Co-Workers, and Religious Persecution

This article is entitled "Persecution of Christians in America!" The first paragraph:

Some years ago, I worked at a job where another colleague and I had to go out of town on an assignment for a week. Since I was going to spend a considerable amount of time with my co-worker, I asked her some questions in order to find out what we had in common and what kinds of things we could talk about. Some of my questions were about religion. I wanted to know if she was a fellow Christian. If she was, then we would have a lot in common and we could share openly about our faith. I was not in any way trying to convert her. I just wanted to have some idea of where she stood. She never gave any indication that she did not want me to ask those questions about religion. When we came back to the office, she filed an official complaint. My Supervisor informed me that if I talked about religion with co-workers again, I would be in danger of losing my job. That was persecution, but it was mild and easily remedied. All I needed to do was either change jobs or else not talk about religion. If you compare it to cancer, it was stage zero--a small event, which has not spread, and which can be fixed easily."

Hmm. Maybe the second colleague overreacted, maybe not. It depends what the above author/co-worker said and how she said it. Either way, on the facts given, it seemed like one co-worker was trying to grill another about her personal religious beliefs to see if they would be be bosom spiritual buddies on the trip, and not just co-workers on a business trip. That the author does not see how inappropriate this potentially is, but turns it into "religious persecution," is a bit striking.

It was not a voluntary social situation. It was an involuntary work situation. And the first co-worker started asking questions before hand, of a sensitive, personal nature. Far worse, she acknowledges that she did this to "see if they would get along." She thus, unwittingly, turned religion into the litmus test to see if the would get along, on a trip that they both had to take and would apparently have ample opportunity to learn about each other on. That she does not see her questioning, and its express purpose, as a form of mild social pressure over religion rsecution in a forced work environment situation, is step one of the bizarre process of somehow twisting this backwards into religious persecution. Step two and three is the type of perhaps blinding zealotry that fanatical, as opposed to devout, religious belief sometimes seems to inspire. It is all too common outside of America as well, and in its most extreme forms, we have seen the results.

This lady is probably very well meaning, truly feels that she has been wronged, and that her own religion, rather than the work relationship sanctity of her co-worker, has been put upon.

But that doesn't change the fact that in America today, reasonable checks upon the imposition of religious beliefs upon others, is somehow, and perhaps dangerously, being confused with persecution of one's own religion.

Reporter Dana Milbank wrote an interesting article on this in the Washington Post:

Quoting Rick Scarborough, who organized the officially titled "War on Christians" conference that convened the last week in March:"I believe themost damaging thing that Tom DeLay has done in his life is take his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ," Scarborough said, introducing DeLay yesterday.

It gets a little scarier:

Gary Bauer, a Christian activist and former presidential candidate, argued in a
speech that the "War on Christians" in America was even emboldening al-Qaeda.
"They believe they can win, because they believe you and I are decadent; they
think our civilization is fat and lazy," he said. "I believe they're wrong, butI understand why they're confused."And why are they confused? Because
American Christians are attacked by "elites" who think America is "a country of
unbridled liberty, different strokes for different folks."

The agenda was similarly ominous, with forums on the threats from Hollywood, the judiciary, gays and, worst of all, the news media. "I can tell you that there probably is no greater megaphone for anti-faith values," conservative activist Paul Weyrich
said in introducing a panel on the subject.

As somebody else aptly put it, "I'm a huge fan of Jesus Christ, myself. It's just his fan club that concerns me."