There has been much debate on the point of whether Christians, either in the U.S. or elsewhere, are being, have been, or will be 'criminalized'. I have responded using my own definition of 'criminalization', but I think it might make these debates more productive if we came to a common understanding of this word, or at least a more specific understanding of where the differences in our understanding of this word lie.1John wrote:The mythizers are criminalizing Christians.
To start, I will offer the definition from Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary.
criminalize: to make illegal: OUTLAW: to turn into or treat as a criminal.
To me, to criminalize Christianity would mean to make the practice of Christianity illegal.
To others, the interpretation seems to be that if certain practices or views that are identified with Christianity are made illegal, this is criminalizing Christianity.
I would disagree with this interpretation, unless the practices or views being made illegal were practiced by a majority of Christians and formed an essential part of the practice or doctrine of the religion. I also would add that the practices or views being made illegal were specific to Christianity, or the laws applied only to Christians.
For example, if religion X held that all blacks should be made slaves, and the law said that slavery was illegal, and this law applied to everyone and was enacted under the rationale that blacks are people and should have the same rights and freedoms as everyone else, then this would not be 'crimininalizing religion X'. It would criminalizing a certain practice that religion X would like to engage in. There is a difference in my book.
Having put in my two cents worth, I would ask others for their definitions, or views on interpretation.
What would it mean to criminalize Christianity?
