Complaints about persecution

Christians have been complaining a lot about being persecuted lately. Perhaps now, after persecuting others for centuries on end, they’re finally beginning to understand what it means to be persecuted.

They’re paying the price for the sins and crimes committed by their Christian forbears.

It’s “dangerous to be Christian”, moaned Neville KyrkeSmith in the local media on 8 May. May I remind him that, thanks to Christians like himself, it was once dangerous to be a pagan, a Jew, a “heretic”, a “witch”, or even someone who simply followed the dictates of his own “conscience”.

Christian prelates residing in Israel recently complained about graffiti daubed on their property by Jewish extremists.

These graffiti on walls are harmless pranks compared to the relentless and vicious persecution of Jews by Christians from the 4th century onwards.

Jews were the scapegoats of Christendom. Whenever something went wrong – from poisoned wells to the Black Death – Christians always blamed the Jews, and then proceeded to persecute them without mercy.

Before Christians complain about being persecuted, they should read about the injustices and the hardships the Jews suffered after they were expelled from Catholic Spain and Portugal.

They should keep in mind the horrific massacres of Jews by fellow Christians in Germany during the First Crusade.

They should peruse the long, sad history of persecution by Christians of non-Christians and fellow Christians alike.