–an Op-Ed* piece by Jordan King
Does anyone else remember the Kim Davis story? Well, if you don’t, she denied marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Kentucky even though it was her Job, and she was the only one in the county who could do that job. Well,… many people thought she was being unjust, but others took a different stance–most nota
bly Ted Cruz who compared Kim Davis to Rosa Parks. After Kim Davis was arrested, Ted Cruz came out and said that Christians are persecuted in this country. So, are Christians persecuted in this country?
To better understand this topic, we should first see why some Christians think they’re persecuted. The main reason is something called “religious liberty.” Religious liberty is protected under the Bill Of Rights, the First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” Religious freedom is necessary, of course. The problem lies in the fact that some think that religious liberty can be used to discriminate against people because of their belief. The problem with this discrimination… it goes against the Constitution, and against plain common sense. “…The concept of free exercise of religion is not self-defining. The boundaries of free exercise, like those of other rights, must be delineated as against the claims of society and of other individuals” (The Heritage Guide to The Constitution). What this is saying, is that religious liberty in the Bill of Rights is limited; it can’t go against the common good of society, and it can’t go against the law. Some believe that they are being persecuted because they can’t discriminate against gay people in their place of business. They argue, a baker who believes marriage is defined as a union between a man and a woman should not be forced to make a cake for a same-sex couple’s wedding.
Note, 92% of House and Senate members identify as Christian (The Huffington Post). To put this in perspective, only 72% of the American public identify as Christian (The Huffington Post). Christians are extremely well represented in government and in the United States demography. Also 
knowing that there are far more people who say they are Christian in the House and Senate then in the general population goes to show that it’s more likely you will be voted into Congress if you are a Christian. Non-religious, unaffiliated, people only make up 3% of the Senate but make up 16.1% of the general population (The Pew Forum). Popular opinion and our legislative body lean toward the Christian.
I conclude, Christians aren’t persecuted in this country. Christians are treated like everyone else, if not better. Your religious rights give you the right to practice your religion; they give you the freedom to have particular beliefs and ideologies. You can’t, though, have your beliefs interfere with the good of society, or the law.
*The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and participants on this blog site do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of thebirdonfire.org, the Upper School Blog Class, or the Palm Valley School.
e is the fact that so many people accept the wrong, misguided images of China or Chinese people without thinking or researching. The comic-strip caricature of the evil Fu Manchu, for example, was perpetuated by the media and politicians. I can live with all the racist jokes, but it is the disrespect and unfair judgement to my motherland that hurts me the most.
Jesus Christ, and maybe Sherlock Holmes. So, I opened the book. I was curious to find out who is the most influential person. Muhammad. The book said, “Muhammad.”
some food, we drove to the train tracks. As soon as we dropped the tailgate, hungry villagers appeared out of nowhere. We sliced turkey, dished potatoes, and handed out oranges. At first it was awkward; I had never done anything like this before. I couldn’t understand them; they couldn’t understand me. One by one the Mexican children smiled; I smiled back. Later, I surprised myself by playing football in the desert.
1+1 = 2, my math teacher confirmed, with an indisputable tone, “That’s truth. Just remember it.” I was once scolded by my teacher because my score held back the overall GPA of my class. As we entered upper grades, the academic workload became increasingly heavier and most of our spare time was occupied by being tutored. School was no longer the paradise I had expected, and teachers were not the angels I had hoped. Gradually, I felt like I was becoming a puppet–doing what the teachers expected me to do and believing all that the teachers said without questioning or experimenting. I even put away my interest in drawing to save time for the heavy academic burden. 1+1 must = 2! No room for argument.
(United States Bureau of Labor Statistics)
to China, India, Latin America and most factory work is replaced by machines, the unemployment rate, historically, stays relatively the same.
Yes, I’m Chinese
here, one in the Czech Republic.) It was already very unfortunate for me having to study for two high schools, but it was necessary to have it done. My journey was planned to begin on the 15th of December. I was all packed and went to a nice brunch with Trey. We were sitting in the restaurant with plates full of pancakes, talking and enjoying our last moments before I left when I remembered to check my flight, making sure everything was still planned and on time. To my surprise, it said that my flight was delayed by about five hours! There was no way this could work because I was flying from Palm Springs to Denver where I was supposed to have only a 45-minute layover. So, Trey and I went to the airport early to ask “What’s going on?!” When we arrived, a man working for United confirmed that I will indeed be missing my flight to Denver by exactly five hours. I started freaking out, so he said he would try to find another flight to get me to Czech on time. It was about 12:45 p.m., and the man finally found another flight and said I can fly to San Francisco, but I would have to go now, because the flight takes off in a little less than ten minutes. Not knowing that I would have to run to my gate, I had left my luggage and purse in Trey’s car so he had to run for it. They didn’t even let me put luggage on the belt and told me to run. So I took my purse, said bye To Trey, and ran to my gate. I had to pass all the TSA checkpoints and everyone was yelling at me that I am late. Finally, I arrived to my plane without knowing if my luggage would fly all the way with me. As I finally got to my seat, some woman was sitting there. So, I went to her and asked her nicely if she can move because it is MY seat, but she refused. I didn’t want to make a big deal of it, so I just put myself down in the middle spot.
never found out what happened. Everything eventually calmed down, and after a tiresome journey, I landed in Frankfurt. Glad I was finally in Europe, my relief was quickly erased when I found out that my remaining flight itineraries were left back in the Palm Springs airport. With no idea where to go, I finally found my gate. But with my luck, my terrible journey didn’t end there. The woman working at Lufthansa said that she didn’t see me on the list for my last flight to Czech, and she explained to me that I couldn’t fly anywhere. After an hour of her calling and me being utterly exhausted, she finally got clearance to let me go to the plane and I successfully flew to Prague.
correct one, catching my flight back to Frankfurt. Surprisingly, nothing too bad happened on this flight, and from there I landed in Houston where the worst part of my trip was still waiting for me. Everyone was leaving the plane, and I was slowly following the herd of people off. There was a huge line for immigration control. Luckily, I had a four-hour layover, but nothing would prepare me for what was about to come. I finally got in front and went before the immigration officer. He was going through my papers, passport, joking around, . . . and then he stopped, looked at me, and said that they don’t accept copies of an I-20 (document for international students). When I tried to show him an original one with just my name and a signature on it, he said that there is no date, so they couldn’t accept it. I started being very nervous. He told me to wait and sent someone for me. A police officer came for me and took me to a small room. My international student agency told me to call them if something like this happened, but no phones were allowed in the room. I stayed there three hours being questioned about everything, but I had no way to see the time; I was scared I had missed my flight. The officers there were very nervous because the room was filling up with people every minute. People had to start sitting outside, that’s how packed it was. Some of them couldn’t even speak English, which made the officers even more angry. There were also little kids crying, and I felt really bad after ten hours of them flying. I thought, “They will send me back to my home country,” or “I will definitely miss my flight to Palm Springs.” I would be stuck in Texas without anyone. The officer was trying to joke with me about basketball, but I really wasn’t in the mood for it. They finally let me go, and I didn’t miss my flight (surprisingly), but this experience will always stay in my heart. It was the spookiest thing that has ever happened to me.