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America gets a martyr

Alex Buchan

I have noticed a trend among Western Christians that is both healthy and unhealthy. The healthy trend: Everyone seems interested in Christian persecution. The unhealthy: Many are only interested in their own “persecutions”.

This can result in a dangerous irony, where an interest in persecution actually prevents a real encounter with the persecuted church worldwide. It happens in two ways: first, by inventing bogus persecution, and second, by overplaying genuine persecution.

Bogus persecution

In conversations with people on a recent trip to the United States, I found an interesting pattern developing. When I told of severe persecution in a place like Ambon in Indonesia, where Christians have been beaten with wet ropes and hacked to death with machetes, I was often interrupted by people telling me their personal “persecution story”.

For example, one couple said, “We received great persecution from the liberal establishment because we raised our kids the ‘Ezzo’ baby way, the biblical way.” It might be painful for this couple who were laughed at by liberals about the way they raised their kids, but is this really to be equated with persecution?

Another person said, “The cinema we held our church in decided to use it to show films on a Sunday, even though hardly anyone came to watch.” Is it so bad to have to find different premises in which to hold a Sunday service? I don’t mean to denigrate the sense of personal hurt and outrage, but can we seriously call this persecution?

Saddest of all is that these people never did get to hear about the persecuted in China or in Indonesia or in North Korea. They were too busy sharing their own experiences of persecution to listen. Their interest actually prevented them from encountering the persecuted church. What they call persecution is simply not comparable, but they will never know, because they don’t listen. It is possible to get so absorbed in our own petty persecutions that we do not hear the cries of the more severely persecuted.

Genuine persecution

This is not to say all persecution in the West is overblown or petty.

I visited the US during the Littleton, Colorado, tragedy, where high school student Cassie Bernall was shot dead by rampaging killers for boldly saying, “Yes, I believe in God.” Her killer reportedly said, “There is no God,” before pulling the trigger. In my view, that is real persecution. It makes the 17-year-old Cassie a martyr, although that seems a heavy term to many.

There have been three distinct reactions to Cassie’s death that can be instructive to consider.

First, some say, “This just shows what a persecuted community we are,” implying that this is the norm. What really happened was that the school was turned into a battle zone for a few terrible, but isolated minutes. Nevertheless, I witnessed a so-called prophecy expert on Christian TV the following day declaring, “America now has the most persecuted church in the world.” Such statements merely illustrate how much these kinds of people are in a bubble of their own making. They have little contact with genuinely persecuted communities, who have the muzzle of a gun pressed to their temples on a daily basis, metaphorically and literally.

Second, some have questioned whether Cassie’s death actually constitutes martyrdom. One pundit fretted over “whether she knew she was going to die when she was asked her fateful question”. Is a martyr someone who stands up for their faith in the full knowledge it will cost them their life? Or is martyrdom merely the loss of one’s life as a direct result of one’s Christian witness? It seems perilous to locate the issue of martyrdom in the psychology of the potential martyr. Perhaps the debate is unkind: Cassie kept the faith and paid a price few are asked to pay.

Third, some deny Cassie’s death constituted “persecution” at all. One commentator said, “Persecution is what the state does to you; it’s about laws of restriction that lay an entire Christian community to siege.” This view is probably motivated by a fear that the American church might unhealthily bask in its new status of having a martyr, and bog down in the same kind of self-absorption that comes from overplaying bogus persecution.

But it is too simple to say persecution is what the state does to the Christian. It depends on whether we define persecution broadly or narrowly, spiritually or legally. Spiritually speaking, persecution is any trial or tribulation that comes to you because Christ is in you. Legally speaking, persecution is any deliberate deprivation by a government of your freedom to believe, practise and spread your religion.

The broader, spiritual definition is based on Jesus’ words to His disciples in the upper room: “If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also . . . . They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me (John 15:20-21). In other words, when you become a Christian, you are caught up in a cosmic conflict irrespective of time or place. The world hates Christ. Christ is in you. Therefore, the world hates you. Every Christian faces what the Bible calls “tribulation” as a result of his or her identification with Christ. So, in this broad sense, it is fair to use the word “persecution” for these trials and difficulties.

I know a young man in Pasadena, California, who announced to his family that he was becoming a pastor. His parents immediately disinherited him. They wanted their children to become doctors and lawyers. That is persecution. It is part of the spiritual clash between the world and Christ, and Christians are caught in the middle.

The more narrow usage is also Scriptural, used especially by the apostle Paul. Although he declares in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,” this is not as universal as it sounds. In the previous verse, Paul says he was “persecuted” in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. If we find out what was done to him in those cities, we discover what he means by persecution. In Antioch he was “driven out”, in Iconium he fled a stoning, and in Lystra he suffered a stoning and was left for dead. If this is what Paul means by persecution, then we cannot say the godly will always be stoned or driven out. Where the state or religious establishment is hostile, then it is common, but what happened to him in those cities is not likely to happen to everyone.

So where does that leave Cassie? She was shot by an urban terrorist, not by the state. She lived in a land that upholds religious freedom. So her death was not persecution in the legal sense, but her death was an act of persecution in the fullest sense of the spiritual term.

America has a martyr. Let us thank God for her witness. Let us pray, too, that her witness will point to the severely persecuted around the world, those who face martyrdom daily.

Alex Buchan is Asian bureau chief for Compass Direct news service. This article was distributed in May 1999 as a Compass Direct news release.

The Church around the World Compass Direct is a Christian news gathering service, sending out each month 20-40 news stories on the church around the world. The following headlines were among the 23 stories sent out in the same month as the article “America gets a martyr”. China: Pressures sharpen the church in Wenzhou China: House churches report closer surveillance China: Bishop Ding openly attacks evangelicals Ecuador: Baptists report increased opposition India: Politics behind attacks on Christians India: Indian Home Ministry says attacks higher in 1998 Mexico: One town rebuilds churches, another refuses Pakistan: Prisoner survives stabbing attempt Peru: Innocent Christians languish in prison Peru: Lawyers’ arrests trouble Christian colleagues Russia: Mixed news on Russia’s religion law Saudi Arabia: Filipino Christian prisoner deported Sudan: Christian prisoner suffers stroke Turkmenistan: Authorities target local Christians Vietnam: New religion law

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Last modified June 22, 2000.

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