has worked hard to ensure our freedom of expression and belief, including religious expression and belief. Its either all free, or none of it is.
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 04:04:43 +0000
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