Why are Christian businesses targeted .....

[GaryK]

Politics has always been an outrage machine and always will be. I remember as a youngster noting the bashing of the other side that took place in every election. That's the nature of politics.

I have a simple question for you. Is your well documented dislike of Trump and MAGA Republicans part of the political outrage machine or is it a part of the Kingdom of God?

I think, Gary, that outrage and fighting is who Donald Trump and MAGA are, primary aspects of their identity. I think that they are telling us "I am the only one who can save you", that we need to be scared out of our wits and put our trust in them.

I'm not looking for outrage, I am looking for insight. We should not be part of their outrage machine. Our identity has nothing to do with them. That's not where the Kingdom of God is to be found. Yet it is one of the main things so many people want to talk about and promote.

But that didn't answer my question. Is your well documented dislike of Trump and MAGA part of the political outrage machine or is it part of the Kingdom of God? You were the one to say we can't do both at the same time.

In my opinion, your dislike of Trump and MAGA mirrors the left's political outrage about Trump. How is that different than the ones on MN who you believe engage in the right's political outrage?

[Bootstrap]

But that didn't answer my question. Is your well documented dislike of Trump and MAGA part of the political outrage machine or is it part of the Kingdom of God? You were the one to say we can't do both at the same time.

I disagree. I think I did answer it: loyalty to the Trump / MAGA outrage machine is at odds with the Kingdom of God. That's what I dislike about it. Especially when it masquerades as Christianity.

I would think anyone opposed to political outrage machines would be opposed to political outrage machines. Why do you consider that inconsistent?

Is it wrong to have a strong dislike of other kinds of sin, or just this one?

[Bootstrap]

The Jewish Virtual Library has a good page on religious hate crimes in America:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/st ... ate-crimes

Incidents of religious bias represented 18% of the total. The vast majority of hate crimes - 82% - are not based on religion. Of those that are, few are directed toward Protestants:

Anti-Jewish incidents: 55%
Anti-Sikh incidents: 9%
Anti-Islamic incidents: 8%
Anti-Catholic incidents: 5%

For religious hate crimes, that means 72% are against non-Christian religions. Another 5% are against Catholics.

For 2021, the FBI reported the following:

A total of 1,590 incidents related to religion were reported; the largest categories of religion included:

Anti-Jewish incidents: 51.4% of religion-related incidents
Anti-Sikh incidents: 11.6%
Anti-Islamic incidents: 9.6%
Anti-Catholic incidents: 6.1%
Anti-Eastern Orthodox (Russian, Greek, Other): 3.1%

So why do some Protestants and Mennonites feel like we are especially targeted? Seems like we should be standing up for other victims of hate crimes.

[ohio jones]

I would think anyone opposed to political outrage machines would be opposed to political outrage machines.

Yes of course, that would be logical. But when someone is outraged about one political outrage machine in particular and says little or nothing about the other(s), that's outrageous.

[ken_sylvania]

So why do some Protestants and Mennonites feel like we are especially targeted?

Possibly because some of the targeting seems to be government-sanctioned?

[Josh]

The Jewish Virtual Library has a good page on religious hate crimes in America:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/st ... ate-crimes

Incidents of religious bias represented 18% of the total. The vast majority of hate crimes - 82% - are not based on religion. Of those that are, few are directed toward Protestants:

Anti-Jewish incidents: 55%
Anti-Sikh incidents: 9%
Anti-Islamic incidents: 8%
Anti-Catholic incidents: 5%

One wonders if this is an unbiased source for those statistics.

[Bootstrap]

The Jewish Virtual Library has a good page on religious hate crimes in America:
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/st ... ate-crimes

Incidents of religious bias represented 18% of the total. The vast majority of hate crimes - 82% - are not based on religion. Of those that are, few are directed toward Protestants:

Anti-Jewish incidents: 55%
Anti-Sikh incidents: 9%
Anti-Islamic incidents: 8%
Anti-Catholic incidents: 5%

One wonders if this is an unbiased source for those statistics.

Feel free to provide a better source. I provided two - the second was the FBI. You didn't quote that part.

But in fact, the Jewish Virtual Library is simply compiling the FBI statistics year over year. Go read the website, they show you how they are doing it.

[Josh]

Yet hate crimes are far, far less common than, well, apparently non-hateful murders and violent assaults. I don’t see why it’s important frankly to report on them at all. Murder is murder, violence is violence.

[GaryK]

But that didn't answer my question. Is your well documented dislike of Trump and MAGA part of the political outrage machine or is it part of the Kingdom of God? You were the one to say we can't do both at the same time.

I disagree. I think I did answer it: loyalty to the Trump / MAGA outrage machine is at odds with the Kingdom of God. That's what I dislike about it. Especially when it masquerades as Christianity.

I would think anyone opposed to political outrage machines would be opposed to political outrage machines. Why do you consider that inconsistent?

Is it wrong to have a strong dislike of other kinds of sin, or just this one?

I'll try again. Does the left have a problem with loyalty to a political outrage machine? If the answer is yes, is that loyalty at odds with the Kingdom of God? If the answer is yes, how is your loyalty to the dislike of Trump/MAGA different than the Democrats' loyalty to the political outrage machine that is against Trump/MAGA?

[Bootstrap]

Yet hate crimes are far, far less common than, well, apparently non-hateful murders and violent assaults. I don’t see why it’s important frankly to report on them at all. Murder is murder, violence is violence.

And discrimination against Christian businesses is also extremely rare.

How did Christianity get caught up in this victimhood identity? I don't think it's a fruit of the Spirit. I think other religious groups are much more persecuted, and Christians are often in denial of the persecution that Jews and Muslims face here, which is worse than what we face.

Historically, true Christianity has always been a minority religion, not understood by most people in the culture. We shouldn't be surprised by that.