Evangelicals Say We're Persecuting Them, But Is It Other Way Around?

The Blount County Tennesee Commission, led
by member Karen Miller, is begging Got not to
smite them because of all those icky gays out there.  

Some Evangelical Christians are famous lately for giving us the persecution complex: You know, there's a war on Christians, they're going to be put in jail for their beliefs, the godless government is after them, yada yada yada.

Is it really the other way around, though? The most famous example is of course Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who is shoving her religious beliefs down everybody's throats.

She fought and fought the idea of giving marriage licenses to those icky gay couples because of her religious beliefs.

Of course, that hypocrite has been married three times and doesn't appear to hold to the other tenets of Leviticus, which these religious types always cite, so I don't know about her.

There's been a number of other interesting cases of evangelicals imposing their religious views on the rest of us, two of which I found recently that are interesting. One of the cases is harmless, if both comical and obnoxious. The other did real harm to at least one person.

I'll get into the comical one first, I guess. Hat tip to Ring of Fire and Raw Story for this one.

It involves the Blount County, Tennessee Commission, which is normally in charge of things like setting budgets and municipal employee salaries and otherwise administering county public business.

Oh, but the Blount County Commission is much more than that, nowadays, yessirree!

The commission has written a resolution begging God for mercy and asking God not to smite their community (and presumably smite others instead) because the U.S. Supreme Court authorized gay marriages earlier this year.

Here's part of the resolution. It helps to read it aloud like one of those over emotional southern-fried corrupt televangelists:

"We adopt this resolution before God that HE pas us by in His Coming Wrath and not destroy our County as He did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighborhing cities. As the Passover Lamb was a means of salvation to the ancient Children of Israel, so we stand upon the safety of the Lamb of God to save us.

We adopt this Resolution begging His favor in light of the fact that we have been forced to comply and recognize that the State of Tennessee, like so may other God-fearning State, MAY have fallen prey to a lawless judiciary in legalizing what God and the Bible expressly forbids."

Well, then.

Of course, not all the fine citizens of Blount County, Tennessee are behind this.

According to The Daily Times newspaper in Maryville, Tennessee, Ginny West Case, a retired Christian educator at a local United Methodist Church, says "I'm tired of God being used as a battering ram. The Bible, over and over tells us God is the God of love and grace and mercy."

Amen, sister.

Meanwhile, in Alburquerque, New Mexico, Holly Salzman had some coparenting issues with her ex-husband that had to be resolved in family court.

The judge in the case ordered Salzman to attend 10 sessions with a counselor named Mary Pepper.

So far, so good. Counseling is often ordered in messy family court cases. Can't hurt, right?

Well, it can. Especially since Pepper turned out to be one of those obnoxious evangelical proselytizers.

This New Mexico mom temporarily lost custody of
her kids because she objected to being forced to
attend religious counseling.  

When Salzman went to the first session, Pepper started blabbing on about God, reports television station KRQE in Alburquerque.

Salzman, who doesn't go for that kind of old time religion, asked the court to let her see another counselor. The court never responded.

She stopped going to Pepper because the prayers continued. She went to court again, told them about the problems, but the court said they hadn't had any problems with Pepper and to keep going.

Among the tasks Salzman had to complete were homework assignments such as, "What Is God To Me?"

But Salzman stopped, and temporarily lost all custody of her kids.

She finally returned to the sessions and endured all the God stuff just to get her kids back. But should the government be telling a non-believer to attend what amounts to church just to retain custody of her kids?

Since when do you have to be Christian to be a parent in the United States?

I'm all for Christian counseling, but only for people who want to go, and are not forced to by the government.

By the way, KRQE says Pepper held counseling sessions in municipal libraries, even though you're not allowed to conduct business there.

And Saltzman, along with many other of Pepper's clients, had to pay Pepper in cash, apparently in part because you're not supposed to do business in the library.

Hmmm. So Pepper might be deceitful, too? How Christian!!

So which is it?  Is the nation becoming anti-Christian? Or is it the other way around. I think it's time some of the most offending evangelicals ought to put a sock in it.