Why do they feel this way? Could it be true?

Depends on your perspective. From the Christian standpoint, the answer is probably yes.

Once upon a time, they had quite a hold on things, or at least it seemed so. There have always been non-believers, of course. Most of the time they kept their heads down, for fear of having them chopped off for heresy or burned at the stake for witchcraft or sorcery. To read the news, it would seem a good many Christians long for a return to those Glory days.

But they once actually we're marginalized, and to a fairly large extent. And they still are, just not in the way they claim. The industrial revolution started taking away jobs, and science began answering great questions. Religions began to falter, and no church likes a decline in revenue. So religious responded.

It's funny there is a Christian based book series called "Left Behind", because ultimately the story of Christian marginalization is one of them being left behind. There are many places you could start the story, but the place that impacts us the most began to take shape in the late 19th century to the early 20th.

It's called the "Latter Rain Movement", and it was the time when Christians stopped looking at the Bible as an example in ethics and morality, and began to look at is as the literal word of God, unerring, factual in all accounts.

We non-believers call this hogwash, of course, but it was how churches--little churches, mostly--began to recover from the loses of an era that was going to leave them behind, and they grew, and continue to grow, as a dominating force first in their local societies, and them in the arena of politics, be side the poorest and least educated among us didn't have the good sense to not be suckered in by charlatans.

They took the least educated among us, played on their fears, and used them to build empires. Radio and television expanded their audiences, especially as each of these technologies became affordable, or at least accessable, to the poor. Once upon a time in America, you didn't have to have much of an education to have a job that would feed your family--if you could do manual labor, that could be enough, especially with the help of your kids working too, who better served the family at work on a farm or factory instead of getting edumacated at skewl. At least until they took away those jobs from the kids with rules against child labor. And marginalized them.

And the pastor's, men who--if they didn't at first crave wealth--certainly acquired a taste for it, preyed upon these poor sheep. They fleeced them, milked them, in many cases phuqed them (at least the young pretty girls--it's okay, Gawd told them it was ordained), and built empires, which sadly gained a lot of influence with the new money they had. The roots of the mega-church of today is in the tent-revivals of yesteryear, but the Jerry Falwells of radio were at least smart enough to use the technology available, I can't take away credit for that. Sadly, they gained that power cleverly and stealthily.

And all around them, industry's machines stole the jobs of the manual laborer, and later computers brought efficiencies which took the jobs of even a high-school educated person. And marginalized them even more. It continues now, soon driverless cars will take, they say, up to 20% of the current jobs from America...blue collar jobs everywhere are disappearing. Jobs that didn't require too much of an education. Jobs that Christians could and did take because it didn't require a degree that they'd never get with their home-skewl education.

And thus Christians are being left further behind all the time. Now, nevermind that so are non-Christians. And nevermind that most Americans today wouldn't work the fields of crops that as yet can't be machined, and these jobs go to not illegals (well not much anymore) but instead foreigners here on work visas, which the government provides because the farmers can demonstrate a need they can't get filled with Americans. Now, nevermind the facts, Christians have been marginalized.

And nevermind that prayers in school are still allowed (just not allowed to be required) and that freedom of worship is as strong as it ever was. Even putting "Under God" into the Pledge of Alligiance isn't sufficient, they've been marginalized. Ask them. They will tell you so.

The fact is, from the perspective of someone indoctrinated from a young age into the belief system, told what to think, discouraged from thinking about things their parents and pulpiteers would rather they not think about, they've been marginalized. They say so because that's all they know. Very few of them ever get out from under that kind of thumb.

And now they have the ears and the tongues of an entire political party.

They place blame on anyone and everything around them that isn't like them, because immigrants come here and do better than they are doing (because immigrants value hard work and education as part of the American Dream). Marginalizing them. Before the immigrants, it was the blacks. Don't even get me started on the blame black people have suffered. That's an entire issue on it's own.

And they give their money to the mega-churches who keep promising them a better tomorrow, if they just weren't being marginalized. And there are enough of them poor marginalized Christians that those leaders in the Mega-churches have an awful lot of money, and they got wise and started spending it into the political system.

Spending a lot of it in fact. Don't doubt that you can buy a vote--you can, with enough money--and don't fool yourself into thinking these professed "family values" politicians are any better than the leaders of the churches that pay them big bucks (all through shell companies and other legal skirt-arounds to rules against such things.)

There's a reason Republicans keep getting caught in social scandals and keep asking for -- and receiving -- forgiveness from God. They don't give a damn about God, and as long as they profess that they will ensure Christians that they will save them from marginalization, they shall be saved, or at least they will remain in office.

We hear how they are marginalized because they have the Republican party in their pocket, frankly. The Republicans, by and large, brought it on themselves when they started accepting their money in large quantities back in the 70's (Barry Goldwater warned of the dangers, no one listened).

And with the tea-party takeover in the early 2000's, it backfired on them, and it now threatens their party's entire structure, especially when Trump played to their fears as well as any televangelist and gained the presidency. Trump doesn't give a flying hoot about Christians. Neither did most of the Republican leadership. But most of the old-time Republicans are leaving, if they haven't already. Now the Republicans in power believe their own lies, and by God--they've been marginalized.

These are terribly dangerous times for America.

Because you know who else rose to by power blaming everyone else for the marginalization of their group? Hitler. It didn't end well.

Getting left behind is a dangerous thing, but not for those that claim it's happening to them. It's dangerous to everyone else. I fear it's probably too late for America. Trump could very well be impeached by his own party, when it suits them to do so, if he lashes out against them (I actually believe he would, if it came down to it, much as I despise the man). Guess what kind of man Mike Pence is? Well, for one, he's a reformed gogo not at a gay club (or so indicate the pictures and stories at least). There is nothing worse than a closeted Christian man for putting on a righteous Christian showing.

The party that used to be for fiscal responsibility and small government and now of thoughts and prayers don't have a prayer left, the way things are going, and they brought it upon themselves, and it's going to wind up coming down on all of us. I'd advise to get active politically, but I think it's probably too late.

Because Christians have been marginalized too long.

And you know how stray dogs can get, when you've backed them into a corner.