Arrested for Holding Up a Blank Sign

Christians often say they are persecuted for their beliefs in modern America.  I say, no, for the most part, I don’t believe that’s true. Christianity is privileged in many ways in the U.S. However, listing those ways isn’t the main point of this brief post.

I mainly want to point out actual persecution and hold up the bravery of a Russian citizen who simply held up a blank sign.

This woman was taken away simply for holding up a sign with nothing on it. I suppose it was understood that she was protesting the war in Ukraine. However, in a country where the dictator has a history of killing dissidents, this was an act of bravery.

25 thoughts on “Arrested for Holding Up a Blank Sign”

    1. That pastor looks disconcertingly like Jordan Klepper would if he had been aged up for the piece… until you see that he’s about two feet shorter.

  1. Somewhat related, the Congressional Freethought Caucus held an event last evening called God is On Our Side: White Christian Nationalism and the Capitol Insurrection.” The Washington Post has a tl;dr version of the report that led to the event linked below. This link should get you behind the paywall. https://wapo.st/3CTdA02

    The event was based on a new report by a joint project of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). The full report can be found here: https://bjconline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Christian_Nationalism_and_the_Jan6_Insurrection-2-9-22.pdf

    There’s more White Christian persecuting than persecution going on in the report.

  2. “Persecution” is a topic that I personally took a very deep dive on many years ago now. I suspect few have taken anywhere as near a deep dive and likely no one else commenting on this blog has. This dive ended up costing me dearly with a great personal loss which certainly shaped my view. After that time I married a Russian woman who, like many other Russians, has mixed Ukrainian blood. This too shapes my view of the war and persecution that stems out of it. What follows is my hard lesson opinions on this subject:

    In the West we Christians have views of persecution that do not look like nor sound like what Jesus plain view was. Jesus said that the persecuted are blessed as long as they are persecuted for doing the right things. We believe the exact opposite. Persecution is a curse and it needs to be shouted down and done away with at all costs. It has become the go to excuse for conmen to raise money overseas. Accountability is excused away as all details of where the money goes must be buried so deep no one will ever find it. Gospel for Asia and Voice of the Martyrs are two big charity scams hyping this anti-Christ view. Jesus talked about rewards in heaven. We do not believe in that %$^*! All we see is what is here and now, we have no vision whatsoever of any afterlife. And so the word has been dumbed down so much that our narcissist leaders whine about there lack of lording power over others like they use to and that is persecution! It takes bravery to buck a tyrant but now the word is used to describe the whining of tyrants who have lost their power to some extent to abuse others and so that is persecution. We understand nothing of what the likes of Peter, Paul and John went through in the first century.

  3. The bible says “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”, are you saying for the most part Christians in America do not have this desire?

    1. No, I’m pretty sure Warren is saying some christians whine about “persecution” where there is none (although Warren phrases it more politely).

        1. No, it is simply stating a fact.

          TV posted a link to the definition of persecution, perhaps you should read it.

    2. Very important point. Christians should expect persecution as ‘part of the deal’, and be very grateful insomuch as they are NOT persecuted. In other words, WE should be very grateful. Very grateful indeed!

      Just on Russia: what’s happening with the Patriarchate of Moscow shows how toxic Christianity can become when it gets tangled up with nationalist or partisan politics …
      https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-invasion-splits-orthodox-church-isolates-russian-patriarch-2022-03-14/

      1. Very grateful? The apostles saw it differently “They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.”

        1. If you know some people who are eager to be flogged, I would think it wouldn’t be difficult in the age of the Internet, to find someone to oblige them.

        2. Grateful either way! Either for not being persecuted or for being persecuted on account of what is right …

      2. I have seen some quotes from the Russian Patriarch in Moscow. That org has been probably the most corrupt “Christian” institution on the planet over the last century. The things that have been quoted make me sick, because they are.

        1. I agree that Kirill is behaving appallingly by cravenly supporting Putin and his war of aggression against the Ukrainian people. The recent (as in the last century) history of the Patriarchate is complex, and includes times of both persecution and ‘rehabilitation’. But the bottom line is this: christian-nationalism (whether Russian, American or …) has corruption at its core, because at its heart it is a corruption of the Gospel, which cannot be the exclusive possession of any particular tribe or nation.

    3. But Jesus said that his followers would be persecuted–which, in his day and place, was more than likely. It’s not true any more–at least not in the US–but if Jesus said, it HAS to be true. So his Fundamentalist followers make it up.

    1. False victim narratives are popular among a particular demographic of U.S. Evangelicals fighting to keep their unchecked (and unearned) privilege. Equality feels like oppression to them.

      1. If we to assume that the Webster dictionary’s definition of persecution is correct, then Christians in the US are being persecuted for their beliefs, especially over the matter of human sexuality. I am talking about a fire department chief being fired for publishing a book on this matter, about a student suing a counseling university program where Warren was involved, and about a teacher who got fired because his school forced to call a female student living as a male by her chosen gender and he refused to do so since it was against his beliefs. It should be noted that the first cases I listed, the victims were Afro-Americans thus it shows that persecution of Christians in the US transcends races.

        I would also argue that persecution in Russia is more severe but it does not make it morally acceptable in the US.

        I am appalled at how those who condone our persecution would exploit current horrific situation in Russia and use those poor Russian people as props, in order to humiliate us, or according to Webster, persecute us. But, I reckon it will make our faith only stronger.

        1. And again your misrepresention of the facts only highlight how some christian cry “persecution” any time things don’t go their way.

          What you have cited isn’t even close to being “persecution”, merely cases were christians think waving their bibles exempts them from the rules everyone else has to follow.

        2. And again your misrepresention of the facts only highlight how some christians cry “persecution” any time things don’t go their way.

          What you have cited isn’t even close to being “persecution”, merely cases were christians think waving their bibles exempts them from the rules everyone else has to follow.

          1. Check it out:
            https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/persecuting

            As you can see, the definition of persecution is pretty generic without any specifications in terms of what punishments should persecuted people get. That’s the definition of Webster, but perhaps Webster doesn’t have the ultimate authority. There are many more examples when Christians have been merely sharing their beliefs and got punished for expressing them simply because those in power felt uncomfortable. It makes me wonder whether that’s what this is all about: the world gets their feelings hurt by hearing Christian message and there is a desire for worldly people to cause Christians to suffer as a revenge for getting their feelings hurt.

          2. I know the definition of “persecution.” And as I said the examples you gave were not persecution. they were examples of christians thinking they don’t have to follow the rules because they are christian.

            Your characterization of “merely sharing their beliefs” is most likely a misrepresentation of the facts.

    2. And this is using “Christians” as if it meant White Evangelical Protestants. This is the Big Lie of the last half century.

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