Anti-Christian sentiment
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Anti-Christian sentiment, is found in opposition to some or all Christians, the Christian religion, or the practice of Christianity. Christophobia or Christianophobia[1] are also names for "every form of discrimination and intolerance against Christians".
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[edit] Anti-Christian expressions
[edit] Vandalism
The vandalism or defacement of Christian symbols or property is one form of the expression of anti-Christian sentiment. If the defaced or vandalized object is considered holy by Christians, such as the Bible or the Cross, the case becomes that of desecration. Such destruction may also be illegal if it violates property rights or hate crime laws. Arson directed at Christian meeting places or churches is often considered a hate crime.[1] However, churches may also be targeted for reasons unrelated to anti-Christian sentiment, especially racism.[2] An aggravating factor in the burning of a church in Minnedosa, Manitoba was that two of the arsonists were fans of National Socialist black metal music with anti-Christian themes, according to the Crown.[3]
[edit] Music
Some elements of the black metal and death metal scene declare open hatred of Christianity. Headliners of the black metal scene have claimed responsibility for inspiring (if not necessarily perpetrating) over fifty arsons directed at Christian churches in Norway from 1992 to 1996.[4] The most notable church was Norway's Fantoft stave church, which the police believed was destroyed by the one-man band Burzum, Varg Vikernes, aka "Count Grishnackh".[4]
[edit] Examples of anti-Christian sentiment in politics and culture
[edit] United States
Christians of various denominations, including figures such as Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell, have claimed that American society and the United States government discriminated against Christians.[citation needed] Christian activists have spoken out against the perceived increasingly secular nature of American society, and what they have seen as the minimizing of formerly dominant Christian traditions, e.g. the War on Christmas popularized by Bill O'Reilly.[5]
[edit] Soviet Union
See article: Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union
According to the Soviet government's statistics, there were over 20 million Christians who were killed or allowed to starve because they were Orthodox Christians.[6][unreliable source?]
The government youth organization, the Komsomol, encouraged its members to vandalize Christian Orthodox Churches and harass worshipers. Christian Seminaries were closed down, and the church was restricted from using the press.[citation needed]
Practising Orthodox Christians were restricted from prominent careers and membership in communist organizations (the party, the Komsomol). Anti-Christian propaganda was openly sponsored and encouraged by the government, which the Church was not given an opportunity to publicly respond to.[citation needed]
[edit] United Kingdom
Mark Pritchard, the Member of Parliament representing the English constituency of The Wrekin, instigated a debate in the House of Commons on 5 December 2007 on the issue of Anti-Christian sentiment, describing the phenomenon as 'Christianophobia'.[7] Introducing the debate, he said it was about "how anti-Christian sentiment is increasing, not decreasing; why many Christians feel they are not getting a fair hearing when it comes to Christianity in the public square; and what many people of all faiths and no faith see as the increasing marginalisation of Britain’s Christian history, heritage and traditions through the actions of Whitehall Departments, Government agencies, local authorities, the charity commissioners, or other sectors of society."[8]
[edit] Norway
6th June 1992. The Fantoft Stave Church, a wooden structure originally built in 1150 in Fortun, when the Vikings converted to Christianity, and moved to Bergen in 1883, burned down.[9] At first the fire was put down to lightning and electrical failure. In January 1993 Varg Vikernes, aka Count Grishnackh, was interviewed by a local journalist in his apartment decorated with 'Nazi paraphernalia, weapons and Satanic symbols'. Vikernes claimed that the Black Metal scene had declared war on Christianity and Norwegian society and was responsible for eight church burnings as part of an ongoing terror campaign. He used a photo of the charred remnants of the church taken soon after the fire on his band Askes' ('ashes') album cover. Following his statement the Norwegian authorities began to clamp down on the Black Metal scene.[10]
In 1994 Vikernes was found guilty of murder, arson and possession of illegal weapons (including explosives) and given the maximum sentence under Norwegian law of 21 years in prison, where he renounced Black Metal and embraced neo-Nazism.[10] In mid-2009 he is due for release under parole after serving 16 years of the sentence.[11]
Partial list of Christian church arsons in Norway by anti-Christian groups reported by English-language media sources:
1992:
- May 23: Storetveit Church in Bergen[12]
- June 6: Fantoft stave church in Bergen[13] – Varg Vikernes was suspected of the crime, but denied this;[10] he was not convicted.[13]
- August 1: Revheim Church in Stavanger[13]
- August 21: Holmenkollen Chapel in Oslo[14]
- September 1: Ormøya Church in Oslo[14]
- September 13: Skjold Church in Vindafjord[14] – Varg Vikernes and Samoth were convicted for this.
- October: Hauketo Church in Oslo[14]
- December 24: Åsane Church in Bergen[15] – Varg Vikernes and Jørn Inge Tunsberg were convicted for this.[15]
- December 25: a methodist church in Sarpsborg[15] – a firefighter was killed while fighting this fire.[15]
[edit] Sweden
1993:
- February 7: Lundby New Church in Gothenburg, Sweden burnt by satanists [16]
[edit] Germany
Following a visit to Germany, in 1998 the United Nations Special Rapporteur issued a report in which he found that a climate of intolerance affected several Christian groups, among them Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. Charismatic Christians have also been targeted.[17]
The stigma attached to formalized discrimination of this type has created a climate of religious intolerance that breeds daily incidents of discrimination.[18]
[edit] India
- December 2007. A curfew was imposed in Orissa after Hindu hardliners attacked a dozen Indian churches. One person was killed and 25 injured as they prepared to celebrate Christmas Day. Christians are a small minority in the eastern Indian state, and the Hindu attackers claim that Christians had earlier tried to attack a Hindu leader.[19]
- August 2008. A spate of riots against Christians in Orissa broke out following the shooting of a Hindu leader the previous month; Maoist guerrillas claimed responsibility for the killing, but Hindu extremists blamed Christians for it. Hindu hardliners attacked Christian buildings and homes, and one young nun was raped. At a Christian orphanage the 20 residents were told to leave, then a Catholic priest and a nun were locked in the building and the mod fire to it. The nun died in the fire, and the priest was hospitalised with serious burns. The Vatican expressed reprehension for the actions, with one senior official describing the attack as "a sin against God and humanity". [20][21] The nun who was raped later denounced the local police for doing nothing to help her.[22]
- September 2008. Hindu mobs attacked up to 40 houses belonging to Christians and burned down three churches in Orissa. The previous week police had shot dead a man protesting the arrest of two anti-Christian demonstrators.[23]
- November 2008. Hindu extremists offered food, alcohol and money to mobs to kill Christians and destroy their homes, according to Christian aid workers in Orissa. A US-based Christian charity claimed that Hindu extremists had put a price on the heads of Christian leaders.
- November 2008. The British Government refused to to stop two members of radical Indian groups involved in anti-Christian violence from entering the UK.[24]
- November 2008. In the UK House of Lords, Lord Harries, former Bishop of Oxford urged the Indian government to prosecute those responsible for the attacks. Graham Dow, the Bishop of Carlisle added that anti-conversion laws in seven states have entailed threats of fines and imprisonment for clerics if they baptise Dalit people.[25]
[edit] Pakistan
- October 2001. Gunmen on motorcycles opened fire on a protestant congregation in the Punjab, killing 18 people.[26]
- March 2002. Five people were killed in an attack on a church in Islamabad, including an American schoolgirl and her mother.[27]
- August 2002. Masked gunmen stormed a Christian missionary school for foreigners in Islamabad, six people were killed and three injured. None of those killed were children of foreign missionaries.[28]
- August 2002. Grenades were thrown at a church in the grounds of a Christian hospital in north-west Pakistan, near Islamabad, killing three nurses. [29]
- September 2002. Seven employees of a Christian charity were killed in Karachi.[30]
- December 2002. Three young girls were blown apart when hand grenade was thrown into a church near Lahore on Christmas day. [31]
[edit] Iraq
In 2004, five churches were destroyed by bombing. Tens of thousands of Christians fled the country.[32][33]
[edit] Israel
In May 2008, several hundred New Testaments were burned in Or Yehuda, Israel. The books were found in a number of local Jewish homes, and in order to stop distribution of Messianic literature in the city, the Deputy Mayor had them collected. He later reported that during his absence, 3 Israeli students started a fire and incinerated at least 200, when he returned he put a stop to the book burning.[34]
[edit] Egypt
- April 2006. In simultaneous knife attacks on three Coptic churches in Alexandria one person was killed and twelve injured.[35]
- November 2008. Several thousand Muslims attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo on the day of its inauguration, forcing 800 Coptic Christians to barricade themselves in.[36]
[edit] See also
- Anti-Catholicism
- Anti-clericalism
- Anti-Protestantism
- Anti-Mormonism
- Islamophobia
- Antireligion
- Antitheism
- Civil and political rights
- Discrimination against atheists
- Persecution of Christians
- Religious persecution
- Religious segregation
- Religious intolerance
[edit] References
- ^ Time Magazine
- ^ Washington Post article
- ^ CBC: Minnedosa Fire, 6/28/2006
- ^ a b Grude, Torstein (Director). (1998, January 1). Satan rir Media. [motion picture]. Norway: Grude, Torstein. http://home.no/metalra/reviews/videos/satan_rides_the_media.html.
- ^ Lines drawn in battle over Christmas BBC News, December 10, 2005
- ^ The Orthodox Church - Heaven on Earth orthodox.net, accessed June 23, 2009
- ^ Christianophobia warning from MP BBC News 4 December 2007
- ^ Christianophobia markpritchard.com, accessed 23 June 2009
- ^ [http://books.google.com/books?id=Pv8EfgI8VwMC&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185&dq=Fantoft+stave+church+burned+down&source=bl&ots=eetMou6hJU&sig=p1s4gtlFfuKwV4dzmU1RYYKUm6s&hl=en&ei=G55GSvbDH5WxjAfcpelk&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4 In Cod We Trust, By Eric Dregni. p.185]
- ^ a b c In the face of death
- ^ Norway's most notorious musician to be released from prison
- ^ Lords of Chaos (1998): Hellhammer interview
- ^ a b c Lords of Chaos (1998): 78
- ^ a b c d Lords of Chaos (1998): 79
- ^ a b c d Satan rides the Media (1998)
- ^ Lords of Chaos (1998): 113, 269
- ^ Shocking discrimination in Germany retrieved 3 June 2009
- ^ Ibid
- ^ Indian churches come under attack
- ^ Vatican describes Hindu attack on Christian orphanage as a 'sin against God'
- ^ Mayhem in Orissa as Hindu extremists target Christians
- ^ Nun tells of rape by Hindu attackers
- ^ Orissa tense after church attack
- ^ Hindu extremists' reward to kill Christians, as Britain refuses to bar members
- ^ Anti-Christian violence in Orissa: conference hears victims’ stories
- ^ Christians massacred in Pakistan
- ^ Five killed as grenades are thrown into church
- ^ Pakistan militants kill six in Christian school attack
- ^ Pakistan militants kill three nurses after launching grenade attack on churchgoers
- ^ Fears of Pakistan's Christians
- ^ Thousands mourn girls in Pakistan church attack
- ^ Time magazine:Iraq's persecuted Christians retrieved 13 May 2009
- ^ CBS News
- ^ Hundreds of New Testaments torched in Israel, May 28, 2008, cnn.com
- ^ Knife attacks on Egypt churches
- ^ Thousands of Muslims Attack Coptic Church in Cairo
[edit] Further reading
- David Limbaugh. Persecution: How Liberals are Waging War Against Christianity, ISBN 0895261111
- Marvin Olasky. Prodigal Press: The Anti-Christian Bias of American News Media , ISBN 0891074767
- Michael Moynihan, Didrik Søderlind. Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, ISBN 0922915482
[edit] External links
- US Commission on International Religious Freedom
- Website about Christianophobia What is Christianophobia, cases of Christianophobia in Europe
- News article on Bjorn Atldax Anti-Christian logo jeans
- News article about Christianophobia.
- News article about the Vatican's reaction to a "Seven Wonders of the World" contest that 'excluded' Christian monuments
- Protecting persecuted Christians - Christians throughout the world are victims of abuse, violence and discrimination
- Berlin Wall Between Church and State News and Commentary on the War on Christianity in the public square.
- Anti-Christian: a "Socially Acceptable Prejudice"
- Christianophobia in Europe
- The excommunication of Rocco Buttiglione
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