With conservatives taking
a deep-dive into paranoia over the Supreme Court decision regarding gay
marriage, we stand amazed at the right-wing willingness to drink the Kool-Aid of "persecution."
That word, not to mention
the entire mental gymnastics required to use it, is being thrown around like
confetti at a … well, at a gay wedding. That sort of exaggeration cheapens the
word. It also does spiritual violence to real religious persecution, which this
world has witnessed and still witnesses, but not because some store clerk says
"Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."
Because we don't bow our
heads and confess that your religion is superior to ours doesn't mean that we
have oppressed you. We are preached at continuously -- lectured and hectored
and warned of hell fire -- by men and women whose superior morality and access
to megaphones displays privilege
rather than persecution, and it is our privilege to ignore Franklin Graham and
turn away to more fruitful voices.
Didn't a Republican
presidential candidate recently threaten to call down fire from heaven if the
Supreme Court didn't straighten up and fly right? It is my privilege to laugh
at him. Is that the "persecution" you're speaking of, O my brethren?
Let's see now:
1. Religious groups enjoy
complete tax exemption.
2. Unlike non-profit orgs,
religious groups receive their tax exemption without having to ask for it. They
get tax exemption by merely existing. "Houses of worship" are given
exemption as soon as they open their doors.
3. Houses of
worship are free from the mandatory reporting obligations that are imposed on
secular nonprofit groups.
4. There is no way of knowing how much money a particular church
raises, nor the value of its many assets, because they are not required to tell
anyone (unlike a secular nonprofit). Mega-church pastors can own closets full
of thousand-dollar suits, drive expensive cars, and even own their own jets
without much worry that anyone "official" will ever check on his
finances.
5. This is so because Congress passed a special law governing
church audits that requires the IRS to show "heightened scrutiny"
before initiating such procedures. Church audits must be approved by highly
placed IRS officials. When's the last time you heard of a mega-church being
targeted for an audit? Was it persecution? Or was it a response to conspicuous
consumption?
6. The ability of religious groups to proselytize and spread
their theology is limited only by the imaginations of their leaders. They own
television and radio stations (tax exempt, by the way). They own publishing
arms. They get a regular seat on Fox News and other cable outlets for
"balance" (but really because they're entertaining).
7. Religious groups own hospitals, secondary schools, colleges,
social-service agencies, and other entities. Many of these are subsidized
directly with tax funds. In recent years, religious groups that sponsor
charitable services get taxpayer assistance through the "faith-based
initiative."
8. A house of worship or a ministry can fire employees at will
if those workers violate (or are merely suspected or accused of violating) some
tenet of the faith. A religious school, for example, could fire a woman who
becomes pregnant out of wedlock. Most American government entities -- really,
all of them -- do not allow such retaliation.
9. Most American political candidates and office-holders -- of
both major political parties -- are quick to declare their Christian faith and
announce their attendance at a Christian church, because not to do so would
invite suspicion and rejection.
Get off your "persecution" high-horse. It all suggests
that you really have no true faith at
all.
