Rule One: Every Group Has Stories of Persecution.
Christians were persecuted by the Jews and Romans (2,000 years ago), Jews were persecuted by Christians (most of the rest of the 2,000 years). Muslims were persecuted by Christians during the Crusades, Christians are persecuted by the Muslims in many Muslim countries today.
Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons have been persecuted by main stream Christians and secular citizens of the U.S. I did talk to an Evangelical Christian girl who grew up in Salt Lake City (Mormon country) who said she was persecuted by the Mormons in her school.
I think every group has stories of persecution. As humans who group together and build certain identities within our groups, we come into contact with and conflict with other groups who, like us, are forging out their own identities. As a result, we persecute others as others persecute us, but because we are self centered - even as groups - we see those persecutions that come from others more than we see the persecution we dish out.
Rule Two: Groups Do not Like Those Who Are Different
When we come into contact with others who are different, something inside feels threatened. It is a law of nature. We prefer people who are like us, who are in our group. Similarity implies safety. No matter if we are Christian or Muslim, we prefer people who are like us. We trust people who are like us and we gravitate toward those who are most like us.
People who are different threaten us, and for that reason, we feel the need to bring them into our fold or get rid of them some way or another. This holds true for one group against another, and it is true for people within one's own group who are different. We can learn to accept others, and we can be trained to be kind toward the outsider, but instinctively, with few exceptions, we are uncomfortable with those who are different or unknown.
This is also true for those who are becoming a group that identifies itself as being open to all. That openness and diversity becomes the center that needs to be fought for and protected. For this "open" and diverse group, any other person or group that does not embrace openness and diversity is a threat.
Rule Three: Groups Focus on and See Their Own Persecutions More than Others
Many Christians see very clearly how they are persecuted. When I bring up the matter in classes, I hear of stories in Egypt and in many other parts of the world, where there are real problems. Students may even mention a case or two in the U.S., but are hard pressed to find any big level of persecution in the U.S. Nevertheless, many of them believe there is persecution going on in the U.S. against Christianity. For them the persecution comes from those who think differently and are trying to make us think like they do.
Jews focus tremendously on the injustices they have experienced (which are real) but may be hard pressed to acknowledge the amount of damage they have done to others. Why? Because groups see what threatens them, more than how they threaten others.
Many Gays feel persecuted by Christians who do not believe they are persecuting anybody.
Mormons live under the umbrella of persecution. It permeates their entire identity. From the days of their founder Joseph Smith, who was martyred for his beliefs, until now, Mormons struggle with a society that has called them a dangerous cult.
Because we see our own persecution more than others, we can live under the illusion that we and we alone are persecuted for our faith, while we remain blind to the persecution others receive.
Rule Four: Persecution Begets Persecution
Persecution hits hardest with those groups and people who struggle to survive. However, eventually a persecuted group not only survives, but becomes strong - strong enough to become those who persecute other groups struggling to survive. But as mentioned earlier, because a group's identity is so wrapped up in its own struggle and battles to survive, it doesn't acknowledge the need for other groups to survive. It also doesn't see what persecution it is dishing out.
The most viscous animals are mothers protecting their young or any animal protecting itself.
Hitler convinced Germany that they were under attack from Poland in order to get them fighting.
The U.S. leaders convinced Americans that we were under attack in Viet Nam to get us fighting there.
The perception of protection is a huge instigator of violence. The Hutus of Rwanda murdered the Tutsis in mass in 1994 because they believed the Tutsis wanted to enslave them.
Rule Five: Political Battles Are Not the Same as Persecution in the U.S.
Many Christians who wrap themselves too tightly in politics (who believe that spiritual solutions can be resolved through political power, who believe that God is on the side of one party over another, and who are seduced by the political powers) believe that any political attack on their opinions is persecution.
We can say the same about power struggles between groups vying for power in history, politics, taxes, etc. But these are usually not persecution as Jesus defined it. For Jesus' followers, persecution came about because of their identification with him, not because of political stands.
For example:
1. The protection of the unborn vs. the protection of the mother to choose.
2. The protection of speech vs. the protection of those discriminated against.
3. The protection of lifestyle vs. the protection of a nation's values.
4. The protection of self can take two directions - no selling of weapons (to get them off the street) vs. the right to own weapons (to protect me and my family).
5. The protection of the idea that there are absolutes vs. the protection of the view that promotes relativism.
When someone wants to take "In God We Trust" off the dollar bill, they are trying to protect their own belief system that wants to include atheists and agnostics into full and equal citizenship.
Someone may want to place Christianity at the center of American history, and in order to do so, a lot of history will need to be ignored or justified, but it is the protection of an idea that is being sought. The idea is that this country was founded upon Christian principles and godly men and women. The person who seeks to do this may feel very threatened when someone else writes a history of the U.S. that focuses on the brutality and the ungodliness of our fore-fathers. In reality, both were there, and a careful study of American history will find both.
Rule Six: Some Excuse Bad Behavior Behind Persecution
I don't find too much of this, but I do see it from time to time. Someone who is purely incompetent will blame it on persecution of their group.
1. It's because I'm Black.
2. It's because I'm Christian.
3. It's because I'm....
By all means, there are injustices directed to one group or another, but I am talking here about those who will not look at themselves and say, "Its because I screwed up" or, "It's because I suck." On American Idol, bad singers blame the judges, saying that they are only looking for a certain type of look. In reality, most of those people simply can't sing.
1 Peter 2:20 saw the difference between suffering for doing wrong and for doing right:
But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
Rule Seven: Persecution is not Always About Religion
Let me explain. There is a very stupid saying that claims that religion is the cause of every war and the world would be better without religion. I say its stupid, because it is not well thought through. Religion has been the cause of many problems, wars and divisions, but it is not religion itself that has caused this as much as the difference of one group against another. Even if there were no such thing as religion, we would fight and war with each other. We would fear other groups and do what we could to diminish their influence and promote our own. We would fear their way of thinking and do what we could to demote it. In reality, fear of other is the cause of most war and persecution.
In reality, people do not fight because of religion, but because of identity. Religion is one expression of a group's identity, and because religion is important, it gets a lot of attention. But think this through. In the U.S. many of the Religious Right believe that Mormonism is a cult (meaning that it is demonic) will vote for Mitt Romney who is a Mormon, because he is Republican. They will reject a Christian President, not because he is the wrong kind of Christian (speaking of faith, he is a lot closer to the Religious Right than a Mormon), but because:
1. He is Black
2. He has an Arabic name
3. He is Democrat
4. He has a Muslim father
I have said it before, and I will say it again. It's all about fear of what is different. Groups read bad and evil into other groups that practice different customs, that speak a different language, that believe differently, that live differently. When I worked with people from a South Sudanese tribe, I was told that their tribe's name is translated, "the people," implying that other tribes were not people. The particular African who told me this was embarrassed that his ancestors called themselves "the people," but that is not any different than the 16th Century Western world wondering if the American Indians had souls, or the 19th Century Western world believing that Africans had the mark of Cain on them (actually, there are still people who believe that today).
Rule Eight: The Story of Persecution Should not Define a Group
Stories help define us as individuals and as groups. Stories have to do with our place in society, our history, our vision of what should be and what can be. Among the myriads of stories each group has, persecution stories help define each group, and some groups allow their persecution stories to become the dominant story of who they are.
When persecution becomes the dominant story, a group will turn quickly to violence in order to protect themselves. Why? Because they believe they are fighting for survival. Even when they become the dominant group, they may still be very violent, believing themselves to be the underdog, when in fact they are no longer the underdog, but have become the dominant group.
The Religious Right in the U.S. has a hard time facing the fact that they are as powerful as they are. They are so use to fighting for and usually losing major issues, that they all too often do not see that they are the most powerful voting block in the U.S. (in the first decade of the 21st Century). The Religious Right sees itself as persecuted and the underdog in a society that fights their values.
Even though many of the Religious Right consider themselves persecuted for their faith, their battles are not related to faith, but rather values, ownership, and dominance in a society where each group is battling for their own values that they believe are more important.
I am not saying that everybody's right. I am just saying that the Religious Right does not battle for the Gospel like they think they do. Their fight is not about following Jesus, its about protecting their group's values, and because they are so powerful, smaller groups feel threatened by the Religious Right, fighting the Religious Right in order to protect themselves from the onslaught of the its agenda to "take back" the United States.
How to Get Away from the Persecution Complex
Mormons are trying to move away from the persecution complex they have, because their identity has been very wrapped up in persecution. They are seeking to change their identity, to get out from under the persecution blanket. They have seen how the Religious Right has become popular, and how Evangelicals (from whom many of the Religious Right come) have become very popular in America. I would dare to say that Mormons are jealous of Evangelical popularity and acceptance in society.
So lately there has been a campaign by the Mormon Church to convince the rest of the U.S. that they are not a cult, but are good people. There have been loads of commercials promoting Mormonism and showing normal and successful people who are Mormon and identify themselves as Mormons. Mormon leaders have tried to remove the name "Mormon" and use a more neutral one, "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." But this has proved futile, because of the length of the name they want. By the way, many Baptist churches have been doing this exact thing - they remove the name Baptist from their name because it has a bad reputation. As a result, today a lot of members in those churches have no clue that their church is still Baptist.
The Mormon battle is not as big as their leaders think. They have a lot going for them that most other groups don't. Most Mormons hold the same values as Evangelicals. They are generally conservative in the political realms, they are family centered, they are very middle class (and have many in the upper class), and they are mostly White. These are all in their favor, for the purpose of getting into American world.
Politically speaking, Rev. Jerry Falwell has helped them to get on the same side years ago. This has helped them to reach the goal of acceptance. But this is a whole new subject.
Conclusions
I think I bit off more than I can chew with this subject. There is simply too much to say about this, and there are so many examples. I would simply summarize by saying that any group that is struggling to survive has its share of persecution stories, but those same groups are pretty ignorant of the amount of persecution they are dishing out to other groups who hold different values. And if they know how much they are pouring out, they have long since decided that the suffering they are dishing out is just and proper.
I believe that in the human race there are goods and evils with a small case "g" and "e," and Good with a capital "G." Good and evil with a little "g" and "e," relate to us as humans. If a person or group is bad toward me or my group, it is evil with a small "e." The same goes for good toward me or my group.
Good and Evil with the capital "G" and "E," are always God centered. So there may be things that are good for me, but Evil toward God as well as the opposite. Mark 8:33 exemplifies this. After Peter received the revelation from God that Jesus was the Christ, he rebuked Jesus for suggesting that the messiah had to suffer. Jesus in turn rebuked Peter, "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."
We are (I am) self centered and see good and evil in relationship to my group and to me. But in fact, Good and Evil have to do with God. Sometimes my good lines up with God's good, but sometimes, it does not. The same goes for groups.
