Do Christians in the United States need protection?
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Saturday, December 4, 1999 in San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group
[Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif. Check out more articles by Rodolpho Carrasco here. Visit Urban Onramps.

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Do Christians need protection from discrimination? I admit, the question sounds crazy. Most people in this nation of 270 million claim to be Christians of one sort or another. The constitution and key social tenets are rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Not only is the logical conclusion that Christians are protected by their numbers, many believe it is non-Christians who are in need of protection from zealous Christians.

Two recent events, however, suggest the need for protection for Christians.

In October, a Federal jury in Kansas City ruled in favor of Larry Phillips, who maintained that his supervisors at the Missouri Department of Social Services discriminated against him by lowering his performance evaluations and recommending termination. Why? He made it known his religious beliefs would not permit him to endorse the granting of a foster license to an admitted lesbian.

Also last month, Rev. Jerry Falwell, addressing a summit of 200 Christian leaders and 200 homosexual leaders, acknowledged that hatred of homosexuals was wrong, then made a unique call: "It is wrong," Falwell said, "for homosexuals to hate Christians or others who believe homosexuality to be a sin. It is doubly shameful to aim violent and destructive actions at these believers."

Discrimination against Christians on the basis of religious belief - we are all forgiven if this idea fails to stir much emotion or empathy. The Christians are being fired for their beliefs! People hate Christians because of what they believe! These claims just don1t seem very credible.

But there are places on earth where discrimination against Christians is the very definition of religious intolerance.

Sudan: In 1992 the Muslim-controlled Khartoum regime declared a jihad, or holy war, against the inhabitants of the Nuba mountains in southern Sudan. According to Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a Swiss-based watchdog group, Khartoum abets the trading of black Christian and animist slaves by Muslim gangs, a tactic CSI claims is integral to the Muslim jihad.

For their Amnesty International-like role in publicizing human rights abuses in Sudan, as well as for buying back the freedom of more than 15,000 Sudanese slaves, CSI earlier this month lost its United Nations status. Nina Shea, director of Washington, D.C.-based human rights group Freedom House, told Newsroom.org that the "genocidal and terrorist" Sudanese regime successfully pressured the United Nations to expel CSI.

China: A pastor named Li Dexian was arrested last month for violating Chinese laws that restrict the preaching of the gospel to "designated spheres, in a designated building, by a designated pastor," all designated by the Religious Affairs Bureau. According to a Compass Direct news report, Li has been kept in isolation since his arrest to prevent him from evangelizing other inmates. Last week Li's detention was extended because Chinese police said he was "showing no signs of remorse."

Sudan and China are far removed from our present society, both geographically and politically, and hate crimes against Christians in those places do not seem immanent here. But consider what it would be like if the Chinese brand of religious freedom were practiced here.

The Chinese government nabbed Li for evangelization. Were this same regime in charge in the San Gabriel Valley:

-- Say goodbye to the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, with their penchant for going door-to-door.

-- Say adios to the Hebrew Israelites, whose unique take on Christianity they preached to shoppers up and down Pasadena's Colorado Boulevard earlier this year.

-- And all those high school kids praying around the school flagpole? Bring a bus when you arrest them, there's a lot of them.

To Americans, it's a bit dramatic to express the cost of religious freedom in these terms. But to Chinese and Sudanese who are suffering because of religious intolerance, not enough drama has been employed.

It is true that Larry Phillips and Jerry Falwell haven't suffered what Li Dexian or the average Sudanese Christian is suffering.

Phillips lost his job and - had it not been for his successful lawsuit - his career, but he did not go to prison like Dexian did.

Falwell claims that homosexual activists have regularly threatened him and even mailed HIV-infected needles to his office. But he and his family are not being starved to death, as many Sudanese are, because he will not publicly renounce his views.

But Article One of the Bill of Rights states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." Though it may seem odd that Christians in a Christian nation need protection, Article One is among the things that distinguishes us from intolerant regimes around the world.

Unless we desire Sudan and China-style human rights for all, it is in our interest to ensure Article One is applied to all persons within U.S. borders - even Christians.

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