The Art of Victimization

Why we should be slow to claim persecution

If there is one thing that many Christians seem to do well, it’s declaring when they feel they are being persecuted for their faith. Conservative media is full of stories about ordinary people being suspended from school, fired from their jobs, or fined by local authorities, ostensibly for simply going about their business being Christian. If we were to take all these stories as they are presented, we might reasonably conclude that American Christians are under near constant attack from the forces of liberalism and secularism who are just waiting for their opportunity to strike, and that our Constitutional rights to speak freely and practice our faith are being tossed out.

Often when you look a bit more closely at these stories things start to get a bit murky. Are your First Amendment rights really being violated if you got detention for repeatedly disrupting your class with declarations of your refusal to sit through lessons about evolution or climate change? Is your freedom of speech being violated when your Facebook account gets suspended after posting that you’d like to shoot abortion doctors?

Take this account of a church organization that purchased a plot of land that was not zoned for either a church or school, then went ahead and built a church and school there. Then they attempted to get the zoning laws changed, and when that failed, they sued the town, claiming they were being persecuted for their faith. So let’s back up for a minute. I have some doubts about whether God would tell you to build your church in a specific place when the laws of that community don’t allow for it. And let’s be clear, no one is claiming the laws say no churches or Christian schools can be built in that town, just that some parts of town are zoned for churches and schools, which present both foot and car traffic as well as noise considerations that don’t exist everywhere. It is entirely reasonable for any community to zone for businesses, churches, and schools because of these concerns. And Romans 13 makes it clear that we should, within the boundaries of godliness, observe and obey these laws, as well as respect the authority of local governments.

Yet this church seems to have taken the approach of shooting first and asking questions later. They built their church and school on land they knew was not zoned for it, in violation of the law. When their attempts to change the law after the fact failed, they sue the very community they are there to serve. What kind of way is that to start out a relationship with this town? These are the people they will be ministering to, and they are in an adversarial relationship with them. This strife will only create a barrier to their ability to reach people for Christ, which should be the primary goal of any church. Even if God had told them to build that church in exactly that spot, waiting patiently on His timing on when and how to act would seem to be more prudent that taking the matter to court.

So often this claim of persecution seem to exist within a framework in which it is Christians versus everyone else. Opposition to the Christian faith does certainly exist within the non-believing community, but is our position supposed to be that we are at war with that community? Understanding that someone has a different view from yours doesn’t have to extend to making them an adversary. We should be shrewd in dealing with the non-believing world, for sure, but we should also recognize that being a representative of Christ is not to be the enemy of all who don’t believe in Him.

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

• Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

I find it hard to avoid suspecting sometimes that what’s really happening in many of these cases is that there is a feeling in evangelical circles that Christian thought and belief should be dominant in all areas of life, and then finding disappointment when it turns out it doesn’t for most people. Christian ideology was driving institutional and government policy for much of the 20th century, but now an erosion of that influence is creating a pushback against what has become a more pluralistic and secularized America. The fear that we’re losing our country to the forces of liberalism and secularization is a frequent topic of hand-wringing and alarm in conservative media. Stoking the culture of outrage at the latest liberal slap in the face to the Christian way of life is an easy, lazy way to keep your viewers tuned in.

The never-ending “War on Christmas” is a prime example. It rears its ugly head with every approaching Christmas season, with the flames being fanned by conservative media. Remember when Starbucks persecuted Christians the world over by using a plain red cup as their Christmas cup theme in 2015? One wonders what they would need to put on the cups to make the talking heads on the news media happy. Must they put Bible verses on their cups to accommodate their Christian customers? Does every Starbucks need a living creche scene out front to make Christians feel their holiday is being appropriately recognized?

There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Christians being targeted for standing on their principles. Take this story about a woman being cursed out at a local coffee shop she frequented because one of the baristas there didn’t like the mission of the faith-based organization she worked for. These things do happen. Christians standing on godly principles will inevitably run into opposition from people who oppose those principles, or badly drawn government policies that conflict those views. Walking in faith will sometimes require us to lose jobs, friends, and even approval or contact with family members because the world doesn’t want to experience conviction by seeing or hearing someone who really walks with the Lord and loves His Word. Just because many stories about persecuted Christians in America end up being either wildly exaggerated or outright contrived doesn’t mean that real persecution isn’t happening here.

But we’re nowhere near the point of what Christians suffer under regimes in Iran, North Korea, China and other nations where ideologies hostile to following Christ are dominant. These are places where daily persecution is a fact of life, something that is alien to us in the United States. No one is rounding Christians up and putting them into “re-education camps”. There hasn’t been a widespread purge of Christians from government jobs or institutions.

Politicians for which there is little to no evidence of their sincere faith in Christ will still pander to the Christian voter base in both campaign promises and actual policymaking when in office. If anything, right now Christians are among the most accommodated groups in this country. There have been a string of wins at the Supreme Court that have dramatically expanded the right of people to live out their faith, in particular their Christian faith. So it can seem more than a bit melodramatic to many non-believers when Christians start complaining that their rights to exercise their faith are being infringed upon.

It is also true that while in America today Christians may be largely free to express and practice their faith, tensions between Christians and non-Christians will continue to rise. A time will come when American Christians will experience real persecution as many have before them, and the Church should ready itself with careful study and meditation on the Word so that it is able to stand when it comes. If we’re too busy now being preoccupied with being offended every time we feel slighted by those who don’t like our biblical stance on some social issue, we will be missing the opportunity to ready ourselves for when the real persecution comes, and we risk falling away when it does.

We would do well not to rush to social media or call into Fox News too quickly when we run afoul of society’s sometime disdain for the teachings of Jesus, and recognize who we were before we came to know Him. That’s not to say we need to let ourselves be walked on, but our trust should rest on the Lord and not on spreading news of the injustices done to a wide audience so we can seek justice from the angry mob that will descend on our enemy. It’s also worth keeping in mind that there are two sides to every story. The account you hear about someone being persecuted for their faith could very well have a flip side where the purported victim may not shine so brightly as an innocent acting in the manner of Jesus when they ran afoul of trouble.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

• 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)

I’m surrounded by neighbors who post signs in their yards promoting positions on a whole host of issues that I might feel are unsupported by Scripture, and yet I still have to pray for them, because that’s my responsibility as a follower of Jesus. How hard would it be to pray for them if I think of them as enemies who want to destroy my country? I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt about their motivations, and I try to remember that no one reaches their conclusions on something in a vacuum. Everyone has had experiences in life that the rest of us know nothing about. My pride might take a hit when I have to “agree to disagree” on some matter of great importance to me, but it probably needs to be taken down a peg. What seems wrong to me might seem like the only reasonable view by someone else, and I’d rather be a living example of Christ to them then to win an argument on one, largely unimportant, social issue that won’t move them any closer to the Lord.

I would be remiss not to point out that Jesus Himself told His disciples they should expect persecution as a result of following Him. If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (John 15:18 (NIV)) He demonstrated that our response to persecution is not to strike back but to bear it with grace, remembering that God will make all things right in the end. In fact, being persecuted is something we should even rejoice over, and take as a marker that we are truly walking with the Lord in our faith. But that applies when our persecution is genuinely for us standing on our faith, not because we behave in ungodly ways in promoting our views.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

• Matthew 5:10-12 (NIV)

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”

• 1 Peter 4:12-14 (NIV)

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

• Romans 12:14 (NIV)

When we consider how Jesus spoke about persecution, we can see He did not encourage the kind of behavior we often observe among many in the church today. His response was not to take offense, or join in on a culture of outrage, but to forgive those who persecuted Him and express patience toward them. We are even called to bless our oppressors. I do not claim this to be easy, and it flies in the face of our natural selves. I won’t claim to have come close to having mastered it. God enables us to do what we cannot do in the natural.

Lord, thank you for your faithfulness in keeping all your promises to us that you laid out in your Word. Thank you that when we face persecution for following You, we can rely on Your grace to be sufficient for us, and turn to you for solace and comfort in our time of trouble. Help me to be a blessing to others who don’t yet understand the depth and abundance of Your great love for them. Help me to avoid unnecessary controversy and ungodly confrontations with others, and to not take offence when someone disagrees with my views, or gives me trouble for standing on faith. Let me be an example of Your patience and love instead of expressing my carnal self. Amen.