I sometimes laugh, but most times I just want to cry when I hear or read that some so called Christians are whining, complaining and generally lying about this so called war on Christmas or a war to marginalize Christianity in American society. If Christians want to actually see what a marginalized population looks like, I highly recommend that they look to the indigenous peoples of the United States or any of the other 44 nations that make up the worlds nations that were created by exterminating the original or indigenous peoples who populated them.
Christians who whine they are oppressed or marginalized probably would not have survived as a culture if they had to deal with the types of oppression, genocide and outright destruction of their very culture, the way the Fourth World has had to deal with these very same issues over the last 150 years. There now is an organization called Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization that has approximately 50 different Nationalities representing occupied nations, indigenous peoples and oppressed minorities. Many Native Americans now refer to themselves as the First World / First Peoples.
More after the fold
Try as I might, I just can’t get behind the idea that American Christians are indeed being persecuted for their beliefs or their religion. I can however see and have been informed by many older and some who are now deceased First Peoples that they have and continue to be persecuted, discriminated against and in many cases prohibited or have been prohibited from practicing their spiritual beliefs. Then there is the economic discrimination and outright fraud that occurs when Native peoples try to work some kind of economic development on what is supposed to be their land.
Here the issue is not having nation-state status, so no other country, government entity or business/bank in the world will do work with them. Indigenous peoples have no embassies, diplomats, or business representatives. They have no legal standing to create business compacts, levy taxes to create revenue, enter into political alliances, or be involved in othere areas that involve a fully qualified government.
What few investors and corporate firms that can be enticed to come in and set up businesses (a casino or hotel, for example), it is almost always a gamble that most of the proceeds will stay in the indigenous community. What has been the norm, however, are business rip-offs and exploitation. (See Jack Abramoff)
In most cases no economic development can be created unless the indigenous people own the land, which is not the case for a significant population, because of unresolved legal battles or the land being held as a trust for them by some government entity. (Indian Trust) Because the land is held in trust, banks refuse to loan money on it, and their only recourse is to lease it to the very same government entity that is supposed to protect it and them. This has ensured generations of exploitation of both the land and the peoples who are trying to gain support from the land. The ongoing effort of indigenous peoples is the fight for sovereignty and the right to self-rule.
No other group of people in the United States has less control over their lives than First Peoples. No other group of people have been discriminated against, had genocide practiced against them and had the full power of the Christian/Catholic faith and the US government try to destroy their very culture. They attempted to eradicate the tribal nature of the indigenous peoples and acclimate them into American society as Americans. The churches and the government went so far as to try and eradicate the very languages of the indigenous peoples of North America.
Like I said earlier, sometimes I just want to laugh at these misguided, misinformed and culturally handicapped Christians who continue to whine, cry, protest and otherwise make a nuisance of themselves by declaring there is a war against Christians and Christmas. Most times I just want grab them and show them the damage that their religion has perpetuated upon an entire race of human beings who simply wanted to insure that their way of life and their culture would survive.
So the next time you hear some poor discriminated against Christian whine about their poor religion being marginalized, point them to a computer and tell them to search for genocide against indigenous peoples. When they can show you or myself that they have been subjected to the kinds of hatred, punishment and outright killing because of their beliefs, then I will have some mercy in my heart for them. Until such time, I hope the whiners will be continually slapped down with the truth of what constitutes marginalization, discrimination and genocide against a whole race and culture of people.