Rachel Held Evans recently wrote about the "Persecution Complex,"* a very real issue many Christians seem to embrace in the midst of what they call our "anything-goes" culture. While RHE focuses on how misplaced and distorted the "Christians vs. gays" dichotomy is, I think the same is true for any of the often fabricated "Christians vs. them" arguments. I fervently agree with what RHE has to say, but I must admit there was a lengthy period of my youth during which I bought into the mentality of the "Persecution Complex."
First, flashback to early adolescence. At twelve, my fantasies--particularly during a history unit on slavery--revolved around imagining myself to be an abolitionist that toured the country and spoke out on the horrors of an institution that reduced human beings to property. I composed great monologues full of sensationalized rhetoric based solely on what I learned from reading Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry** and listening to an Adventures in Odyssey episode on the Underground Railroad. Of course, this was okay since the persecution that I abhorred in these speeches was indeed real (though the fantasies were a bit problematic due to the "White Savior Complex").
The point is, I tended to latch on to persecution because there was something dramatic and satisfying about pretending to convict the world of a certain injustice. Again, not a bad thing and definitely something that shaped my perspective on social justice today.
Now, flashback to freshman year at a secular university in the most liberal area of Iowa. I'm not sure that I ever thought of my experience that year as persecution per se, but I definitely entertained thoughts of myself as oppressed, assuming that everyone was making negative assumptions about me because of my faith.
I remember whining to my mom because I felt that nothing I said in class held any significance with my professor and peers because I'm a Christian and therefore have no academic capital. Never mind that my professors probably didn't know that I was a Christian (after all, I never told them, and at that point it wasn't tattooed on my face and definitely was not evident in my actions***). And even if they did know, it's unlikely that they cared.
But I was so quick to assume my professors and classmates would hate me for being a Christian because I secretly wanted them to hate me. I wanted to be oppressed so that I could say, "Poor me. Look at how I'm mistreated for being a Christian." For a time, I even fantasized about raging atheist professors (à la God's Not Dead) whom I would inevitably prove wrong in front of my peers and the world. How good it feels to be persecuted in one's mind and not actually in real life.
I call these thoughts fantasies because I believe that we, the most privileged, lust for the chance to point out how we are being treated unjustly. We lust for an opportunity to protect what we believe to be our right when it is, in truth, a privilege, setting us apart from those who are truly persecuted. We get off on imagined aggression from an unChristian "other" because it provides a platform from which to disseminate our own beliefs.
Ultimately, I think the root of the problem lies in the culture of "me." It's discouraging to think that even Christians, whose faith centers around a man of complete selflessness, could be so self-obsessed, buying into today's culture and, frankly, making it difficult to even distinguish between the us and them of "us vs. them."
I'll conclude with Jesus' words in Matthew 16:24-26, which reminds us that we are to reject this self-centered culture. So that no one misses the point, I have replaced the word "life" with "rights": "If any one wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his rights shall lose them; but whoever loses his rights for my sake shall find them. For what will a man be profited, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his soul?"
*http://rachelheldevans.com/blog/persecution-complex?
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**not even entirely convinced I read this one--I may have simply stared at the front cover on a few occasions
***still not tattooed on my face, but I do hope it's a little more evident in my actions that Jesus is my #1 role-model
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