When the Catholic Church declares that everything’s going to hell, you have to take it seriously. Nevertheless, complaints about oppression of Christians in U.S. society always amaze me. Practically everyone in the country is a Christian. (Jews are about 2 percent, Muslims less than 1 percent.) Yes, of course, Bishop Chaput is referring to believing, or at least observing, Christians. But even there, the U.S. is among the most observant countries in the world. Almost half of all Americans tell pollsters that they go to church at least once a week.
If anyone is trying to oppress Christians, he or she is doing a pretty lousy job of it. Christians — believing Christians — are everywhere you look. And even if you limit the discussion to oppression of Roman Catholics, I defy Bishop Chaput to find much of that in our country in 2011.
Oppression doesn’t necessarily mean being thrown in jail for your beliefs. There is, I would submit, a form of oppression by a combination of popular culture and the spirit of the times (the Zeitgeist). If you watch the soaps here in the UK it is starting how in the few, rare, mentions of Christianity, it is nearly always someone who is fanatic or unhinged. I gave up counting these some time ago when in a popular spook series, the plot hinged on a fundamentalist (of course!) Christian who set out to assassinate Muslim leaders. Then there is the postmodernist grip on the humanities (including education), with its insistence on any kind of truth claim as inherently both impossible and oppressive. Yes, this is not the tumbrils leading to the guillotine. But it amounts to a conscious scorn of the wisdom we have inherited from the past, and a marginalisation of those who still believe it.
“The error in this is the idea that laws are valid, indeed beyond reproach, when they emerge from democratic processes and a marketplace of ideas. But everyone’s having had a “voice†in lawmaking does not guarantee good law. Majorities sometimes make laws that deny basic and important freedoms, and American history is replete with examples of this point.”
The “dictatorship ship of the majority” seems to be becoming an acceptable course of action in modern American politics.
The wrongness of this presuption of dictatorial authority is obvious when the split in the elctorate is something like 55%-45%, but its just as wrong when a split might be 95%-5%.
That’s one reason why we have a Bill of Rights.
Well said, Terry.
Reading Kinsley’s entire piece reveals ignorance about Catholic doctrine. When such ignorance is expressed by someone who — judging by the qualities of the essay — is educated, this is negligence if not wilful prejudice. When such ignorance is published or is taught in the classroom, it becomes even more serious. To call it oppression might be a bit extreme, but it certainly does nothing to stem the tide.