Huckabee: US moving towards "criminalization of Christianity"

[YaBoyNY]

Christians who claim the "persecution" and "criminalization" of the faith in the United States belittle the actual persecution of Christians in places such as Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and North Korea.

[YaBoyNY]

Couldn't you just take the exact thing you just said, replace the word gays with Christians and maybe begin to see where people like Mike Huckabee are coming from?

... no?

Before: "Gays should not be upset because in some places of the world they're murdered"
After: "Christians should not be upset because in some places of the world they're murdered"

You seriously don't think it could apply to both? If gays can decry their social situation here, why can't a Christian who feels like he's being demonized for his beliefs do the same?

One group in America is the overwhelming majority and always has been; has practically all of the institutions controlled by its members, always has, for a long period into the foreseeable future will; and has shaped the country's culture in a myriad number of fundamental ways.

The other group in America is a relatively tiny minority; has minimal acknowledged representation in most institutions; has been forced historically to hide itself for fear of financial loss, lack of acceptance or overt physical danger; and every time it tries to alter a cultural inequality from total bias to a mere lack thereof, is accused of waging a "cultural war", "radical agenda", and so forth.

On the surface, your analogy may seem equivalent. Sorry, but you're just confusing persecution with butt-hurt over not being the sole arbiter of literally 100% of political outcomes, cultural dynamics and public dialogues.

You think practicing Christians control practically all corporate, media and legal institutions?

Mike Huckabee's first problem is that what he is referring to as Christianity does not describe universally held Christian beliefs, at least not in the contemporary context. He would have more validity if he was speaking of what is faced by certain forms of Christianity.

It is a minority of Americans who are truly "Christian", to the extent that they (A) believe in the Bible as the literal Word of God, (B) view belief in the death of Jesus and his Resurrection as the sole means by which man can be saved from sin and have eternal life ("I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; No man cometh unto the Father but by Me."), and (C) that the ultimate Eternal outcomes for mankind are either Eternity in Heaven with God or Eternal separation from God in Hell.  This is what a Biblical Christian believes.  I've tried to make this as brief as possible, but there are many people who call themselves Christians for whom Jesus is a part of their religious beliefs, but who do not believe that Jesus is a Living Savior.  They do not believe that Jesus is whom he claims to be in Scripture.  I will not be so presumptuous as to insinuate what God may think of such people, but these are people who (A) don't agree with significant points of Scripture, and (B) are not bound by Scripture as to issues such as sexual mores.

Christianity is not a religion of Jihad (forcible conversion), but it IS a religion where Jesus commands his followers to share the Gospel with others and to instruct believers in Christian living.  It also commands believers to be the Salt of the Earth and the Light of the World.  We are to share our faith with others, and we are not to misrepresent God to imply that he's OK with sexual practices that His Word in Scripture explicitly forbids and condemns.

We were once a "Christianized" nation.  We have never had a majority of folks truly believe in Biblical Christianity, but the effect of Christians on public life was once far more apparent.  The Ten Commandments were, in my youth, a standard of public morality, even for unbelievers and non-Churchgoers.  Today, we are none of this; we have become a Libertine nation, where avant garde behavior of all kinds are to be tolerated, while even the expression of Biblical morality (in the minds of some) ought to be kept to one's self, in both verbal and non-verbal expression.  It is the main reason schoolchildren are told they cannot pray in school when, in fact, they can pray, alone, and with others, during free times, read and discuss Scripture, and other things. 

Huckabee gets this, and, frankly, I view it as a good thing in a President to get this. 

lol