Should Christians be treated differently?

BBC Radio Four started a stimulating discussion regarding whether Christians should be treated differently. As Christians are being marginalised and even 'acted against' it would perhaps be sensible to engage in some form of positive discrimination.

So should Christians be treated differently?

Simply, the answer has to be a resounding 'No' for a number of reasons:

+ Christians shouldn't be treated prejudicially (positively or negatively) but should be treated exactly the same way as everyone else. In fact the real issue is that, within a secular setting, all are (and should be) recipients of the same rights and privileges and are also bound by the same responsibilities. To argue that any group is a special case is to argue that it is acceptable for others to be less than equal. This contravenes the Christian message and destroys democracy rather than enhance it!

+ It is hypocrisy on the part of any group who cry out to be afforded special treatment for that same group to then discriminate, or act against others, because of this special consideration. Read some of the Christian websites and blogs and you will find people screaming at the treatment of Christians at the hands of certain minority groups. The reality is that these groups have been afforded special rights and protection societally and in law, and use this position to erode the land upon which those who oppose their lifestyles, attitudes or philosophies, stand. To claim 'equal rights' means that all have equal rights. What many of these groups seek, and are given, is in fact 'unequal rights!'

+ To quote that great source of philosophical consideration, 'The Incredibles', "When everyone is super, no one will be super!" If all are granted equal status in our society, then what makes any group special, worthy or valid is not the rights they enjoy but the responsibilities that they exhibit.

Those people who want Christianity and Christians to have a special place in the life and working of our society have to get out of their pathetically closed little groups and get out there and 'be the difference'. The many people I meet who hide behind their church doors and complain that no one comes in need to get of their bottoms and get out into the community their church is meant to serve and started serving it! Those who cry that they are under siege from the naughty people, the atheists, the liberals, humanists and any other group who might be the bogyman for you, need to get out more and take the Gospel with them.

We will be treated differently as Christians because we are called to be counter-cultural. That is that we continue upholding truth, good and God even though the asylum that is our society picks up more and more excesses and thinks up even more ways to damage itself morally, spiritually, emotionally and physically.

We should be treated differently from the rest of the world, because we are different but this doesn't mean that we should be afforded any less rights or have a diminished voice or be acted against because of it. Whatever next, they'll be wanting to crucify us!