“Religious Freedom”

There has been a cry on the Religious Right for some time now that “Christians” are being “persecuted” – both here in the States and around the world. As if this was a recent event, and that it is totally and completely uncalled for and must be stopped.

While true that the early Christians were persecuted (first by the Jews as an heretical outcropping of Judaism), and then later by the Romans (who saw the new religion as subversive to the State of Rome – indeed, the Cross was the Roman form of punishment for Sedition Against Rome), religious persecution of “Christians” has only been on the rise recently, and then mostly in conflict with Islam.

Now “Christians” persecuting those with Other Religious Belief Systems has been around for almost as long as the Christian Religion has. Since the Nicean Council of 364 “A.D.” the newly formalized (and ‘restructured’) Christian Church began prosecuting (and outright murdering in some cases) any who did not believe The One True Faith. This was particularly true for the Jews, who the Church began calling the “Killers of Christ” from an early time, leading up to the Grand Inquisition.  Working to ‘convert’ “heathen” to the Church, many were either force converted (upon pain of death) and then continued their practice in secrecy (the Ladino tradition in Spain), or killed during the ‘conversion’ process. Many of those screaming “Christian Persecution” choose not to remember who was persecuting whom for most of Church history.

 “Religious Freedom” does not mean the Freedom to impose Your Religion on Others. It means just that, the Individuals Freedom to believe in and practice the Religion of their choice. This has not however, been the case in the past, and it is not the desire or implication of those who cry loudest for Their “Religious Freedom.”