Cry persecution (only gets you so far)

Here is a video I came across yesterday from Ruth Gledhill, the Religion correspondent for the Times Online (UK), commenting on the cries of persecution from certain British Christians.  Her comments are a bit surprising because over the last six years or so, she has been critical of a lot of liberal Christian stuff (which, frankly, I agreed with a lot of the time – though not all of the time).

Her comments ring true here in the U.S., too, among Christians of a certain kind.  The difference here in the U.S. is that this cohort is trying to gain power, take power, impose themselves within government and all of society. It is certainly their right to champion their opinions or causes, but not to attempt to impose them upon all.  In England, the Church of England is established, so the tactics of these people are different, but the goals remain the same.  One such goal is to impose their particular ideas and forms of Christianity upon all and demand that their interpretations be declared the only valid ones for all of the Christian faith, despite that these forms/ideas/ideologies of the faith are only recent, historically.

While  I am not a “liberal Christians” (I suspect her use of “liberal” is in a similar way that we describe our form of government as a “liberal” democracy, and not to convey a political or religious ideology), nor am I a fundamentalist – either liberal or conservative. Yet the way the neo-conservative, Religious Right, American-Evangelical groups and people are attempting to force their narrow view of things upon all of society simply isn’t going to work.  What ends up happening, and has happened, is that the Church and the cause of Christ are defamed. I think this is part of what Gledhill is getting at.