Philosophy of Worship - Full Version

PHIOLOSOPHY OF WORSHIP

THE OBJECT OF WORSHIP

My body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

The inner need to worship is found in every group, every culture and in every individual.  Everybody has a need to look beyond oneself, weather it is looking to humans, a group of people, or to deity/deities.  Christian worship helps direct that need to the proper place, to the one God who made us.  True worship is directed to Him and only Him.

The God who created us revealed Himself to us through the writings of the Old and New Testament and ultimately through His Son Jesus, who together with the Father and the Holy Spirit are the proper objects of our worship.

FORMS OF WORSHIP

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:2).

Although true worship is directed to the one God through His Son, worship takes on different forms for each individual, for each church, for each generation, and for each culture.  However diverse forms worship may take, the above mentioned scripture defines the universal elements of worship. 

THE TIMES OF WORSHIP

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his/her own mind (Romans 14:5).

The Law of Moses set aside days or weeks for the Sabbath and for festivals.  During the Church’s 2,000 year history, some generations, groups or individuals focused on certain times to worship (in chapter 8:1-3, the Didache set aside 3 times a day for prayer and 2 days a week for fasting).   The New Testament, however, gives no preference for one day over the others, but rather suggests that each person walk according to his/her own convictions.

THE PLACES OF WORSHIP

…For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:20).

And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near (Hebrews 10:25).

Although we can worship God any time and in any place, individually and corporately, the Bible encourages regular corporate worship.  When Paul said you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, he did not say “you” as an individual are the temple, he said “you (plural)” are the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16 & 2 Corinthians 6:16).

THE DISCIPLINES OF WORSHIP

We worship in many ways which include devotions, in prayer, fasting, preaching of sermons, sacraments, reading and in times set apart for God such as church attendance and involvement in church activities.

THE GENERATIONS OF WORSHIP

Then the people of Israel—the priests, the Levites and the rest of the exiles—celebrated the dedication of the house of God with joy (Ezra 6:16).

Tradition connects present and oncoming generations with generations of the past.  Tradition also connects us to our own past in that when we get older we like to connect to what we grew up in.  When young and old worked together on God’s house in the Book of Ezra, there was a division between generations, so that when work had begun on the temple, the older generation wept while the younger one celebrated (see chapter 3).  However, when the temple was finished, they all celebrated together.  As we worship and build the kingdom together, we find unity in worship.

THE QUALITY OF WORSHIP

When Moses was building the tabernacle, God chose certain people who were filled with the Spirit of God and with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs (Exodus 35:31).  God is still concerned about the craftsmanship, about excellence, and about the creative details of worship today. 

According to Pope John Paul II:

Today, as yesterday, musicians, composers, liturgical chapel cantors, church organists and instrumentalists must feel the necessity of serious and rigorous professional training. They should be especially conscious of the fact that each of their creations or interpretations cannot escape the requirement of being a work that is inspired, appropriate and attentive to aesthetic dignity, transformed into a prayer of worship when, in the course of the liturgy, it expresses the mystery of faith in sound.

(Hakim, Naji (2003). "Music in the Catholic liturgy in France at the end of the 20th century". Retrieved 2010-08-16)

THE RELEVANCE OF WORSHIP

21^st Century cultures are changing faster than at any other time in all of history.  Because we are facing such speed in change, the church cannot hold on tightly to what worked in the past.  For sure, we must learn from the past, build upon what the past has accomplished, and  use many of the tools past generations has given to us; but we must change with the times to remain effective servants to the present generation.  We are continuously moving into a new world and we must be able to adjust with the changes in our culture, or we will lose much of the next generation.

In this generation, media and technology has dominated our culture and changed the way we work, the way we play and the way we live.  It is no surprise that the churches that grow the most have learned how to use these tools for the glory of God.

Even though we must be relevant, we must also be careful about allowing the world to dictate too much of what worship should be.  We are to use the world's tools in godly ways, and not allow the world to dictate to us what worship can and should be.

THE SACRIFICE OF WORSHIP

Believers in the Old Testament offered sacrifices that were costly for most people of the day, giving from their flocks and from their crops.  Although they gave for different reasons (such as for sin, fellowship, thanksgiving, and tithing), there was one dynamic that was the same for every sacrifice.  Every sacrifice cost the giver something they needed connected to their survival.  Givers sacrificed for the work of God in their lives and in the lives of the worshiping community.

Sacrificing animals and crops is no longer a Biblical command, as Jesus has become our supreme sacrifice, but we still sacrifice financially by tithing according to the command of Jesus (Matthew 23:23).

THE CHALLENGES OF 21ST CENTURY WORSHIP

1. Remaining theologically sound while focusing on being relevant.
2. Bringing in past traditions and forms and staying relevant.
3. Connecting worship of the individual to the entire body of believers.  We are not simply a Church of individuals with each person individually worshiping God.  We are a body of believers connected in faith and in corporate worship. 
4. Using neglected forms of worship.  Many of the psalms praise God, and most churches focus every service around praise; but there are also psalms of lament, psalms of thanksgiving, and psalms of supplication.  The challenge today to find ways to include these other forms psalms into worship.
5. Not falling into the traps of the culture the 21^st Century American culture.  While much in our culture can be used for good and can be used for God’s glory in worship, there are some things that can hinder growth in our faith.  Some examples include our American individualism and “can do” spirit.  Although there is a lot of good in these cultural values, we must be careful to bring Christ and the Bible into these cultural principles and not let these values to become preeminent in our faith.
6. Teaching and experiencing the holiness and the fear of God. 

Memorizing the New Testament - Books not Verses

There really are two ways to memorize the Scripture of the Old and New Testaments. 

The most common way is to pick a verse and memorize it.  John 3:16 is probably the most popular.  After John 3:16, one memorizes another verse from another book, like Romans 3:10, then on to another.  Kids who go to Sunday School get a hand full of these.  Kids who are homeschooled or go to a private Christian schools generally get more. 

The second way to memorize, which I think is rare, is to memorize whole books of the Bible.  I prefer this for the reasons I am about to explain.

THE PROBLEM WITH MEMORIZING INDIVIDUAL VERSES - CREATING NEW CONTEXT

Scripture is meant to be memorized, studied and pulled apart in order to understand it better. Unfortuneately, memorizing key verses is not the best way to understand the Bible.  In fact, it can be misleading at times.

I know a preacher who decided to memorize thousands of individual verses, pulling them out of the nest of each book they lie.  In other words, he memorizes each verse without any concern for the rest of the book.  He assumes that each verse has its own message apart from the rest of its context.  Each verse for him stands alone. 

As a result of his style of memorizing, he is able to make individual verses fit into his teachings a whole lot easier than letting them remain within their original surroundings, and because his focus is the end times, he is able to fit hundreds and thousands of verses into his "end times" framework.  What he misses is that each verse he quotes belongs to a chapter which belongs to a book - all of which is called "context." 

One cannot truely understand a verse without understanding its context; and to pull a verse out of its context, which this preacher does (as so many other people do), is to strip it away from its moorings.  It fills the verse with other meaning it was never intended to have; and it strips the verse from meaning it had when the writer wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

People who memorize individual verses never intend to take them out of context.  Actually, they assume the context of the verse supports the modern meaning they give to it, but in reality that verse is forced to say what the person assumes it means.  Eventually that verse completely takes on the meaning the person has assigned to it.  And in time, as that person shares that verse from the pulpit, with others, or on TV, the verse begins to come alive in its new context, no longer just for the preacher/teacher, but now for a whole group of Christians.  No longer belonging to its original context, the verse now has found a new home in the context of some 21st Century issue or supporting some 21st Century doctrine, whether that issue or doctrine is good or bad. 

Among the classes I teach, one of my favorites is one that teaches students how to study the Bible.  In it we learn the importance of context, and we learn how to study each verse in relation to its context - its surrounding verses and its surrounding chapters.  Most students love the class, because they learn how to read and how to study the Bible. 

During the class each student chooses one small passage to study in context of its day and its context within the book it was written.  They study the grammar and the words within their passage.  At the end of the class, we get together and discuss what stood out in the class.  For many, they learn that their life time's favorite verses had a different meaning than they gave it until that class.  In other words, until that class, they read their own lives so much into the verses, that those verses took on a meaning they weren't designed to give. 

I think a lot of the students are as disappointed as they are excited.  Excited to learn the importance of context and grammar.  They are excited to learn new depths to the verses they loved so much, but disappointed because the meaning they gave to the verses meant a lot to them.
THE PROBLEM WITH MEMORIZING INDIVIDUAL VERSES - CREATING NEW HIERARCHY
As I mentioned above, the purpuse of memorizing individual verses is to support a theological / emotional doctrine or to support some arguement in some 21st Century issue.  But taking verses out of their nest and filling them with 21st Century meaning is not the only problem of memorizing individual verses.  By picking certain verses, one gives the chosen verses more imortance than other scripture.

Now at this point I do have to clarify - Jesus himself said there are weightier matters of the Law; so, yes, there are some issues that are more important in the Bible than others.  However, memorizing verses and not books focuses the importance on today's issues and on supporting today's group doctrines rather than the issues, problems and doctrines of the original writings.  And once again, I admit that the issues of the 1st Century were different than today's.  Sometimes this is okay, but sometimes we can neglect important issues because we are so wrapped up in our own group's focus of the day.

The weightier matters that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 23 are not the weightier matters of most of today's Christians.  Faith was important to Jesus, and it is important to us today, but Jesus also said justice and mercy were on top of the list of what is important, and those are poorly defined if not neglected today, just as they were in Jesus' day. 
In Jesus' day the religious focused on the details of tithing, keeping the Sabbath, keeping holy, and following the Law.  But Jesus saw that by focusing on those things (which Jesus admitted needed not to be neglected), they neglected even more important things. 

So there are some things in the Bible that are more important than others.  Choosing individual verses does not reflect the importance that the writers of the Bible chose; choosing individual verses reflects what is important to us.

How to Memorize the New Testament - Set Realistic Goals

It's important to set realistic goals when trying to memorize 7,958 verses.  One website I came across had a schedule for memorizing the entire NT in 5 years.  I chose 20 years and discovered that even 20 years was too much for me. 

I believe that I could have memorized the NT in 5 years if:
1.  If I would only memorize 5 new verses a day (every day) and did not keep up with verses I had already memorized in the past.  I would forget most of what I had memorized in the past.
2.  If I had hours a day to memorize - which I don't have.  At best I was able to carve out 45 minutes a day to memorize, and most of that 45 minutes was spent in testing myself over past memory verses (90 in total every day) so I wouldn't forget what I had already memorized.
3.  If I had photographic memory or amazing skills in memorizing - which I don't have.

Because I don't have enough time or brilliance to memorize the NT in 5 years, I chose to try to memorize one new verse a day for just over 20 years.  As it became more and more stressful to forge out 45 minutes a day to memorize, I cut it down to 6 days a week, then 5, then 3, and finally quit altogether after I had memorized almost 1/2 of the NT.

GOAL ONE - ONE VERSE A DAY

I suggest one verse a day for anyone who starts memorizing.

GOAL TWO - 45 MINUTES A DAY

You won't be spending 45 minutes a day for a few weeks or even for a month or two.  At first it will be just 10 minutes or so a day.  But after you begin memorizing entire books, you will need the time to go back to review in order to keep what you have.

GOAL THREE - 20 to 30 YEARS

This seems daunting, but I have learned through experience that 20 years does come and go quickly - and it will for you.  After you have been going at it for awhile, you will be able to pace yourself better and set new and more realistic goals.  Even if you decide to go for 40 or 50 years, go for it. 

I have been in several 26 mile marathons, several 13 milers, and one big triathlon.  I was average for the marathons and came in last place for the long distant triathlon (1+ mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, 13.1 mile run).  In all these, I finished, I reached my goals, and I felt great when I reached the goals. 

In my triathlon, it didn't matter that I had come in last place, because while training, I set a realistic goal for my body and I reached that goal - and I loved it.  My goal was to finish this race without failing, and without slowing down from exhaustion.  Granted, most of the others were younger, had better equipment and could swim 2 times as fast as me.

In preparing, I considered my health, my age, the time I had for training, and so on; and in preparing, I adjusted my goals accordingly.

It's the same with memorizing the NT.  Forge out a realistic amount of time every day (you may have to cut out an hour of T.V.).  In forging out your time, consider your abilities.

GOAL FOUR - CONSIDER YOUR ABILITIES

Most people undersell their abilities to memorize.  A few people oversell. 

If you think you could never memorize so much scripture, you are probably underselling yourself.  You can do a lot more than you realize... most people can.  To you I say, "Stop telling yourself you can't do it, and try for a few weeks - you will be surprised."

To those who oversell their abilities, "Try out for a few weeks and when you realize you are not as good as you think you are, slow down a bit and reset your goals for the long run." 

Like running or swimming, you won't know how much you can do until you jump in and give it a try.  Because you are not used to rigorous exercise, you may sink or want to quit quickly; but if you start slowly and build up, you eventually get into the routine and once in the routine you will be able to learn how much you can handle and how much is too much.

GOAL FIVE - DO NOT LOOK AT THOSE AROUND YOU

If in this journey you find others who can memorize a lot better than you, don't get discouraged and quit.  In all likelihood, they will quit long before they reached their goals and you will then be able to pass them up.  When I was in the triathlon, there were several people who were much faster, younger, and better than I, but they quit during the triathlon for different reasons.  I beat them only because I endured and kept to the pace I knew I could handle.

In reality, you will probably not run into anyone else who will run the NT marathon with you.  Why not?  Most people think its too hard and too much.  But you will know better, once you start yours.

How to Memorize the New Testament - Dealing with Failure

I already told you the story of a preacher who used the Bible to stir up the crowd and to show off how "brilliant" he was.  I said told you how disgusting I felt it was.

I also wrote about the importance of endurance when it comes to memorizing the Bible.  I cannot stress this enough.  I am not the most brilliant person you will meet, but I have discovered that perseverance goes a long way in the learning (and in the memorizing) process.  I have memorized most of the books of the New Testament - not because I am smart or have extraordinary skills.  I did so because I memorized one verse at a time for 20 years. 

For every day I memorized a new verse, I tested myself on past verses (90 every day).  This was no great undertaking as some would think.  I failed to reach my goal of memorizing the entire New Testament; and I failed to memorize every day as I planned (by year 20 I was memorizing 3 verses a week); and by year 20 I quit.

At the beginning of 2013, after 20 years of not memorizing, I bought myself a new leather Bible and started rememorizing scripture I once knew.  It's coming back a lot better than I thought.  At the rate I am going I should be able to catch up to where I was 20 years ago within 2 or 3 years. 

I don't know if I will memorize any new material at that time.  Maybe I will, maybe I won't. 

What is my point?

Sometimes I feel like failure is a big part of my life.  In memorizing the NT, I failed.  But despite this failure, I did memorize a lot.  In areas like this, I discovered that it's better to try and fail along the way than never to try at all.  If I had never tried, I would not have any scripture memorized.

My Challenge to You...

Go beyond what I did.

By the way, see the video I did about memorizing the NT:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ

The Key to Memorizing the New Testament

I teach classes in a Christian College.  In my classes, I tell my students that learning is not something that takes place overnight, but is something that builds up with time.    Bible knowledge is like that and any other learning skill is like that.  The more time you put in, the more you will get out. 

4 LESSONS FROM RUNNING

1.  I have often compared learning to running.  It takes honing your skills by continual practice, and that takes patience.  You cannot give up if you want to reach any goal.  Endurance is the key to learning the Scriptures, and by all means, if you plan on memorizing any portion of the Bible, endurance is the key. 

2.  Don't look at how good others are.  Several years ago I ran my only triathlon - 1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking and 13.1 miles running.  I was one of the oldest and one of the most overweight people, so when we swam, everyone passed me using freestyle.  I can't last using that stroke, so I used the breast stroke.  When I left the water (20 minutes after the last person) I hopped on my mountain bike for the 56 mile ride.  Everyone else had racing bikes which are so much lighter and go so much faster.  But I didn't care if I was the first or the last.  I just wanted to endure every part of this race.  By the time I was ready to run, everyone else was either done or close to it. 

When I came to the end line, the sponsers were taking down the finish line and no one else was there to cheer me on and to congratulate me.  But even though I came in over 40 minutes after the last person, I accomplished my goal - and I felt on top of the world.  If you want to memorize the New Testament or even major parts of it, don't think about how smart or how good everyone else is.  You just set your mind for endurance and do it for yourself.

3.  In running, your body is set to do its best by your early 30s.  After that it's a slow downward journey.   But, in learning, the only time your brain will start going downhill is if you get alztheimer's when you are old.  Until then, your brain only gets better and better - so use it.

4.  When you first start running, there is a lot of pain and frustration.  Your mind is not used to running and your body is not used to running.  Even if you are in shape and have been working out in other areas (such as body building).  When you first start running, you will need to put up with shin splints, aches and pains, exhaustion and a multitude of other issues.  But once you get into the groove, your body will not only get used to all this excersize, it will begin to crave it (at times).  Learning is like that.  Memorizing is like that too, but I did find that it didn't take very long to get into the memorizing groove.

MEMORIZING THE NEW TESTAMENT

If you want to memorize the New Testament, more than anything else, you will need endurance.  It's not all about being smart or having a photographic mind or anything like that.  It's only about endurance.  In other words, you don't have to be incredibly smart; you just need to hunker down for the long run.

Plan 20, 30 or even 40 years of memorizing in order to reach your goal.  And plan 30 to 45 minutes a day.

If you can grab onto this, you can and will memorize amazing amounts of scripture.

Memorizing the New Testament - Arrogance

There are 7,956 verses in the New Testament.  That means if you memorize one verse a day you can memorize the entire New Testament in just over 20 years.

When I thought about that at the age of 22 (I was a Freshman in College), I decided to give it a try.

Two years later, I was still in school studying Missions and Bible at a Bible College which required daily chapel.  During one of these chapels a guest evangelist preached the typical Pentecostal message about the Holy Spirit.

He walked the stage back and forth, as many Pentecostal preachers do, trying to get the attention of so many older teens and early 20s who have spent their lives listening to these preachers and seeing their shows.  For these types of speakers, spirituality seemed to be measured by how stirred up one can get in a church service. 

The preacher in chapel (the guest evangelist) had something up his sleeve that none of us had seen before - something that would stir the young crowd into a tremendous spiritual frenzy.  At the end of a forgettable message, he quoted the entire 2nd chapter of Acts from memory (the 2nd Chapter of Acts is the Pentecostal's favorite chapter in the Bible, just like Calvinists hang out at Romans 9).  Quoting 47 verses from their favorite chapter threw the students into excited and spontaneous cheering.  All around me Pentecostal kids were praising the Lord, shouting and clapping.  And while everybody stood and cheered, I sat in my chair, ticked off at the whole thing.

Maybe I was that person with issues who didn't want to be carried along with the crowd.  I've always had to set myself apart from others.

Maybe I was just too proud to applaud someone else's accomplishments.

Maybe I needed to see a counselor and try to work out my issues with loneliness and feeling lost in the midst of crowds.

But then again, maybe I saw a man using the Bible to draw attention away from God to himself.  Maybe I was turned off to the fact that he had just become the center of attention, and the words he spoke had no other meaning than stirring up the crowd, and bringing everybody's frenzied attention to himself.

After chapel a friend oozed out how much she loved that preacher for his ability to quote an entire chapter of the Bible.  I told her I didn't like it, which got her angry at me and I could see that what I said upset her.  She snapped at me, "I suppose you could do that?"  She was implying that there was no way I could accomplish such an difficult conquest.  I didn't answer her, but I thought to myself, "Actually I could, and in fact, as he quoted that chapter, I was quoting the same to myself.  Furthermore, I could do better than that.  I could quote you the chapters before and after.  Better yet, I could quote to you entire books of the New Testament."  But I let her have her moment and I said nothing. 

Memorizing is not something to show off as a gimmick or to use in order to manipulate a crowd - and that's what I saw that day in chapel.  People were stirred up to cheer one man's accomplishment, not God's Word.  That day, God's Word gave the preacher the tool he needed to show off his ability like a circus performer.  He was able to use God's Word to get crowd wound up in a frenzy.  Because it was God's Word, it seemed spiritual, but in fact, it was not.  It was not spiritual and it was not proper - it was arrogant and it was manipulative.

Memorizing the Bible should not be for people to show off their abilities.  Memorizing the New Testament should not be for the sake of pointing people to the person who quotes.  Neither should it be used to stir a crowd into a frenzy.  Memorizing the Bible is meant to point people to the One who the Bible was meant to reveal - the God of Creation.  As John the Baptist once said, "He must increase and I must decrease."

Every once in awhile, in the middle of some movie or TV show, some guy will grab a pitcher of beer and drink the whole thing down while the rest of the bar cheers the fool on.  I guess quoting a chapter of the Bible to a group of cheering believers is the Christian version of chugging beer.

For video of this subject, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtG3nsjeWQ

Persecution

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.