CIVIL RIGHTS, AND UNCIVIL PRIVILEGES

There's a lot of weirdness out in the pews these days. One of the weirder ideas that has gained great currency amongst some Christians (largely evangelicals) is that Christianity, or at least the evangelical version of Christianity, is under assault by the culture, Hollywood, liberal elites, etc.

The truth is that Christians are in the majority in this country, obviously, and that historically that majority has been heavily-privileged in the public square. This practice continues in much of the United States to this day. It's so ingrained in many communities that it's not even questioned. Fresno has been, and probably still is, one of those communities.

Case in point: there is a National Day of Prayer, which I've posted about before. Last spring, I joined other members of the Interfaith Alliance in essentially 'crashing' an evangelical-only party with city government, as a ceremony was held on the steps of City Hall with the participation of Mayor Alan Autry. The purpose was to peacefully make the point that the National Day of Prayer is for all faiths, not just one segment of the Christian community, and that in no way should the local government's actions privilege one house of worship over another. It is a great credit to Mayor Autry that he welcomed the Alliance's participation. We were not invited, but once there, non-Christians were allowed to participate, ending a 16-year tradition of exclusion at this event:



Now it would be wonderful to report that the evangelicals have seen the light, and that they now intend to extend the olive branch of inclusion to all faiths in the community, and (one would think) especially the largest religious denomination in Fresno County, the Roman Catholic Church (there were no Catholics last year!). Yeah, it would be great to report that. Except what is actually happening is that evangelicals have quietly made inquiries as to whether the Interfaith Alliance intends to attend this year's observance. If so, it's been suggested that they may move the National Day of Prayer from City Hall to one of their mega-churches.

I have mixed feelings about this. Obviously, if they change the venue as indicated, they are avoiding the sort of entanglement with religion that leads to Establishment Clause challenges in the courts, and the secular nature of our government is affirmed. That's good, as far as it goes. But how sad is it, that the evangelicals would rather go undercover than risk being caught in public praying with non-evangelicals, or even (gasp) Catholics or (double-gasp) non-Christians?

I mean, they still control the local political apparatus, it's not like a moment of civility with other groups is going to cause their power base to unravel.

See, many of my fellow Christians are used to having a privilege, at being given a leg up on other faiths, and so when someone has the nerve to disagree with them or ask them to revisit the Establishment Clause, they act as if they are having their rights violated...when of course the truth is that the privileging of their views in the public square is likely to violate the sensibilities (and perhaps the rights) of non-believers. It is my unfortunate duty as an American citizen to direct their attention to the Constitution on this point, but often times all that gets through their cognitive filter is 'your religion . . . no'. Which is not the intended message!