Well, it’s official. Mike Huckabee announced that he is running for president, against the backdrop of “defending the family,” and “protecting Christianity.” According to the Huckster, Christians in America are in danger like never before. In fact, before long, it will be illegal to even go to church.
I think it’s fair to say that Christian convictions are under attack as never before. Not just in our lifetime, but ever before in the history of this great nation. We are moving rapidly toward the criminalization of Christianity.
The Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA) counts 26,344,933 members of mainline churches versus 39,930,869 members of evangelical Protestant churches. That’s mainstream Christian. That doesn’t even take into account Judaism, Mormonism, Buddhism, Muslim, non-mainstream churches like Seventh Day Adventist or Jehovah's Witness… In fact, PewResearch noted in 2014 that of the almost 320 million Americans, 78 percent of those align to some form of religious/spiritual philosophy.
This is bi-partisan. Democrats are as likely to be Christian as Republicans (though less likely to be fundamentalist). According to PewResearch, 51 percent of the LGBT community also align to some form of religious observance.
So the bottom line is: Christianity is not going away any time soon. There is no threat to Christianity, and no threat to Christians.
What’s ironic is that this persecution is basically the other way around. You’re more likely to experience persecution if you’re beliefs are different than the Huckster.
For example, if you’re a woman, you have all but lost control of your own body. In every state where “Christians” are in power, they now have ultimate control of your va-jay-jay, and they will punish you if you dare to use it in any way other than their prescribed methods. In Indiana, one woman was actually jailed for having a miscarriage.
The Religious Freedom Bills being passed throughout the country have one simple purpose: to allow Christians to discriminate against the LGBT community.
If you’re a school student, they want to pass a bill forcing you to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
If you’re a high school student, they want to rewrite biology books so that you don’t learn about your naughty parts. In southern states they are actually trying to rewrite history books because they don’t want you to know how we treated our slaves, and others around the world.
If you’re a science teacher, they want to make it illegal to teach evolution or climate change in the classroom.
If you’re Muslim, you have the full force of Fox “news” and the Christian Right blaming you for every terrorist act in the world war and violence and pestilence.
If you’re atheist or agnostic, they want to say that you have no morals. They blame you for World War II, Lennon, and Mao. Several states have even added constitutional bans on atheists holding any civil office. Some even go so far as to say if you’re an theist, you can’t even testify in court.
Even beyond that, if you’re not a Christian, you will never hold the office of the President of the United States.
So as you can see, Christians aren’t BEING persecuted, they’re DOING the persecution. Maybe what Huckabee truly fears the most is that someday, someone may “do unto him as he has done unto others.”