One of the recurring themes of fundamentalist American Christianity is how “persecuted” they are. They seem to have a personal investment in finding themselves persecuted, to the point where they define “not being able to establish a theocracy, and not being able to force our religious beliefs down everyone else’s throat” to be persecution.

You want real persecution? Try the places in the world – Iraq, Algeria, to name just two — where being a Christian can be a matter of life or death. In Egypt, for example, militant Islamists bombed a Coptic church on New Year’s Day. Angry Copts responded with violence of their own — understandable, but not necessarily helpful.

What is remarkable about this story is its aftermath: on Epiphany, thousands of Egyptians surrounded Coptic churches to act as human shields to safeguard the worshippers inside.

It gives one hope for humanity.