Dear Mullah Dobson

You are not being persecuted.

The United States is also a country whose culture is shaped by the mores and conventions of its overwhelmingly Christian majority. This culture makes it not only acceptable, but often popular and advantageous for Christians to be outspoken and public with their professions of faith. By culture and convention, Christians in America enjoy privileges and power that their coreligionists in other countries could never dream of. When or where in history was it ever easier to profess Christianity in whatever form you might choose?

And yet scarcely a day goes by, regardless of whether or not it is "Justice Sunday," in which some group of American Christians does not claim that they are facing "persecution."

They dare to use that word.

This is delusional, pathological. These people are insane. They are my brothers and sisters in Christ -- and the brothers and sisters of those Christians facing actual persecution in the world's forgotten corners -- but they are insane.

When protected, privileged and pampered American Christians claim to be facing persecution they spit on the wounds of their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world and in history who have known firsthand what religious persecution really is. They mock not only their fellow Christians in this great cloud of witnesses, but also those of other faiths who have suffered or are, now, today, suffering genuine persecution.

Just because some judges won't let you impose your belief system on the entire country does not mean you are being persecuted. Not allowing to you subvert the rights of a husband to not have a feeding tube shoved down his wife's throat by George Bush, Bill Frist, Jeb Bush, Tom DeLay, or Randall Terry against what he believes were her wishes is not persecution. Requiring a Christian pharmacist to give birth control prescriptions or morning after pills to women who have legally obtained prescriptions isn't persecution. A judge acknowledging that a 13 year old girl is in charge of her uterus isn't persecution. Giving homosexuals the same rights as married couples for economic, legal and medical matters is not persecution. A racy stand-up bit delivered by a First Lady is not persecution either.

Unless the First Lady is a Democrat of course. Then she is a godless terrorist lesbian heathen activist judge who will do permanent damage to the fabric of our nation. And, don't forget that we would have to figure out how to tell the children.

Love,

Steve

P.S. Even George Will says you should lighten up.

Dear Mullah Dobson