Short answer, Yes.
It’s also worse than you may have been led to believe. The mass media, educational institutions, and governments of Western nations have been lying about the discrimination for decades.
Devout Christians are well aware of this. Those people who attend church rarely, probably less so as they’re less likely to be a target of the discrimination. Those who count themselves as non-religious or members of another religion or atheist may perhaps dismiss the evidence of that discrimination. The arguments I’ve often seen used to dismiss the possibility that Christians could be discriminated against in Western nations generally rely upon credulity rather than bothering with the nitty-gritty annoyance of cited facts and evidence.
“Oh how is it possible that Christians could be discriminated against in a Christian nation” they will lamely say.
You’d think maybe they hadn’t noticed that Western nations aren’t majority Christian nations any more? Most people who write down ‘christian’ on a government census aren’t regularly attending church nor have read their holy book New Testament that is the foundation of the religion. They’re not real christians any more than a plastic duck is a real living breathing duck.
Perhaps these strangely unobservant deniers of reality are also uneducated in history as well. Russia was a majority Christian nation as were most East European nations, until Communists took control of their governments. Shortly afterwards, Christians in those nations became the target of mass slaughter. Christians were in the majority, and yet tens of millions of Christians were murdered and Christianity was extremely discriminated against.
You can be the majority of a nation and still be discriminated against by the ruling elites and the government – as any black South African during the Apartheid Era, or Russian Christian during the Soviet Era can tell you. The Irish Catholics were the majority of the population in Ireland before the 1916 revolution, yet still they were discriminated against by the British government. Many Irish were sent into slavery in the USA (more than half of the slaves in the USA were white until the 1860s).
More than 1-in-3 American workers say they have observed or have been subjected to discrimination against their religious beliefs in the workplace. You can be fired for wearing a crucifix to work. There’s been an effort for many years to get rid of such traditions as Christmas Trees by calling them something else, to reduce Christmas altogether to a commercial enterprise of no religious meaning. Biblical phrases on monuments are removed. Crucifixes are taken down. Being a practising Christian results in the media portraying you as a nutcase. The corporate mass media in the USA and in Europe rarely miss an opportunity to insult Christians. The DHS in their handouts has portrayed those who openly espouse Christian beliefs as potential terrorists who should be watched and distrusted, portrayed as prone to irrational violence.
In Europe, the discrimination against Christians is even worse.
Most people in the Western nations are raised to believe that discrimination based on religion or race or sex is a bad thing, so why accept discrimination against Christians as if their religious beliefs were the magical exception?
http://www.intoleranceagainstchristians.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/Report_2013_on_Intolerance_and_Discrimination_against_Christians_in_Europe_Webversion.pdf http://www.cesnur.org/2015/OSCE%202015.pdf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11440548/Discrimination-against-Christians-ignored-across-Europe-MPs.html
Yes Christians are being discriminated against. Some against individuals, others by government officials against entire Christian organisations.
Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians can include, among other things, the following elements:
I) Discrimination: Denial of Rights of Christians • Violation of freedom of expression • Violation of freedom of conscience • Violation of parents’ rights with regard to the education of the children • Violation of the institutional or collective dimension of religious freedom • Discriminatory “equality” policies
II) Intolerance: Marginalisation of Christians • Exclusion of Christians from public life • Exclusion of Christian symbols from the public • Social disadvantages for Christians • Insult or incitement • Misrepresentation of Christians in the media through negative stereotyping
III) Hate Incidents • Hate crimes against Christians • Hate incidents such as the disruption of services • Vandalism
All of these have been increasing for decades.
A Florida ministry that feeds the poor said a state agriculture department official told them they would not be allowed to receive USDA food unless they removed portraits of Christ, the Ten Commandments, a banner that read “Jesus is Lord” and stopping giving Bibles to the needy. “They told us they could no longer allow us to have any religious information where the USDA food is going to be,” said Kay Daly, executive director of the Christian Service Center. “For the past 31 years, the Christian ministry has been providing food to the hungry in Lake City, Fla. without any problems. But all that changed when they said a state government worker showed up to negotiate a new contract. …(A) state agriculture department official told them they would not be allowed to receive USDA food unless they removed portraits of Christ, the Ten Commandments, a banner that read ‘Jesus is Lord’ and stopping giving Bibles to the needy.”
When the government tells the Christian Service Center it has to give up on Christ or quit using USDA food to help the poor, that’s religious discrimination.
A Florida professor at Atlantic University tried force a student to stomp on Jesus. The student was told by the professor to write Jesus Christ’s name on a piece of paper and stomp on it. For this act of religious discrimination, no action was taken against the professor until there were widespread protests by Christians in the community. Before then, the student was the one who was going to be punished by the University.
In over 100 years of it’s history, the University of California Hastings College of Law (UC Hastings) had never denied student organisation status to any group. Until the law school decided in 2004 to strip the campus chapter of the Christian Legal Society (CLS) of recognition.
This sort of action has been occurring elsewhere, with Christian groups forced off campus at other colleges because they refuse to go to the absurdity of having non-Christians leading their groups or accepting atheists to teach the Bible.
Navy Lt. Gordon James Klingenschmitt was punished by a commander for offering sectarian prayers at a memorial service for a fallen sailor.
The Ten Commandments have been prohibited on school bulletin boards and most forms of prayer have been banned in the USA’s schools, even that which is student initiated.
Increasingly, children are discriminated against and punished when they demonstrate their Christian beliefs in school.
A high school student in Florida was suspended for handing out religious literature before and after – but not during – school hours.
Two high school students in Texas were told by their principal they could not wear rosaries.
In 2002, music teachers in Michigan, Maryland, and Virginia didn’t allow students to perform traditional carols like “Silent Night” and “The First Noel” during Christmas.
A New Jersey public school banned the Charles Dickens play, “A Christmas Carol”.
In April 1998, Rev. Patrick Mahoney was arrested for praying on the steps of the Supreme Court.
In 2003, the National Park Service removed 30 year-old plaques inscribed with Bible verses at Grand Canyon.
In March 1998, The ACLU put pressure on the small town of Republic, Missouri to remove a fish symbol from its official logo, calling it a “secret sign of Christianity.”
These are only the tip of the iceberg.
More acts of discrimination and oppression against Christians in the West
LGBT-promoting teacher bans cross necklaces in class
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/22/cinema-chains-ban-advert-featuring-lords-prayer
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=55113
http://www.hideoutnow.com/2018/12/group-demands-removal-of-christmas.html
(By the way, I’m not Christian, so you naysayers and haters of Christianity can drop that furphy. I just happen to be rather against discrimination when I can see it.)
OnlyTheGhosts remain 