Those darn Celstials!

During late tea yesterday the lovely and ever young Lady Nib asked, "When are you going to write about religion?"

Your faithful correspondent didn't have an answer. Having had a day of working around the estate and thinking about it I have decided to defer to her and answer her question by writing a little about religion.

Your faithful correspondent is, as stated on the "About Me" clicker on this page, a Primitive Baptist. For those of you who don't know what a Primitive Baptist is I would suggest that a reading of any of John Bunyan's works would give a pretty good idea of what a Primmie is all about. P.B.'s are the more quiet faction of Baptists. They don't evangelize, have revival campaigns or even Sunday School. To describe the the beliefs of P.B.s is outside the scope of this blog. Let's just say that Primmies are not of the panicky school of Christianity, although they are conservative.

If you are a regular listener of Christian radio you may get the idea that Christians in the US are being oppressed in some way. This is nonsesnse. I repeat, THIS IS NONSENSE. Christians in the US are not being hunted down and jailed for having meetings in houses. Churches are not being shut down. People are not being denied jobs for being Christians. It is not illegal in the US to be a Christian. American Christians are the most blessed, lucky and fortunate Christians in the world.

The nation is not as Christian as we'd like, but that's just the way it is. But despite the government rulings on prayer in schools, abortion and gay marriage, Christians in the US have it good. We have the the right to state our views. We have the right to practice our religion. We are not required to pay homage to the state. And we can state, without fear of prosecution, that Muslims, Buddhists or Hindus are wrong in their theological outlook.

What American Christians seem to have forgetten is that they are, by their faith, always outsiders. In the US being a Christian is not being much of an outsider. The majority of the population give lip service to Christianity, even if they don't practice it.

Places such as China, for example, make life difficult for Christians. If a Chinese Christian does not belong to one of two of the official Chinese Christian bodies (one Protestant, one Catholic) one is considered an outlaw and is prison bait. Or is one is a Christian in the Sudan one might find one's self in a condition of slavery to a Muslim. In Iran, if one converts from the heresey of Islam to Christianity one may well find one's self a target for rocks.

American Christians have gotten soft. They have forgotten that this world is not their world. They scream over a hang nail while a pastor in China is being fed congee and regularly beaten because of his beliefs and preaching. American Christians have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, that there was a time in European history when it was illegal to be a Christian i.e., the French Revolutiom and the Russian Revolution.

This is not to say that that American Christians should fold to the domimant culture. It is the duty of the the Christian to fight against the world. But nothing is so irritating than a person who has a sliver in their finger screaming bloody murder while another person is is bleeding to death and is unable to be heard because of the sliver victim.

Check out this link:Jason Lee Steorts on Chinese Christians and the UNCHR on National Review Onlin

If you've got it as tough as, or worse than, the Chinise Christians, then you can start bitching (pardon my French).