Christians need to "suck it up" and "calm down"

Tim Costello: 'Christians need to calm down' and 'suck it up' over alleged persecution

Quote:

Baptist minister says there is no real risk of religious persecution in Australia compared with many other countries The social justice advocate Tim Costello has called on his fellow Christians to “calm down” about their alleged persecution, amid a brewing political storm over how the government should act to protect against religious discrimination. Costello, speaking in his new role as a senior fellow at the Centre for Public Christianity, also warned that the federal government should not try to legislate to cover “extreme” examples of competing rights, citing the high-profile Israel Folau case as an example. The former chief advocate for World Vision Australia is backing the recommendations of the Ruddock review into religious discrimination, but has dismissed calls from conservative Coalition MPs for a religious freedom bill. He said he did not see any evidence of the persecution of Christians in Australia, and said they needed to “suck it up”, just like Jesus. “I don’t think there is a risk of persecution – Christians need to calm down,” Costello said. “I would say to Christians if you want to see persecution, let me take you to places where there is persecution of Christians and other religious groups – let me take you to Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, and I will show you persecution. “And if they read their Bibles, Jesus said the world will hate you and misunderstand you for following me, but to go on following, loving, serving – so I would say, just suck it up. “Jesus didn’t go around demanding legislation to protect his rights. Jesus didn’t advocate for freedom of religion legislation.”

I met Tim Costello once when I was working in the aid and development sector, and he was CEO of World Vision Australia. If you're familiar with Australian politicians, he's Peter Costello's brother. Of all the Howard cabinet, he was one of the more reasonable. Tim also is pretty reasonable - during the scandal when World Vision America was accused of proselytising in return for aid, he made it clear that World Vision Australia was not engaging, and would not engage in such practices.

via International Skeptics Forum https://ift.tt/2LbUudN