Monday, August 19, 2013

My response to the persecution complex faced by many Western Christians.

As far as I can tell, it is easier to be a Christian in America (and, I suppose the West in general) today than it has been at any point in time and in any place in the world. We have a multi-million dollar entertainment industry that caters to Christian tastes. Just about every radio market has at least a half-dozen Christian radio stations. We have several national bookstore chains that sell only "Christian" books that promise to enlighten us on the hot new trends and fashionable ways to worship Jesus. In most communities, you can't walk more than a few blocks without finding a church -- in fact, usually you have many options to allow you to the music, worship, theology, and preaching style that best suits your individual tastes.

The biggest threat to Western Christianity is not persecution and hardship; it is ease and comfort. Jesus promised us that following him would be difficult. But, it's hard to understand that when being a Christian is reduced to dropping $10 on the latest WOW! Worship CD or reading  and discussing "How to Be a More Perfect Christian" on a comfy couch in your small group leader's living room. So, I think it's only natural that we look for ways to figure out what Jesus meant when he said it would be difficult.

For some, that seems to mean picking political battles with non-Christians (or with Christians who happen to disagree with them) over abortion, gay rights, and the audacity of some people to wish each other "Happy Holidays" throughout the month of December. I would suggest that this is a very shortsighted view of what Jesus was talking about when he said that following Him would be hard. In fact, I have hard time reconciling this attitude with anything that I see in Scripture.

But, the simple fact is that this kind of persecution mining is much easier and requires far less discomfort than what Jesus was talking about. Instead, we should be setting aside our comforts in order to love others sacrificially. We should be holding ourselves to a HIGHER moral standard than we demand of others. We should be looking for opportunities to walk and even live among the disenfranchised, rather than just sending our monthly sponsorship check.

Imagine, for example, if the Christian response to the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s had been to reach out to the infected, particularly those in the gay community, and asked, "how can I help?". Instead, the response was all too often, "look at the judgment that God hath delivered to these vile sinners!" And, when I look to this history, it's not hard to see why there is so much hostility in some parts of the LGBT community towards the church, especially when many in the church continue to pick fights over that issue.

To be fair, since then a lot of Christians have stepped up to the plate to provide care for HIV victims, but it is interesting to me that this came en vogue only after it was determined that HIV was not contagious through superficial contact. But, the Christians who made the biggest difference are those who walked into the midst of the AIDS epidemic, fully accepting the reality that they might become infected themselves, simply by holding hands to pray with an infected person and those who welcomed gay AIDS victims into their homes, saying "I don't care how much flack I catch from my fellow Christians for being your friend; Jesus told me to love you, so that's what I am going to do."

I cite this as an example that I would hope most would understand. The idea is that the type of "persecution" and "suffering" that Western Christians face doesn't come from the "evil secularists and atheists." It comes from a conscious choice to live without the luxury, comfort, and security that our culture insists that we should demand. What I have found is that the more I try to take seriously the gospel call to live like Jesus, I do get some pushback. And, 9 times out of 10, this comes from other Christians. But, I don't dwell on it, and I certainly wouldn't call it persecution. Instead, I see it as a reminder of how far we have yet to go and the danger that my comfy life places on my Christian faith.

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