Why Republicans saw Charleston as an assault on religion, in 1 chart

[trotsky]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/06/23/why-republicans-saw-charleston-as-an-assault-on-religion-in-1-chart/

The Public Religion Research Institute study shows about half of Americans say that "discrimination against Christians has become as big a problem as discrimination against other groups."



...

And just to reinforce, the question was not whether Christians face any discrimination at all; it's whether the discrimination they face is as big a problem as the discrimination faced by other groups. Those other groups, logic follows, would include African Americans and others that throughout history have faced well-documented and long-running forms of overt discrimination.

Of course, tragedies like the one in Charleston don't happen in a vacuum. And it was hard to escape the likely racial motivations of a white man walking into the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and shooting dead nine people.

But it's also clear that about half of Americans see the predominant religion in the United States -- a religion claimed by more than 70 percent of people in this country -- as facing real discrimination comparable to that faced by, ostensibly, African Americans and others.

[ladjf]

1. Christians love to wave their "flag of persecution". nt

[trotsky]

2. Even a third of Democrats - who should be more aware of what true discrimination is about!

Disappointing to say the least.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. And 55% of non-white protestants

who, being non-white, are the targets of any racial discrimination.

[goldent]

18. That is what stood out to me, because it seemed like the only

group who had any means for comparison. I'd like to understand more what the thinking was there.

[Warren Stupidity]

3. for many of the religiously afflicted, being prevented from imposing their religious nonsense

on others is "persecution".

[ladjf]

4. That's an interesting point. Fact is that people who are attacking other people

will invariably scream persecution when they aren't allowed to persecute their victims. (bad sentence. hope it made sense)

[longship]

5. That is the way I read it, too.

Of course, a major part of Christianity is to spread "the word". So they got that going for them.

But that should never be an excuse for how they seem to twist the persecution claim.

Myself, I find it a smarmy claim.

[trotsky]

6. Exactly.

That, or merely having their religious opinions challenged and not quietly accepted and deferred to.

[on point]

7. Spot on. Let's hope the religious affliction continues to fade quickly

[struggle4progress]

8. Republicans wanted to portray the Charleston shootings as an assault on religion because

they faced the following problem when a loonie-tunes neo-confederate shot a bunch of innocent folk: they didn't want to offend their gun-humping loonie-tunes neo-confederate constituency

The wacko-mobile made a valiant effort to drive off towards several destinations -- such as It's all Obama's fault! or Roof is just another liberal! or Here's another example of how the Democrats hate Christmas! -- but they finally noisily decided to drive away from We're all loonie-tunes neo-confederates like you in the hopes the gun-humpers would stay on board

[Lordquinton]

9. "And it was hard to escape the likely racial motivations"

The guy literally said it was about race. Articles like this are part of the problem.

[AtheistCrusader]

16. I'm told another incident couldn't POSSIBLY have been about a parking spot.

HAD to be religious hatred by an atheist.

Otherwise they had no gored ox to cry over.

[Lordquinton]

17. I'm split on the parking thing

But the guy actually said that was his motivation, unlike here, where the guy said racial hatred was his motivation. And in france, where they said it was about their god, or any number of other terror acts that get godsplained as not actually religiously motivated, or by race. Of course the atheist was acting out of religious hatered, even though he stated it wasn't.

[Dorian Gray]

11. It's very sad

I think lots of people are trying to grasp the WHY this could happen.

But it's very obvious that it was racial hatred that motivated this attack. The poor poor people in that Church. Roof obviously targeted a place of historical importance in the African American community to attack Black Americans. His hatred and desire to hurt people is born of a festering prejudice that bubbled up and consumed him and, sadly, the people he attacked. It is unconscionable. And this should open up a dialog about race in America. There is a lot that is broken, and hopefully we will be able to get past the horrors of our history.

The only good in this is that some minds are being challenged about the appropriateness of flying the Confederate Flag.

[trotsky]

12. I'm delighted that the spark he intended to create...

(one that would ignite a racial civil war) has instead perhaps lit the fire to rid ourselves of that flag. He needs a big Nelson "Ha ha!"

[Act_of_Reparation]

13. Well, since you suggested it....

[Dorian Gray]

14. I agree

I am so sorry for all nine people murdered by him. My heart aches for the people who survived who are terrorized by his actions. And my sympathies lie with all the people who are mourning their loved ones. I am happy though that the discourse is opening up more. People realize that racism isn't dead. It never was. This is horrendous and we should all be ashamed that this type of violence was born from our society.

And South Carolina needs to rid itself of that flag. Ugh.

[Lordquinton]

15. I have a handy graphic to sum it up