Global war on Christians? It's a myth

Commentator says it exists only in the minds of politicians and theologians.

United Kingdom:  “From Boston to Zanzibar, there’s a worldwide war on Christianity,” claimed United States senator and likely presidential candidate Rand Paul in his speech at the recent Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC. One of the founding fathers of the Tea Party, Paul went on to denounce the Obama administration for supporting the Syrian opposition saying:?“We are now arming rebels that are allies with al-Qaeda [and] American tax dollars should never be used to prop up a war on Christians.”

Rand Paul is the first prominent American politician to posit the idea that a worldwide war is being waged on the largest religion on earth. While not novel, the idea that many of the planet’s 2.2 billion Christians are under systematic siege has found new traction with the publication of John Allen’s book, The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Anti-Christian Persecution. A longtime correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, Allen has risen to international prominence as the leading American Vatican-watcher.

Despite his generally insightful reporting on Vatican affairs, Allen has not only done a disservice to Christians around the globe suffering real repression and persecution but has potentially fanned the flames of religious conflict by calling upon Christians to resist a fictitious war that exists only on the pages of his book and in the questionable data of certain Christian organisations.

Allen and Paul are wrong on both accounts. The repression and discrimination suffered by a small but significant number of Christians is neither global nor does it constitute a war.

Source: Catholic Herald