Ever have a right winger give you their best shot, and it turns out to be like spitting gum on your shoe?

As most of you are aware by now, I have, in addition to continuing to be part of this blogging team and maintaining Deep Thought, recently accepted an invitation to also join the team over at The Coalition for a Republican Free America.

So the other day, I put up a post on the current manufactured 'controversy' about how some stores are greeting customers with 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas,' and it got into a discussion of the supposed 'war on Christmas' that the right likes to harp on (the comments are included in the link). Anyway, a rightwinger gave me a link to show how 'extreme' things have gotten in terms of suppressing Christianity. (if you are really curious, the link is

this

I won't make it a live link because it's not worth my trouble to type in the html language, you can cut and paste it if you want.

In any case, it goes through the travails of some poor fanatical fundie who was fired from a job at a state university for preaching until they fired him, who had taken a second job with similar results, and who the writer was advising to continue, with his group, to prosletyze on campus until they kick them all off (the university allowed them to operate on campus, simply admonishing them to be 'cautious.')

Of course, there are always complaints galore about free speech and the first amendment.

What this means, is that the best case that these people can make, is that some institutions are infringing on their right to be a nuisance.

Apparently, they believe that they have a right to go anywhere (including their place of employment) and preach, even at people who aren't interested. But if they get fired, that is unconstitutional.

No, freedom of speech means they can't be prosecuted criminally. Your employer has every right to set a standard on speech and other acts at work. It is likely that his nonstop preaching was interfering with his own and other people's productivity, possibly costing customers (it doesn't say what his job was) and costing his employer money. Further, as to prosletyzing on campus, the university has every right to tell them to be 'cautious' about it. As I mentioned above, that is not a ban, but an attempt to make sure that people who are at the university for the purpose of getting an education can expect to do so without being harrassed.

Now, I have no problem with a Christian sharing the gospel. I am myself a member of a church and willing to share it with anyone who is interested (L.D.S. church). Now see how easy that is? If someone decides they are interested, they will follow the link. If not, they won't. But once I pursue someone who has told me once they aren't interested, it is no longer a matter of sharing, but a matter of harrassment. There is a saying, 'what part of 'NO' don't you understand?' that should apply here. It certainly does to me.

What I think is that some people, like the person in the link, have a problem. They want to be like the early Christians. And the early Christians were persecuted for being disciples of Christ. They were dragged from their homes, fed to the lions, forced to fight to the death in the Colisseum against barbarians, beasts and professional gladiators, sold into slavery and stoned to death. Their homes were burned and their children were taken and sold as slaves. But now, after about 1800 years in which the main source of persecution of Christians has been other Christians, it can safely be said that as of today, there is no Christian in the United States who is actually persecuted because of his/her religion. So, they have to find examples like this and claim it is religious persecution. Not persecution for being pushy to the point of being a public nuisance, but persecution because of the message (hint: if I took my zeal for being a member of the Democratic party to this kind of extreme and pestered people at work to register as Democrats until they either did or quit just to get away from me, don't you think my employer would fire me? And they would be justified.) Any one with any common sense can distinguish between asking someone a question one time, and harrassing them with the same question to try and wear them down until they do what you want.

And that was the first link the guy popped up with.