The Thinking ‘Kat: The Persecution Game
I recently posted about a terrible crime, one that is clearly motivated by homophobia. As predictably as the day will follow the night, a religious fanatic, homophobe, and general troll responded. The gist of their misleading, and dishonest post, was to whine about Christian persecution, though in a roundabout sense, it was clear they were only doing so to play a game of one-upmanship, as to say ‘the LGBT community shouldn’t be outraged about gay people getting murdered, because Christians sometimes get murdered!’
Assuming we take this idiot’s post at face value (and considering their long history of dishonesty, I won’t be doing so), yes, one can argue that Christians face persecution in some parts of the world. In others, they enjoy all the freedoms they could possibly want, yet whinge that they are not truly free if others – such as the LGBT community – have the same freedoms. They actively campaign to deny others the same rights they have, and in the case of this one particular troll, it seems they also excuse harassment and murder.
In some parts of the world, the LGBT community face the same – if not worse – persecution that Christians allegedly face, and they even face forms of discrimination in some of the most supposedly welcoming, progressive countries, such as the USA. Members of the LGBT community are five times more likely to face violent crime than people who are not LGBT, and again, this is the USA. Elsewhere in the world, being LGBT can get you locked in prison, whipped, and even see you face the death penalty. I’m not sure what this idiot troll is thinking when they try to act as though only Christians have it rough.
Indeed, they use the term ‘irony’ a lot, but it’s painfully clear they don’t understand it. I am not surprised.
Moreover, this person should pause to think. It is often via fanatical religious beliefs that the LGBT community faces persecution. Some of those fanatics are Christians, like himself. The attitudes of these fanatics also encourages violence between people of different religions, and sometimes even within branches of the same religion (one need only look at the lengthy history of hostilities between Catholics and Protestants). Meanwhile, how many cases are there of the LGBT community burning down the homes of Christians, displaying the skulls of their dogs, and shooting them in the street?
Then there’s something else for this fanatic to consider. No one should be persecuted! Absolutely no one should face persecution for their beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity, skin colour, or religion. This is not a game, where anyone should be proclaiming ‘my group has it worse!’ Should Christians be persecuted for being Christians? No. Should the LGBT community be persecuted for being LGBT? No. However, as already alluded to, the fanatic should pause to ask himself what the source of persecution is. The LGBT community is not responsible for the harassment of Christians. You can look to a general trend with organised religion in general for that.
