Persecution is happening in many places, but probably not to you

By Mark A. Taylor

Here’s the largest understatement you’ll read this week: Many people today are unhappy with our country.

According to one source, President Biden’s approval rating sits at 39 percent, which, by the way, is two points below the average approval rating President Trump received, the lowest average since Gallup has been keeping track. No matter which side wins an election, a majority of the electorate is unhappy.

This reflects the reality in a country divided over a list of issues too long to post here, on everything from taxes to immigration policy.

Many of those unhappy are Christians. Unhappy about pro-abortion government leaders. Unhappy about gay marriage. Unhappy about the widening gap between today’s accepted cultural values and their own cherished beliefs.

And it might be natural for these unhappy Christians to claim for themselves the blessing of the final Beatitude, “Blessed are those who are persecuted,” because they certainly feel persecuted by today’s pushbacks against their faith. 

Pushbacks, yes

We can agree the pushbacks are real. The sanctity of marriage is seldom even discussed; cohabiting, serial monogamy, divorce, and even adultery seem almost expected. Add to that the mainstream normalization of pornography use and homosexual behavior.

Belief in the Bible is pooh-poohed today, and popular characterizations of Bible believers often show them as buffoons or charlatans.

Faced with war or disease or natural disaster, many talk about prayer, but people praying publicly are reminded not to pray in Jesus’ name.

Persecution, no

But none of this pushback is persecution. 

If we want to see persecution, let us visit what’s left of villages in rural India burned down by militant Hindus because their residents had become Christians. Let us meet and pray with the widows of preachers there murdered for proclaiming Christ.

Let us talk with leaders of Protestant churches in Ukraine, harassed and intimidated by Moscow operatives for years before the current invasion of the country. According to a Wall Street Journal column yesterday, church properties were seized; pastors have been tortured and killed.

Let us talk with Christians in North Korea risking imprisonment or torture or death if they’re found following their faith. Or Afghanistan where converts to Christianity must flee the country to escape the likelihood they will be killed.

Christians in Libya must live a secret faith to avoid the risk of job loss, kidnapping, or imprisonment.

Christian day laborers in Pakistan can often be hired only if they convert to Islam.

This kind of suffering happens worldwide among an estimated 340 million “living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination” according to the relief agency Open Doors.

Last year, Open Doors counted 4,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked; 4,277 believers were arrested, detained without trial, sentenced, or imprisoned.

Close to 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith.

Disagreement, yes

If we want to think about persecution, the first step is to admit that Christians in America are not being persecuted. Yes, some may be insulted because they believe the Bible. A worker might lose his job for refusing to lie or cheat. This Beatitude promises them blessing in the face of their discomfort. But to compare such incidents with the widespread hardship and death faced by Christians elsewhere in the world is to belittle the depth of their suffering for their faith.

Opposition or disagreement is not persecution. Just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean I’m being persecuted. Just because I oppose a law or a politician’s position or a school board policy doesn’t mean I’m persecuted. And yes, some jurisdictions have decided that a baker or florist must serve a gay wedding. But in ancient Rome, Christian artisans could keep their lives only by building temples or priestly robes for worship of a pagan God. Today’s gay wedding hubbub is something different.

(We might also ask how many of those gay-shunning businesses likewise refuse cakes and bouquets to previously divorced couples or pregnant brides—many of them also Christians, by the way. But perhaps that’s a question for another day.)

Self-focus, no

As is true with so many issues, the solution is to take our eyes off ourselves. Let us find ways to help Christians tortured or enduring government-sanctioned torment because they believe. We can bring to the persecuted the blessing promised by the final Beatitude.

And meanwhile, we can find ways to serve those who hate or fear us because of our faith. We can find ways to obey the command of Jesus: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  

Such a strategy might be our best defense against ever suffering the kind of hardship endured in many other places among those who truly are the persecuted.

This is the eighth and final post in a series of reflections on the meaning of the Beatitudes
for life today.

Photo by Maria Oswalt, Gayatri Malhotra, and Jose Pedro Ortiz, at Unsplash.com.

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