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This past February, the Virginia House of Delegates approved an amendment which will eliminate the church/state protections from the state constitution and allow officially sanctioned prayer in public schools. Bill HJ-537 proposes an amendment to Virginia’s constitution that would "permit the exercise of religious expression, including prayer and ‘religious beliefs, heritage, and traditions’ on public property, including public schools...." The amendment was passed by a 69-27 vote in the House, and has been submitted to the Senate. That such an amendment could even be considered, let alone passed, is both a disgrace and an outrage to the memories of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and all Americans who fought for a constitution that kept religion out of government.

Unfortunately, that is not all. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are pushing hard for a number of Religious Right issues, including but certainly not limited to, the Terri Schiavo case, the Federal marriage restriction, abortion, and judicial nominations. During a meeting in Washington D.C. with the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group, DeLay complained about the current federal tax law, claiming it "forces Christians back into the church." Mr. DeLay has either forgotten – or chosen to ignore – the fact that the whole idea of the wall of separation between church and state was to keep the government free from religion, not just to keep religion free from government. To put it more bluntly, Christians don’t have the right to push their political agendas on the nation any more than another faith does.

Despite the constant complaints from the Religious Right about becoming "increasingly oppressed," there is no hard evidence that this is the case. Where are the signs of "oppression" they keep whining about? Are Christian churches all across the country being destroyed? Hardly. I still see plenty of them; not only standing, but more new churches going up. Are all ministers and priests being round up and thrown into jail simply because of their occupation? I don’t think so unless you count people like Jim Bakker. However, that might have something to do with the fact that Bakker actually broke the law. In his case, one could reasonably argue that with 23 counts of fraud and one count of conspiracy, a jail sentence was justified. So when you add everything – or more accurately, the lack of anything – up, I have only one final question: Where’s the beef?

Leaders of various conservative Christian groups need to learn the difference between real oppression and simply not getting their own way on the issues they would like to see made into law. If Christians want an example of oppression, they only need to dust off their American history books and reacquaint themselves with the institution of slavery in this country. An institution that was supported in its time by various Southern conservative Christian churches, many of whose members owned slaves themselves, and who had no intention of giving up their way of life without a fight. It took four years of a bloody civil war to accomplish that. Of course, one can see why some evangelical Christians might not wish to be reminded of such unpleasantness, but it remains a fact nonetheless. Compared to the oppression actually suffered by African Americans for generations before slavery finally came to an end, the gripes of Christian activists remind me of small children throwing temper tantrums because Mom or Dad said "no" to their special wish of the day.