"I'm too intelligent to be a bigot!"

Louis Bolce and Greald De Maio have written an interesting article about how media and academia can shape negative and even hostile attitudes about Christians.

As a mathematics instructor in a Texas community college I have see some of what the authors are talking about. Many professors who pride themselves on their supposed open-mindedness are deeply prejudiced against Christians - especially those they label as "fundamentalist". Comments about homosexuals, minorities, Muslims, and women that would never be condoned for an instant by college administrators and faculty are somehow not even minor offenses when directed against "fundies" (a word I hear tossed around in the same manner as the N-word).

What is alarming (to me, anyway) about this undisguised hostility towards "fundamentalist" Christians is the fact that many Christians - in an effort to avoid the wrath of our self-styled elites - will engage in similar attacks. Perhaps they believe that by doing so they will escape the wrath of these elites. They are wrong - for many of these elites all Christians (no matter how liberal their politics) are ignorant Bible-thumpin' Neanderthal barbarians who would never be tolerated in a decent society.

This bigotry is, of course, not a deadly issue. Christians in the USA may be subjected to all sorts of socially acceptable bigotry and (on occasion) may find their jobs threatened because of their Christian faith. But no one is in danger of losing their lives because of their faith.

Yet.

My own view is that soon - perhaps in our lifetimes - open persecution against Christians will become official government policy. I am not saying this because I believe that we are living in the End Times and that the Great Tribulation is about to begin (I am skeptical of these and other trendy views in eschatology that try to read the Bible like some sort of secret code book). Perhaps Jesus is coming very soon, or perhaps He will not return for thousands of years. I do not know when He is returning, and the Bible is pretty clear when it warns us not to speculate on such things. Rather, I am simply observing that so much hatred and prejudice among intellectuals and the media against an increasingly unpopular minority is bound to lead to disaster. If Christians are constantly portrayed as sinister characters, sooner or later government will respond to public demand to do something about them.