A Few Thoughts on Persecution

I was talking with a friend who was telling me about a recent message that was delivered at a college group about how the Gospel of Jesus is offensive and that if we, as Christians, aren't being persecuted then we weren't truly following Jesus. Now, while this may be true if we were to collectively actually take Jesus seriously, this particular leader explained persecution as being mocked, laughed at, made fun of, ignored, etc. This conversation came just a few hours after a different friend of mine was telling me about a local radio show hosted by a local Christian leader where in this particular episode he discussed how standing on a street corner and giving people the Gospel, picketing against particular political ideas that are considered immoral, and fighting publicly to bring America "back" to God in our country is a worthwhile endeavor.

As Amy Poehler would say...

"REALLY??"

So this got me thinking...honestly, where do these leaders get these ideas? It's certainly not in Scripture and it's certainly NOT modeled by Jesus...perhaps it's an idea learned and accepted through a history of distorted and misunderstood ideas taught by well-intentioned faith traditions...

Anyways, this whole idea of being mocked or made fun of for your beliefs occurs no where in Scripture. (Jesus getting mocked by the Roman guards is the only thing I could think of and this instance is hardly due to particular beliefs but more about his confronting of an entire system of belief and worldview, which i'll get to in a second).

The early Christians in the Bible were persecuted, literally, like with whips, stones, torture, imprisonment, and even death because their faith led them act counter to the ideas of the Roman Empire. They were pacifists, fed and spent time with social outcasts, shared things together, loved their enemies, forgave those who wronged them, didn't buy into the idea of power but served, and didn't follow or accept the Roman and Greek gods...what they did was ANTI-government and ANTI-religious and THIS is what led them to be persecuted by the government and by the religious leaders of the day.

Now if this particular message was about if we only acted THIS way then maybe we really would get persecuted and he'd be right on track, however I'm afraid he was going somewhere else with his idea of persecution, atleast so it seems...

Look at Jesus, he wasn't made fun of or mocked by "sinners"...he ate, drank, and LOVED the "sinners" sinners of his day. They WANTED to be around him! Religious leaders, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the government officials and rulers were the ones that hated and persecuted him! This too is why picketing and yelling and condemning is NOT a worthwhile endeavor. In fact, it's ANTI-Christ. It's not at all modeling the Way of Jesus. This way of doing things was not implemented by our Savior, in fact it was the exact opposite! He loved and invested time with the sinners of his day.

And that's our job too.

Thank goodness our country gives us the freedom to follow the religion we want. Unlike our unfortunate dear brothers and sisters in China, Korea, and other parts of the world where they are persecuted, again literally, by their governments. If we're persecuted here in America, it should be because were radically loving those whom our nation considers our enemies or outcasts or our own personal enemies, or refusing to "buy-in" to our capitalistic ideas of excessive materialism, greed, power, lust, and we should seek to serve, love, and build relationships with the least of these and those whom aren't like us, whether it be prostitutes, drunkards, the poor, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, Protestants, homosexuals, prisoners, etc. (The same types of people Jesus spent time with and LOVED and SERVED)

We are not called to condemn, it's up to God to judge and avenge. We are called to follow Christ's example and to love and serve.

I hope this offers some freeing insight to everyone, especially for those who have heard this message or similar ones...we are not called to yell, scream, condemn, get made of and mocked* (this is an ideal of Christian leaders who use guilt to get us to serve God and make converts much like leaders who use fear to drive us to serve God and avoid hell), but were called to love unconditionally!


This is truly what makes the Gospel of Jesus offensive! It's offensive to the religious and to those in power because it's not the status quo and becuase it's radical. Unconditional love is radical. These are the groups of people that it was offensive to in Jesus day and it hasn't changed. (again, it's not sinners who should find it offensive). We are called to be like Christ, so may we learn more about Him and his Love and Way of life and partner with Him to continue to work towards the redemption of all things.

Here is an example of why the Gospel of Jesus is offensive...

http://andymoore.wordpress.com/2007/11/12/too-radical/
(or see photo on post)

GRACE and PEACE

-Ty