A couple of things regarding persecution came across the wire in the past week or so.  First, the Internet Monk explores the question, “Are American Christians ‘Persecuted?’”  He looks at persecution in Biblical times and persecution today in third-world countries, and contrasts that with what American Christians tend to call “persecution.”

I would suggest that the culture war mentality of American evangelicals proceeds on an exaggerated sense of persecution based on Christian mythology. The nature of American history and society makes a certain tension with a pronounced sense of specific religious entitlement inevitable. When Christians seem to expect that they be given a privileged place they also give themselves an excuse for claiming “persecution” when that is hardly the case.

A visitor from Sudan or India would find most of our discussions of persecution to be rather odd when compared to their own.

But that same third world visitor might make another observation: the observation that American culture contains many challenges to the faith of American Christians that are far more seductive and polluting to the faith and practice of Christians than the clear demarcations of persecution by obvious enemies.

Our third world friend might point out that in America Paul’s statement that the “godly will be persecuted” is challenged more in the matter of what it means to “godly” than in what it means to be persecuted.

That’s some statement. Do you agree that American Christians tend to blow things out of proportion and cry “persecution” where none exists? What might that do to our witness in the world?

Before you answer, check out the video below (from Christians in Context via Vitamin Z). It depicts a very different view of persecution than we (American Christians) are used to: a woman is fearful of conversion from Islam to Christianity because of what her husband might do to her. Does this video change your reaction to the article above?