Is Persecution Our Main Priority?

The air was brisk with the expectation of what was to come as a small group of men made their way down the Kidron Valley and towards the Mount of Olives. The inky blackness of the night is only illuminated by the cool moonlight and a few torches they have brought with them. Jesus, who is leading the group, turns suddenly in the middle of his teaching to face them. He struggles to stand and steadies himself by leaning on an Olive tree. His eyes are glassy with tears, and his face looks drained as he says the words recorded in John 15:18-19. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.”

A Dangerous Message

Persecution has been a huge theme in how the Christian faith has been understood in America. In fact, out of all the teachings of Jesus, passages such as John 15:18-19 and Matthew 5:11-12 have become the most internalized. Religious persecution exists in the world. There are indeed places where worshipping as a Christian and sharing in that faith is illegal and punishable by death. The Middle East, Nigeria, Pakistan, and even some South Asian Nations are just a few examples of places with long histories of intense Christian persecution.

However, the myth that the USA is on this list has been a foundational story for many Christians in the past few decades as a response to a shifting cultural tide. In short, persecution is at the center of how we understand and discuss Christianity in America. But what would it look like if persecution weren’t our primary narrative?

American Idiot

For as long as I can remember, my faith has always been put in tension with my surroundings. From a young age, I was taught that I was a “soldier for Christ” and must fight against the devil wherever I encountered him. It turns out that the devil chose to manifest himself, not as greed, selfishness, or injustice. Instead, the devil seemed to take more cultural forms, such as Pokémon, Harry Potter, and my 6th-grade science class. Yes, I was to defend my belief in the incorruptible God of the universe by writing Genesis 1:1 on all my 6th-grade tests about the evolutionary process. In a Christian community where these displays of faith were rewarded, it was hard to notice the cycle of fear and control that was taking hold over me.

Yes, spiritual warfare is a reality, and we do need to be careful of what we intake. But when the whole world is colored as your enemy, when everyone is out to get you, you begin to develop a theology of victimhood, and not one of a conqueror in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:37).  

The fact of the matter is, we don’t understand what persecution is.

Persecution is not someone disagreeing with you or refusing your witness.

It’s not people saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.

It’s not corporate prayer being taken out of schools or evolution being taught in science class.

Persecution is not disappointed expectations or shared attention. It is when a minority in a society where the majority uses power, means, and influence to suppress their voice. When Jesus emotionally relays this to his disciples the night before his death, he was preparing them for a grim reality. His crucifixion wouldn’t be the last time the powerful attempted to silence the voice of Love. The message of radical grace, freedom, and hope would be attacked by those threatened by its implications. The “world” Jesus was referring to was the power-hungry world we see today. The rat-race where fame, notoriety, and influence are the gods we chase after. It’s the same voice in Luke 4:6-7 that tempts Jesus by saying: “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.If you worship me, it will all be yours.” But Jesus recognized the voice of the devil and saw this as an offering to cheapen purpose. We should recognize the same.

The Lie of Victimhood

What you worship, you are conformed to the image of. We have worshipped persecution, so the American Church can sometimes come off as claiming the victim label. There are two main problems with this.

Firstly, victimhood is not Christlike. To be a victim implies that you are powerless in a situation. For those whose faith is in Christ, we have access to the Holy Spirit. That doesn’t mean that on the surface, things might automatically change. But that does mean we have a deeper hope and fortitude that supersedes anything anyone could threaten us with. Jesus refused the victim label when he went to the cross (John 10:17-18). Even though harm was being done to him, Jesus didn’t let it define him. He still thought of his mother (John 19:26), his enemies (Luke 23:34), and the thief on the cross beside him (Luke 23:42-43). As the perfect Son of God, Jesus had every right to claim the victim label. Instead, he was focused on his mission, giving his life willingly, even though it wasn’t fair or just.

Victimhood also leads to two un-Christlike behaviors: blaming and shaming. For example, there have been ongoing mandates in states such as Texas and Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in public schools. Many Christian supporters of the bill cite things such as “it is foundational to the history of lawmaking”, “they are values our society is built on”, or even “Jews, not just Christians, honor this text”. Many of these espousals come from a worldview that sees a “moral decline” in our country. But, culturally in the USA, Christianity has been the largest religion. The same group saying this will work against “a moral decline” also says we live in a Christian nation. See, the conflict? You can’t be a persecuted group and also the most dominant group. The act of blaming a lack of centering of your beliefs in a space for moral decline ins’t persecution. It’s just the cycle of living out your Christianity as a victim and not a victor.

Also, there is a dimension of laziness to the blaming and shaming. If you believe in “raising up a child in the way they should go”(Proverbs 22:6), then thats not the job of the public school system. They are your responsibility from God with the aid of your spiritual community. Blaming others for something within your realm of responsibility isn’t being persecuted.

When persecution is at the center of our identities as Christians, it causes us to miss where we are called to help in the world. On that brisk night in the Mount of Olives, Jesus’ final address before his death was to equip his disciples for a world that wasn’t versed in grace and forgiveness. “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own.” If you played the game of blaming, shaming, and centering your own discomfort over others, the world would open up for you. But that’s not what Jesus followers are called to. We are called to bring Heaven to Earth, one changed life at a time. The persecuted don’t claim the title; they carry the burden forward.