The scandal of the 1928 election was that a Catholic was running for President; certainly that is no longer a prevailing prejudice.

But the discrimination today takes a different form. The state of Massachusetts, for example, forced Catholic Charities to abandon its adoption services because it refused to violate Catholic teaching and place children with homosexual couples. Not only is the discrimination today subtler, it is also less directed at the Catholic Church alone, rather, it is directed at all Christians.

Today’s hostility—yes, and discrimination—exists because Christians make a truth claim. That is the cardinal sin against the overarching virtue of modern society called tolerance. In an era of rampant relativism, a truth claim by its very nature is seen as oppressive.

An environmentalist, for example, can promote his particular agenda in the public square without ever being accused of imposing anything on anyone. But a Christian who says that he believes a particular moral position—a position that he believes a free society would do well to embrace—is accused instantly of imposing his views.

So it is not like the bad ol’ days when there was overt hostility towards the Papists; rather, anyone today who considers himself or herself a believer in the Creator God of the universe imposes a threat. In that sense, we are all papists. Christians are not being victimized by some secret conspiracy hatched in the basement of CBS or the New York Times; rather, we are by our very nature counter-cultural.

I would argue that society needs to take a hard, sober look at how we define tolerance. Is it as classically understood, a willingness to entertain all points of view and listen respectfully to those with whom we disagree? Or does it mean accepting an all-beliefs-are-equal position?