Persecution

                 “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. Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.” (John 15:18-21)

                Let’s start with a pet peeve. There are people in the world who are being beaten, raped, sued, imprisoned, and killed because of their faith. They deserve our respect, our love, and our prayers. I’m not dismissing what they face. At the same time, other people are being ridiculed, laughed at, ridiculed, and cancelled/rejected. I believe they also deserve our respect, our love, and our prayers. The pet peeve is the assertion that the latter group isn’t being persecuted and doesn’t deserve anything from us because they and their sufferings don’t measure up to the suffering of the former. Of course it doesn’t. That doesn’t free us to love them less. The means of loving them may not be the same, but dismissal is not an acceptable response.

                That opinion being sufficiently ranted, I’ll move on to an issue, and that means starting with the definition. Persecution: the act or practice of harassing or punishing in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict especially those who differ in origin, religion, or social outlook [mid-15c., persecuten, "to oppress for the holding of an opinion or adherence to a particular creed or mode of worship," from Old French persécuter "pursue, torment, open legal action" (14c.) and directly from Latin persecutus, past participle of persequi "to follow, pursue, hunt down; proceed against, prosecute, start a legal action," from per "through" (from PIE root *per- (1) "forward," hence "through") + sequi "follow" (from PIE root *sekw- (1) "to follow"). Related: Persecuted; persecuting.]

                I’m going to suggest that a major factor in persecution is self-aggrandizement. We feel good when we persecute because we’re proving ourselves to be better in some way. We’re heroes for trying to rid society of these people, whoever they are. We are the good folks, and they are a threat.  

                We tend to divide people categories of good and bad based on religion, skin color, political color, sex, social class, education, etc. Those who aren’t of our categories tend to be treated as “less than.” We might claim we’re not persecuting them. On the other hand, some people want to claim they’re being persecuted because they don’t like the way they’re being treated. In some cases, people claim to be persecuted when they are being corrected or justifiably punished.

                Some might claim that even if they might be said to be persecuting someone (and they’re not admitting to that) that their persecution is not because they’re Christian, or a member of one of those categories just trying to live their lives, it’s because they’re evil, wrong, bigoted, stupid, etc. But where do we get the idea that any persecution is acceptable? Where do we get the idea that any persecution is somehow not in opposition to God’s will? Even if the person isn’t a Christian, they are made in the image of God.

                As Christians, we are warned that persecution because we are Christians will happen. When it does, it will do no good to take our case to the world, because the world is behind the stories that the persecutors tell themselves to justify their attacks. We can only take our suffering to God, who will walk through it with us because He’s already been there.  On the other side, if we are the ones persecuting, we can expect Him to correct us.