A Different Kind of Persecution

“How would your faith stand up under persecution?”

This was the subject line for an email that appeared in my inbox recently. A single word out of that subject line grabbed my attention, and it wasn’t ‘persecution’ or even ‘faith’.  It was the word “would."  It grabbed my attention because the use of would revealed an underlying assumption that got me thinking about how we understand our faith.

Let’s begin with the word ‘persecution.’ It is a church word if there ever was one. I looked it up on Google (does anyone really use Bing?) and found this definition: “noun, hostility and ill-treatment, especially because of religious beliefs." Example: "Her family fled religious persecution." Typically, persecution is inflicted by those with power against those who lack it. It is not random and isolated, but prevalent and systematic.

Christianity has a storied history of people suffering persecution for their faith. (We also have a history of inflicting persecution on each other, but that’s a different topic for a different blog entry.) We call people who endure in the face of persecution ‘martyrs.’ Stories of martyrs have always been important to our faith.  We are inspired by their fortitude and courage in the face of real pain and certain death.  

Persecution also has unintended consequence to those who inflict it. As 3^rd century church father Tertullian once wrote: “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Stories of it serve as a rallying call for the faithful, as the email that sparked this whole blog post proves. We are stirred and motivated to higher heights of trust and perseverance. Our faith grows stronger, not weaker.

Stephen (described in Acts ch. 7 )
was the first Christian martyr.

But here is where the word “would” stuck in my craw.  In the American context, we think persecution happens somewhere else.  To be clear, persecution continues to happen elsewhere in the world, and we grieve for those who are subjected to it, and pray for it to stop. But does it happen here in the U.S.? Most of us would say “no.” I disagree. I believe it is only the tactics of persecution that have changed.

Let me explain.

Let’s go back to the traditional definition of the word.  It centers on the infliction of pain and suffering. We define it by what it looks like rather than what is it trying to accomplish. So let’s ask a more important question: What is the goal of persecution? Most would agree that it is to get someone to give up or walk away from their God. It is nothing short of what politicos call “a wedge issue.” The end game of persecution is trying to create a divide between us and God.

I think we can all agree that religious persecution isn’t happening here in America if we define it by what it looks like. But what if we tried to detect it by defining it by what it is trying to accomplish? What if we sought evidence of things that create ‘wedge issues’ between us and God?

The truth about our faith is that we reach out to God most, and feel His presence closest, when we are experiencing some degree of anxiety, uncertainty, or physical/emotional pain. So often our most desperate search for God is when we feel we have nowhere else to turn. The worst experiences in our life are usually what draw us to Him in authentic and transparent ways. This is exactly why it is the source of courage for the martyrs. But what if we turn the equation around and ask: When do we feel the most distant and disconnected? I would venture that it usually occurs when we are feeling the least amount of threat to our well being. Sure, we’re quick to give thanks to God for the good times, but our attention span in those moments is far shorter than when we’re struggling in utter dependence on Him. After all, who needs God when things are going well? Who needs God when we are surrounded by things that make life safer, easier, and better?

In my opinion, our pursuit of physical comfort is where a different (but very real) persecution begins. Here in America so much of our energy is spent on striving for things that make life safer, easier and better. It is when we start pursuing those things instead of God, and depending on them instead of God,

Enough said.

is where the goal of persecution is achieved.  It is when we make those things, whatever they are (better car, house, career, etc.) the object of our attention. We trust on them to deliver us from what we think is the threat of physical persecution like pain, suffering and death. And before we know it, we are essentially worshiping them. This is why 1 John 2:15-16 warns us: Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

Am I advocating that we give up on cars, houses and careers? No. Rather, I am suggesting we keep them in their proper perspective. Let’s see them for what they are – resources to survive in our modern world. They facilitate physical life, but they don’t give life…at least not the full life that is found in Jesus Christ.

In the end, I don’t think the email got it right by asking “How would your faith stand up under persecution?” I think the better question is “How does your faith stand up under persecution?” Because the reality is that we are suffering it every single day and we just don’t recognize it. 

Keep the faith,

Why Did Jesus Have To Die?

Apparently the jury is still out.

Back in the day when I was a lawyer doing jury trials, I handled a number of personal injury cases. One of the hurdles I had to overcome was explaining why my client should be compensated with money for their injuries. For many jurors (and maybe most people), the idea of giving cash to someone for an accident doesn’t seem to line up with concepts of justice, especially when the media is full of stories of people getting huge awards that seem disproportionate to their injury. 

So they ask a legitimate question: How does cash provide justice?  And if it does, how much is enough?

It’s a good question. How does giving someone money provide justice for a physical injury?

My response was that there were three options:

Option 1: If we could make the responsible party go back in time and make it so the accident never happened, we would…but we can’t.

Option 2: If we could make the responsible party heal my client to their pre-accident condition, we would…but we can’t.

Which is when I brought up...

Option 3: Make the responsible party bring the scales of justice back into balance by compensating my client with money.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. We would all prefer to have option 1 and 2 available as a way to make things ‘right’. Indeed, every client I ever represented would have taken option 1 or 2 in a heartbeat. But those two options were obviously unavailable. So we’re left with making one party pay another as a way to achieve equilibrium of justice.

Similarly, this same dynamic is at work when we ask the question: “Why did Jesus have to die?” The whole concept of Atonement (which is the fancy church word we use to explain the death and resurrection of Jesus) is the attempt to describe what it achieved. It addresses the questions of: What did it do for God? And more selfishly, what did it do for us?    

Part of the answer is that Atonement fulfills the need for justice. Theologians say that it satisfied God’s need for justice, but I often wonder if we don’t need it more. Justice is a concept that is unique to humans. It is not observed in the animal kingdom, but seemingly, it is wired into our DNA. Something within us yearns for the scales to be brought back into equilibrium. Things aren’t ‘right’ unless justice has been accomplished.

Especially when thinking
about Atonement.

So Atonement begins with an honest assessment about where we find ourselves, both way back then and in the present moment. Yes, we understand that humankind went off the tracks with the fall of Adam and Eve. Yes, we all admit that we’re miserable sinners. Yes, we are the responsible party for an injury to God and to his Creation. Yes, somewhere deep within us, we want it to be set back ‘right.’ But we also ask why did Jesus have to die to set our shortcomings straight? Why couldn’t God just take us all back to the Garden of Eden and make it so that evil never entered the world? Why can’t God simply heal us back to our ‘pre-fall’ condition?

The answer is that as that as much as we wish we could…we can’t. That train left the station long ago. Instead, the only thing will bring the scales of justice back into balance is for someone to pay, and given the immensity of the injury, recognizing that the amount of compensation needs to be astronomical.

Enter Jesus.

It is through Jesus that we answer the double question of "why?" and "how much?" His crucifixion and death reflect the magnitude of the harm we've caused. It revealed (and still reveals) how far humanity has fallen since we exited the Garden so long ago. But it is through his sacrifice that justice and equilibrium are restored. After all, the restoration of perfection requires a perfect payment.   

Is it what we wanted? No. But is it perfect? If we think about it, Yes. It. Is.

Keep the faith,