Do some Christians have a need to feel persecuted?

Some people fell the need to be persecuted. But not a true Christian, who would feel liberated through Grace working in their life.

For many, persecution=not having the right to persecute others.

What @zenvelo said.

Not all Christians are evangelical. I believe in God but in my day to day life, it’s a very tiny part of anything. I don’t think of anything to do with God, the Bible, or anything like that at all, 99.9% of the time.

I think some Christians get inspired by feeling persecuted. Inspired to be more loyal, more vocal, and more fervent in their Christian identity and worship. I believe many pastors and politicians know this and play up the persecution talk to gain loyalty and commitment among their followers.

In some strains of Christianity, there’s a need to be seen as rejected by “the world”, so differentiated from the culture at large that its “immune system” goes on the attack. That’s what happened to Jesus, so this is seen as a way of sharing in his suffering.

But frankly, what passes for persecution these days can be pretty mild stuff. One does get the impression that some Christians are overly ready to interpret vigorous critique of their line of reasoning or of their confrontational style as “persecution”. There seems to be some satisfaction or confirmation that comes with any form of push-back to some of these folks. It may not be very kind to tell someone they’re “full of shit”, but I hardly think that rises to the level of persecution.

Fear is a seductive part of the human experience across many aspects of life, and it can be a tool to foster group cohesion (in group/out group mentality). So, yes.

Wow. Here is a good post from RealEyesLies, wherever she may be.

I’d say the American Family Aholes have a persecution complex.

Here’s their “anti-Christian bigotry” map.

@Dutchess_III I don’t think so, actually.

However, there are a lot of people who use Jesus’ name a lot to justify every bit of evil in their own heart, claim God said things like “All fags must die!”, and feel the poor should be treated with contempt instead of compassion who seem to have a need to feel persecuted, but those people aren’t really Christians. Seriously, if they were actually Christians, they’d know more about the Bible (their own religious text) than Muslims and Atheists do.

Well, I have an older FB friend (it’s my BIL’s mother) who claims being “forced” to serve gays is a persecution of her religion. She’s married to a priest (whom she left her first husband for.)

There’s been some recent scholarship challenging the accepted historical narrative about how the early Christians were widely persecuted by the Romans.

Even back then, it seems, there was something of a cachet to being persecuted: “reports of fanatics deliberately seeking out the opportunity to die for their faith, including a mob that turned up at the door of a Roman official in Asia Minor, demanding to be martyred, only to be turned away when he couldn’t be bothered to oblige them”.

I don’t know about feeling a need to be persecuted but Christian communities in countries such as Syria and Iraq are today being persecuted to the point of facing extinction. And in Kenya just a few days ago al Shabab picked out Christian students at Garissa University killing 147 of them.

I agree, there is real persecution going on in other countries. I find it a bit disgusting that American Christians can call disagreement “persecution” in the face of Christians around the world who are murdered because of their belief.

I cannot speak for Christians and what they feel, because I am not one.

But as an outside observer, I would say the persecution (or perceived persecution) is a really effective means of raising money for the church.

The feelings of persecution rampant in (American) Christians is perhaps understandable if you place yourself in their shoes and witness the crumbling of bedrock (to them) notions galloping along in the society surrounding them. And of course, it’s the fundamentalists that feel themselves hardest hit, as the society advances and they are increasingly saddled with the ironic label “INTOLERANT”.

All who feel the need to persecute, or feel persecuted, are probably confrontational in nature.

Here is further proof that American Christians claiming persecution are, at best, inconsistent. Now, regardless of faith (or lack thereof), I think most decent people would agree that it’s a dick move.

But @stanleybmanly is correct in that those crying “Persecution!” are getting left behind as humanity advances further away from the 17th century and feel threatened as a result of their world fading into the mists of history, replaced by a world where those who don’t worship Jesus are no longer systematically killed and their property taken, where homosexuals no longer hide in the shadows for fear of their lives, and where women and non-whites are considered people instead of property. I know that I myself tend to get a little uppity when I feel my world is threatened, and I find the biggest threat to my world to be Fundamentalist Christians.

There is plenty of irony in being intolerant of intolerance, but the rise of Hipsters proves that anything can be cool so long as it’s done ironically.

I think so, yes. Persecution is part of the Christian narrative and it is expected that Christians will face persecution, as it says so numerous times in the Bible, particularly in Paul’s letters. Being persecuted puts you in a position of defense and sympathy—there are benefits to it.

However, comparing not being able to force schoolchildren to pray to what the Ancient Romans did to the Christians is quite a stretch. Christians don’t have a monopoly on American society anymore like they once did. Not that long ago, it was important for the United States to establish itself as a “Christian nation” in the face the godless Communists. As the U.S. has become more diverse and we have taken the First Amendment more seriously, the idea that religion and society are inherently bound together and inseparable is fading away. Many Christians now feel “persecuted” since they have lost their control over society. And they feel attacked when we are increasing our acceptance of things like homosexuality.

And now that the West is at war with “the Muslims”, the call for the U.S. to become an official “Christian nation” again is rising. The fear of “Muslim takeover” has definitely enamored some Christians with that desire to have a strictly Christian society.

@DominicY Well, that kind of gets into a No True Scotsman thing because “Christian” is SO broad. There are some Christians who believe God loves all His children, and some who think God hates everyone except them, yet since both have accepted Jesus as their savior, both are “Christian”. One big difference between them though is that the latter group considers tolerance as heresy and thus won’t consider the “God loves us all!” crowd to be Christian. I mean, these are the same people that complain about Satanic brake lights so it really does a disservice to the rational Christians to be lumped in with that demographic.

But until the sane, moderate, all-loving Christians officially cut ties from their more radical brethren the same way Protestants and Catholics split centuries ago, or even just start really speaking out against the Fundamentalists, they will share the stigma of guilt by association. Of course, it would also cause political turmoil in Red states as law after law gets repealed due to being basically a Theocracy in many places, but c’est la vie.

And I still find it funny that Muslims generally know more about the Bible than those trying to make us a “Christian” nation. Then again, when one selectively edits out parts pertaining to charity, equality, or tolerance, then I suppose it stands to reason that you won’t know much about a book that mentions those things, especially not one that considers those qualities virtuous.

Oh, that was hilarious @jerv. Satanic school buses!

@Dutchess_III Actually, it’s things like this that make me cringe. If it were satire then I would consider it funny, but when reality gets more bizarre, hilarious or just plain surreal than anything that professional writers could imagine, I tend to get a little… concerned.

I am unsure how The Onion stays in business because the actual news contains some headlines that are equally weird, and that is especially true when covering politics. I think we could actually make a game show out of it though; imagine contestants trying to win money by discerning satire from actual news!

Well, The Onion stays in business through brilliant, hilarious satire.

Oh, I see what you’re saying! Who needs The Onion when we have real life idiocy!

@Dutchess_III Exactly. Who needs sitcoms when we have reality TV like Cops?