Why Victimization is Killing the Church

I work for an audio publisher. Today I was going through our entire web catalog and pulling info from Amazon for each book. That means about 1500 titles, all either Christian or classic fiction. Going through those numbers are bound to get you cynical. For instance, one author (Gary Chapman) had to have written FIFTY books on the same topic: marriage. Among others:

The Five Love Languages, The Five Love Languages of Kids, The Five Love Languages of Teenagers, The Five Love Languages for Singles, The Five Languages of Apology, The Five Love Languages: Men's Edition, The Heart of the Five Love Languages, God Speaks Your Love Language, Now You're Speaking My Language, Making Love, Love is a Verb, The Marriage You've Always Wanted, The Family You've Always Wanted...

Seriously, he'd better have one VERY happy wife and kids, and be at least bilingual (if not penta-lingual!)

More to the point, though, I ran across a book titled The Criminalization of Christianity: Read This Book Before It Becomes Illegal! by Janet L. Folger. Now, to be fair, I have not read this book (and it seems to be pretty highly rated). But just from the description, I think I have a good idea what she's getting at.

"There is a war going on for the future of our country. Most people know that. What they may not know is that if Christians lose, the result won’t merely be enduring public policy we disagree with—it will be a prison sentence for those who oppose it. We’ve all seen the attack coming. First the Supreme Court said kids can’t pray in school. Then the Ten Commandments were ripped from the classrooms. Now pastors are being removed from their pulpits and put in jail for speaking out against homosexuality (Sweden). And things are only getting worse. How in the world did we get to this place? And why is it that Christians are singled out in this assault on morality? Serving as a wake-up call for America, this book will expose the truth that Christianity is being criminalized—and that we must stand up against it now." (taken from Amazon)

This seems dishonest to me. First of all, the subtitle: "Read This Book Before It Becomes Illegal." Really? In a country where tolerance (an almost insane amount of tolerance) and the freedom of speech is upheld, we're supposed to believe a Christian book will be illegal? The same country that, according to numerous polls, would not elect a president if he didn't claim to be a man of faith? Gimme a break. Secondly, the wording the author uses in her examples. "The Supreme Court said kids can't pray in school" -- no, it said the school won't facilitate prayer, just a moment of silence (nonspecific to any religion). "Then the Ten Commandments were ripped from the classrooms" -- a lame thing for the ACLU to be upset about, of course, but still, a public school in a non-theocratic government doesn't need to quote Scripture. I'd hardly call that an attack. And Sweden isn't our country, so...

Don't get me wrong. I do believe that, in certain instances, people have pushed the idea of tolerance too far. I do think getting highly offended over prayer and the Ten Commandments is silly (even if, in principle, they have a point). I also don't mean to judge this author too quickly, since I have not read what she has to say. But it brings up a trend which, I think, is killing the church's relationship with the outside world. And that's victimization.

There's a huge trend in the church, or at least in the media feeding it, towards making us out to be victims. When the president says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," it's an attack on our values. When the ACLU defends a complaint about prayers to Christ facilitated by government-funded schools, they are an anti-religion extremist group, out to exterminate us. And when contoversial issues like gay marriage come up, books like this come out, telling us that if we don't take action, the government will soon make our beliefs illegal. Persecution!

I think the fact that we get so upset about this, is a slap in the face to real Christians suffering real persecution in the world. While others are forced to meet underground to worship, and face jail time for translating a Bible, we get in an uproar because our kids won't be led by a teacher to pray in schools, and instead are forced to pray at home, or at church, or at the top of their lungs on a street corner while holding a sign saying "Obama is the Antichrist," with zero retribution. And yes, I've seen that many times at Berkeley, the most liberal place on earth.

We live in a country where religious freedom is respected, almost to insane extremes. It's respected to the point where the ACLU will fight to defend the outrageously hateful Westboro Baptist Church, of GodHatesFags notoriety, purely on the merits of free speech. They are free to picket the funerals of homosexuals, with signs saying "(name of deceased) is BURNING IN HELL", "GOD HATES FAGS", and "THANK GOD FOR AIDS" without legal recourse. Every sane citizen deplores them, countless vigilantes try to hurt them, but the government and groups like the ACLU still defends their right to exist, and exist loudly. It's also respected to such an extreme, that when the government appears to be playing favorites with any group (including the majority, Christianity), it changes. Even when the reasons seem silly or trivial, any favoritism at all is eliminated. Meanwhile, it funds our places of worship, lets us congregate publically, and even gives us the freedom to publish books about how they refuse to give us freedom.

Imagine being a Muslim in this country less than 10 years ago. It's September 12, 2001, and the majority of the country distrusts you. You're stopped and searched at airports, people are afraid of you, you're called names like "towel-head" because of the garments you truly believe your god wants you to wear. You may possess the brightest legal mind and the greatest diplomatic skills, but you have absolutely no shot at being elected president (honestly), solely because of your personal beliefs. You're the minority, in a country where another religion, Christianity (at least professed Christianity) is the majority, and makes up the biggest voting demographic any political leader needs to win. You'll hear Christian radio programs on the way to work, pass 30 Christian churches for every 1 mosque, and see books by Joel Osteen making bestsellers lists in every bookstore. Can we really say that we, against all other religions, are being discriminated?

That's not to say everything is perfect. Sometimes poor decisions are made, people stretch the limits of "tolerance" too far, and things get muddled. But overall, we live in a country that gives us more personal, religious freedom than anywhere I can think of. To paint ourselves as martyrs in this regard makes light of true suffering everywhere, and makes it hard for others to take us seriously. Instead of showing joy and freedom in Christ, we seem short-tempered, whiny, and unable to see anyone else's point of view. When a real injustice (even a small one) does occur, we refuse to peacefully disagree, but instead stir up controversy and villify everyone, evoking the name of God.

In the New Testament, Christians are constantly under siege by the government, being imprisoned and put to death for preaching. Even then, in the face of real persecution and true injustice, I don't see a hint of the bitterness the church has today. Instead they peacefully accept it -- Paul, unjustly imprisoned, even remains in his jail cell after an earthquake breaks him free (Acts 16). No badmouthing the government, no revolts or protests, just the continued Gospel message. I hope the church can do likewise. There are too many real, important issues worth dealing with.

[Sorry if that sounded like a rant. It's late, and I'm tired and didn't take the time to pick my words as carefully as I sometimes do.]