Comfortable Christian majority can’t comprehend persecution

There was a time when I thought Fargo was progressive when compared to the rest of North Dakota. Granted, I was much younger and more naive about many things at that time, but it was something I truly believed. As I grew older and the rose-colored glasses cracked, I still believed that, relative to the rest of the state, Fargo was indeed a more accepting place.

It saddens me to look at Fargo today and see that either it has drastically changed or my impression of the city was completely off-base. Or maybe it’s a little of both.

I grew up in Wahpeton, N.D. We as children looked forward to our outings to the “big city” of Fargo. Yet I was always puzzled as to why the same monument that graces a cemetery in Wahpeton had such a prominent place in the center of the city mall. Yes, it was something I was aware of, and it was something I questioned.

<SNIP>

The simple fact of the matter is that in the 231 years that this country has existed, Christians have not had to endure the persecution that so many others have. Sure, once upon a time, in a land far far away from here, there was persecution. It’s one of the founding ideas of modern Christianity. But, how many current practitioners were in Europe when the Council of Nicaea was convened?