A recent study from Pew Research set out to solve an interesting riddle: which Americans think they undergo the most persecution?
The results were more than just surprising: They revealed a complicated discrimination complex. The most obvious example was white evangelical Christians, fully 50 percent of whom say they face “a lot” of persecution in America. Perhaps more jarringly, only 45 percent of white evangelicals think Muslims face discrimination in America, and a mere 36 percent say they think African-Americans face discrimination in America. Thirty-one percent of the overall public think white evangelicals face persecution in America, and 54 percent of them think African-Americans are discriminated against.
It paints a messy picture, in which the line between perception and reality are difficult to determine. However, in an era in which ISIS is seeking to behead those in the Middle East who don’t convert to their radical brand of Islam, perhaps white evangelicals’ understanding of “discrimination” needs a little fine tuning.
