blog, Christianity

More proof of false Christian persecution

As I outlined in my last blog post concerned Robert Griffin III and Christian persecution, it is a false narrative.  The myth of Christian persecution was again proved as Kansas City Chiefs safety Husain Abdullah caught and intercepted Tom Brady‘s pass on Monday Night Football.

In celebration of Abdullah’s play, he went down to pray. Abdullah, a Muslim, was penalized and his team incurred a 15-yard penalty on the next kick off.

In response, this tweet was posted on Twitter:

If anything pro-Christian favoritism could be argued here. Fortunately, the NFL responded that Abdullah should have not been penalized. The decision for the penalty during the game was:

The prayer drew a 15-yard penalty flag for unsportsmanlike conduct, for “going to the ground” while celebrating after a score. There are exceptions made for religious prayer in the rule…

At the least we have learned two things:

  1. The media look for any angle to make a story run
  2. It’s easy to selectively prove (falsely) that Christian persecution exists.

Beware of the danger of the single story.

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Rev. Alan Rudnick serves as the Senior Minister of DeWitt Community Church. He has been featured on television radio, and has written for the Albany Times Union, Syracuse-Post Standard, The Christian Century, Christian Citizen, Leading Ideas, Christian Reflection, Baptist News Global. He is the author of “The Work of the Associate Pastor” (Judson Press) and is a doctoral candidate at La Salle University's Doctor of Theology (Th.D.) program. He has served on the American Baptist Churches USA Board of General Ministry, American Baptist Home Mission Society, and the Missions Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

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