Why do Many Conservative Christians feel “Persecuted” when Having to Share the Country?

Recently, a certain article has been making the rounds on social media titled “The painfully obvious reason Christians voted for Trump (that liberals just don’t understand)”. Of course, there is nothing truly original about this article – except that it is more articulate than most previous articles about things that we, as progressives, have heard (and been offended by) more times than we can count. It’s the tired old line of how many conservative Christians feel “persecuted”, even “scared”, when there are advances in women’s rights, as well as rights for LGBT persons and other minorities.

Of course, we are right in pointing out that this article’s claims of Christians being persecuted, or having anything legitimate to be scared about are down-right false. However, many of us make the mistake of taking it a step further and dismissing such complaints of “persecution” as mere empty rhetoric – overlooking any possibility at all that their feelings of being persecuted (however misguided) are genuinely felt.

I definitely understand why many progressives are so dismissive of these complaints by these socially-conservative religious groups. As a matter of fact, for a long time was myself this dismissive. As a woman of transgender experience, I spent most of my life suppressing huge chunks of my personality because, due to a gender-designation that a doctor made when my private parts looked more like one thing than another, these aspects of my personality could get me into deep trouble very quickly. And then, when I finally realized that I could wear this mask no more, and decided to transition, I had to dance on the outskirts of society, with very few places I could even go without looking for trouble — all because society had issues with who I am.

These experiences (as well as other things I went through that I will not go into in this article) are an example of what truly bearing the brunt of persecution looks like. So, when I hear people complaining that they are “persecuted” just because they are prevented from imposing their beliefs on other people’s lives, it is natural for us to shake our head and say “no”. And when they claim that we are being the intolerant ones just for daring to call them out for their efforts to impose their beliefs on our lives in ways that we know can hurt us – it makes sense for us to dismiss their complaints as mere lies and propaganda.

However – while we are right in pointing out that their feelings of being persecuted are not grounded in reality – and may even be right in calling them “bigots” — we are crossing a line if we call them “liars”. This is because when we put on them the label of “liar”, we are not just saying that what they say isn’t true. Rather, with the label of “liar”, we are also saying that they know better — and frankly, in the case of the vast majority of them, they don’t.

You might wonder how someone can genuinely feel that they are being “persecuted” when, really, they’re just being told not to persecute others. To know the answer, we must look at how they perceive the nation and the nation’s history – and the strong sense of entitlement that is engrained in them through this narrative. I really can’t do that subject justice. Recently, an NPR program called “Code Switch” dedicated a whole episode to it (titled “Apocalypse Or Racial Kumbaya? America After Nov. 8”) which explains the roots of this deluded narrative better than I ever could. But to make a long story short, many Americans are raised from a young-age on fairy-tales which tell them that America was built by white people – and was founded as a Christian nation. They are trained to see the enshrinement of Christian ideals (specifically, ideals of their particular interpretation of Christianity) into law and other public policies and into the general protocol of society as “the way it should be”. In light of this, it is unsurprising that they see any challenge to this enshrinement as an act of aggression.

However – this narrative is not the reality. While it is true that some of the settlers of what is now the United States (most notably the Puritans) did indeed believe that they were here to set up a Christian “beacon on a hill” – this clearly was not the view of the Founders of the United States. For starters, the very religious neutrality of the country is enshrined in our very Constitution that they drafted. Some argue that the Establishment Clause merely was to protect the various denominations of Christianity – but this view does not hold up historically either.

And as for America having been built by whites – that completely ignores the people who were in this chain of continents long before any white people arrived – as well as the slaves on whose backs much of the early post-Columbian infrastructure was built – as well as many other things that happened in American history.

Nonetheless, as unsubstantiated as this narrative of what the United States is meant to be is, it is so engrained in these people from their upbringing, that they inevitably believe it. And due to this myth, they not only claim to be persecuted when they are prevented from imposing their beliefs on the lives of others. They actually believe it. Examples of this are everywhere.

Take, for example, the “War on Christmas” that they complain so much about. You might wonder why anybody would believe that Christmas is under attack just because a department-store employee or a barista in a coffee house wishes them “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. The answer is simple. They are used to a society in which everyone celebrates the same winter holiday that they do – or at least, while in the public sphere, goes through the motion and gives lip service to it. They feel so strongly that universal recognition of the primacy of their own holiday is the way it “ought to be”, that they perceive any attempt to even move in the direction of it sharing public space with alternative holiday traditions as an act of unbridled aggression.

You would think that the Golden Rule should kick in – and that they ought to ask themselves how it feels and has always felt for people of other faiths who celebrate different holidays to have Christmas constantly imposed on them – or maybe ask themselves how they would feel if the tables were turned and everyone that time of year would wish them a different holiday’s greetings and they were expected, as a matter of polite behavior, to themselves respond with the same holiday’s blessing.

However, they are so thoroughly trained to see the primacy of Christmas as the way it “ought to be”, that the Golden Rule just doesn’t kick in for this purpose. For this reason, they never take a moment to think how they’d feel if the shoe were on the other foot — if everyone wished them “Happy Chanukah” and thought them rude if they didn’t respond with the same words — or if in every public space for ten percent of the whole year they saw decorations themed around Heliogena (a Greek pagan holiday) but rarely if ever a reference at all to any other holiday, including Christmas.

So in short – they believe that Christmas is under attack because this kind of primacy is something that they are trained to think belongs to Christmas. It is for this reason, that it doesn’t occur to them that the most polite thing (unless they are in church or something) is to greet anyone that they know what holiday they celebrate with the greetings for that person’s holiday — and to greet anyone that they don’t know this information about with the only seasonal greeting that makes no presumptions on that matter – that being “Happy Holidays”.

And yes – this sense of entitlement is indeed ridiculous. But we, as progressives, as liberals, need to understand that as ridiculous as these senses of entitlement are, they are still genuinely felt. This is important because in our fight against oppression, it is not enough to wrestle rights of others away from the iron grips of those who withhold said rights. For these gains to be lasting and permanent, we really need to rehabilitate these people from the delusions that cause them to feel persecuted when asked nothing more than to respect others.

And with that – I wish you all Happy Holidays. And yes – if you happen to celebrate Christmas, then in your case that holiday that I wish you happiness on would be Christmas. However – if you want me to be rude to everyone who celebrates a different holiday from you just to pander to an Entitlement Complex of yours – then it is time for you to step outside of yourself and think how you’d feel in their position – because it just as much their country as it is yours.