A Fish Upstream

Fifteen years ago, my eldest daughter Emily wore a t-shirt depicting a solitary Christian fish symbol swimming upstream amid an enormous school of cartoon fish. That now-ragged t-shirt's message seems even more relevant today. Christians swim upstream against strong opposing social currents, even in formerly Christian nations. In recent years, Christians and Jews have been denied the shelter of the otherwise all-encompassing umbrella of political correctness.

I practice my faith in private without interference; however, simply acknowledging my faith in public conversation or classrooms has resulted in accusations that I am bigoted, hateful and narrow minded. On one memorably ironic occasion, chatting with a Christian girlfriend while in line for the Body Worlds exhibition resulted in being aggressively pushed by a surly stranger whose t-shirt proclaimed, "Christians are mean people."

Most ridiculously, individual Christians are often demanded to apologize for the Crusades and slavery -- the dual trump cards in secular opposition to modern people of faith. I checked: Christian churches stopped granting sanctuary to such miscreants at least 150 years ago. No Christian can repair the testimonies of decades, even centuries, of predescessors in faith, nor should the living be called to apologize for the dead. Such blame rises pointless artificial barriers that further polarize groups of people. The time is long past for guilt over generations of transgressions. Rather, each person should be held accountable for their own burden of responsibility before God.