christian persecution complex

{{Short description|Belief that Christianity is oppressed in the Western world}}

{{About|the belief that Christianity is being oppressed in the Western world|the religious persecution of Christians|Persecution of Christians|religious persecutions by Christians|History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance}}

Christian persecution complex is the belief, attitude, or world view that Christian values and Christians are being oppressed by social groups and governments in the Western world.{{harvnb|Hoover|2015|p=23}}: According to Hoover Linda "...Castelli (2007) believed the reluctance to self-disclose could be the "Christian persecution complex" (p. 156), an ideology that Christian values are unfavorably targeted by social and governmental opposition..." This belief is promoted by certain American Protestant churches,{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christians-in-the-us-are-not-persecuted-an-intersectional_b_59161b18e4b02d6199b2ef05|title=Christians In The U.S. Are Not Persecuted|last1=Kim|first1=Grace Ji-Sun|last2=Shaw|first2=Susan M.|date=2017-05-12|website=HuffPost|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190429130318/https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christians-in-the-us-are-not-persecuted-an-intersectional_b_59161b18e4b02d6199b2ef05 |archive-date=2019-04-29 |access-date=2020-03-30}} and some Christian- or Bible-based groups in Europe.{{harvnb|Hornback|2018|p=286}}: Afterword: White Nationalism, Trolling Humor as Propaganda, and the "Renaissance" of Christian Racism in the Age of Trump. "In so doing, he, his speech writers, and advisors were pandering to the rising Christian white nationalist persecution complex in Poland and throughout Europe, giving voice to a message that Western Christianity—and Europeans—will defeat fundamentalist Islamism. He even concluded with an overt call to a modern-day Crusade: "So together, let us all fight like the Poles, for family, for freedom, for country, and for God."" It has been called the "Evangelical",{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/08/the-evangelical-persecution-complex/375506/|title=Why Do Evangelicals Have a Persecution Complex?|last=Noble|first=Alan|date=2014-08-04|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-03-30}} "American Christian"{{Cite web|url=https://www.christiantoday.com/article/are-american-christians-really-being-persecuted-or-are-they-just-being-manipulated/107522.htm|title=Are American Christians really being persecuted – or are they just being manipulated?|last=Cyzewski|first=Ed|date=2017-04-18|website=www.christiantoday.com|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180320170930/https://www.christiantoday.com/article/are-american-christians-really-being-persecuted-or-are-they-just-being-manipulated/107522.htm |archive-date=2018-03-20 |access-date=2020-03-30}} or "Christian right"{{Cite web|url=https://www.salon.com/2015/07/05/the_raging_hypocrisy_at_the_center_of_the_christian_rights_persecution_complex/|title=The raging hypocrisy at the center of the Christian right's persecution complex|last=Neumann|first=Steve|date=2015-07-05|website=Salon|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150706184201/http://www.salon.com:80/2015/07/05/the_raging_hypocrisy_at_the_center_of_the_christian_rights_persecution_complex/ |archive-date=2015-07-06 |access-date=2020-03-30}} persecution complex.

Early Christianity

According to New Testament scholar Candida Moss the Christian "persecution complex" appeared during the era of early Christianity due to internal Christian identity politics.{{harvnb|Janes|Houen|2014|p=24}}: Indeed, a recent study by Candida Moss, The Myth of Persecution has suggested that Christian "persecution complex" was the result of internal Christian identity politics. Moss suggested that the idea of persecution is cardinal to the worldview of Christianity, noting that it creates the impression that Christians are a minority that are facing a war – even when they are numerically superior.{{harvnb|Årsheim|2016|p=7}}: Candida Moss has argued that the notion of persecution is all but essential to Christianity as a worldview, tracing the discursive construction of martyrdom from Antiquity and up to the present, pointing to its constitutive role for the self-understanding of Christians as embattled minorities – even while numerically superior This perception is grounded in the belief that the world is divided into two factions, one led by God and the other by Satan. In this view there can be no compromise between the two, and even attempting to dialogue or engage with "the other" is seen as a form of collaboration with it.{{harvnb|Moss|2013|p=254}}: The myth of persecution is theologically grounded in the division of the world into two parties, one backed by God and the other by Satan...And everyone knows you cannot reason with devil. Even when devil is not explicitly invoked, the rhetoric of persecution suggests that the persecutors are irrational and immoral and the persecuted are innocent and brave. In a world filled with persecution, efforts to negotiate or even reason with one's persecutors are interpreted as collaboration and moral compromise. We should not attempt to understand the other party, because to do so would be to cede ground to injustice and hatred Medieval historian Paul Cavill argues that the New Testament teaches that persecutions are inherent to Christianity.{{harvnb|Cavill|2013|p=81}}: The early Christian persecution complex is often underemphasised, but is important. The New Testament teaches that persecution is the inevitable by-product of effective Christianity.

20th century

According to Elizabeth Castelli,{{harvnb|Castelli|2008}}: "There is no precise origin point for the contemporary discursive project of the Christian persecution complex" some set the starting point of the Christian persecution complex in the middle of the 20th century, following a series of court rulings that declared public places to be out of bounds for religious activity, e.g. state-sanctioned morning prayer in schools.{{harvnb|Castelli|2007|p=157}}: For those who have upped the ante by recently deciding to characterize the circumstances of Christians in the United States as the "war on Christians, the historical turning point tends to reside in the mid-twentieth century, when a series of federal and Supreme court decisions declared certain public institutions off-limits for sectarian religious activity (e.g., prayer and Bible reading in public schools). For the Christian activists who view these court decisions as opening skirmishes in the war on Christians, the decisions and the "activist judges" who promulgated them effectively—and dangerously—banned God from the public square. The persecution complex became readily apparent in the United States in the 1990s with the adoption of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 as the official foreign policy. The complex "mobilizes the language of religious persecution to shut down political debate and critique by characterizing any position not in alignment with this politicized version of Christianity as an example of anti-religious bigotry and persecution. Moreover, it routinely deploys the archetypal figure of the martyr as a source of unquestioned religious and political authority".{{harvnb|Årsheim|2016|p=7}} (Castelli 2007: 154).

21st century

The September 11 attacks boosted its development. The concept that Christianity is being oppressed has been popular among conservative politicians in contemporary politics in the United States, who use this idea to address issues concerning LGBT people or the Affordable Care Act's contraceptive mandate, which they perceive as an attack on Christianity.{{Harvnb|Ben-Asher|2017|p=22}}: "...The notion that Christianity is under attack is prevalent in contemporary arguments for religious exemptions. Conservative legislatures, politicians and the media frequently characterize issues such as same-sex marriage and the ACA's Contraceptives Mandate as attacks on Christians or Christianity...." The application of the contraceptive mandate to closely held corporations with religious objections was struck down by the Supreme Court in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

Hornback noted that the Christian persecution complex is widespread among nationalists in Europe, who feel that they are defending the continent from a new Islamic invasion.

In 2013 and 2019, journalists have pointed out that "American Christians have a persecution complex", while noting that the persecution of Christians is real in the Middle East.[https://www.religionnews.com/2013/04/03/in-the-middle-east-not-america-christians-are-actually-persecuted/] Jonathan Merritt, "In the Middle East, not America, Christians are actually persecuted", Religion News Service, April 3, 2013{{cite web |last1=Wintour |first1=Patrick |title=Persecution of Christians 'coming close to genocide' in Middle East – report |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/persecution-driving-christians-out-of-middle-east-report |website=The Guardian |date=2 May 2019 |access-date=9 July 2021}}

As of 2017, Christian persecution complex has had an impact on popular culture, with films which "imagine embattled Christians prevailing against entrenched secularist opposition". Carey, G. (2017). Daniel as an Americanized Apocalypse. Interpretation, 71(2), 190–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/0020964316688052 It discusses the CP Complex extensively. "Scholars and journalists alike have identified an "evangelical persecution complex" in our culture. This term unfairly stigmatizes all evangelicals but identifies a widely shared sensitivity. Some Christians major in the persecution complex, even to the point of associating florists who will not serve same-sex couples with actual Christian martyrs in the Middle East.24 Recent films like God's Not Dead and God's Not Dead 2 imagine embattled Christians prevailing against entrenched secularist opposition". That explains the film critique that was mentioned above. In 2018, David Ehrlich, a film critic, described how the persecution complex is fueled by films and media such as the God's Not Dead saga.{{cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2018/03/gods-not-dead-a-light-in-the-darkness-review-1201944793/|title='God's Not Dead: A Light in the Darkness' Review: A Hellishly Bad Drama About America's Christian Persecution Complex|last=Ehrlich|first=David|date=2018-03-29|website=IndieWire|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180401025029/http://www.indiewire.com:80/2018/03/gods-not-dead-a-light-in-the-darkness-review-1201944793/ |archive-date=2018-04-01 |access-date=2018-12-10|quote=Whereas other recent offerings like "Heaven Is for Real" and last week's "I Can Only Imagine" are largely harmless in how they preach to the choir and prostrate themselves before Evangelical audiences, Pure Flix's "God's Not Dead" saga has been defined by a persecution complex large enough to crucify Christ the Redeemer.}}

As of 2019, some nationalistic dispensationalists have promoted a narrative of Western persecution of Christians, in order to claim a position of marginalization and disadvantage.{{sfn|Brown|2019|p=134|ps=: Alease Brown writes "...the modern function of martyrdom often serves to create a "Christian persecution complex." The narrative of martyrdom allows Christians in the West (particularly nationalistic dispensationalists), who are cultural hegemons and who maintain economic and political dominance globally, to claim the position of marginalization, disadvantage, and literal persecution in "the world," because of their faith. In addition dominant groups within Western Christianity have relied upon martyrdom narratives to assert their dominance over those not in the dominant group, by compelling the non-dominant to accept their domination; to adhere the example of suffering, best exemplified by the martyrs"}}

References

=Bibliography=

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{{cite journal |last=Ben-Asher |first=Noah |title=Faith-Based Emergency Powers |date=September 21, 2017 |journal=Harvard Journal of Law and Gender|ssrn=3040902 |volume=41|pages=269–300}}
{{cite journal |last = Brown|first = Alease|title =Martyrdom, Violence, and Dignity|journal = Estudos Teológicos| url = http://www.periodicos.est.edu.br/index.php/estudos_teologicos/article/viewFile/3753/3213#page=134| doi= 10.22351/et.v59i1.3618|issn=0101-3130|volume=59|number=1|pages=133–150|year=2019|doi-access=free|hdl=10566/8497|hdl-access=free}}
{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/14754830500257554| issn = 1475-4835| volume = 4| issue = 3| pages = 321–351| last = Castelli| first = Elizabeth A.| title = Praying for the Persecuted Church: US Christian Activism in the Global Arena| journal = Journal of Human Rights| date = 2005| s2cid = 144841684|author-link=Elizabeth Castelli}}
{{cite journal |last=Castelli |first=Elizabeth A. |title=Persecution Complexes: Identity Politics and the "War on Christians" |journal=Differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies |volume=18 |issue=3 |date=2007 |issn=1040-7391 |doi=10.1215/10407391-2007-014 |pages=152–180 }}
{{cite web |last=Castelli |first=Elizabeth A. |title=Persecution Complexes |website=The Revealer |date=17 April 2008 |url=https://therevealer.org/persecution-complexes/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180615083418/https://therevealer.org/persecution-complexes/|archive-date=2018-06-15|url-status=live}}
{{cite book |last=Cavill |first=Paul |year=2013 |chapter=Anglo-Saxons Saints' Lives and Deaths |editor-last=Kojecký |editor-first=Roger |editor-last2=Tate |editor-first2=Andrew |title=Visions and revisions: The word and the text |edition=Unabridged |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing | location=Newcastle upon Tyne, UK | isbn=978-1-4438-4332-4 }}
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{{cite book |editor-last=Janes |editor-first=Dominic |editor-last2=Houen |editor-first2=Alex |title=Martyrdom and terrorism: Pre-modern to contemporary perspectives |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-995985-3 |page=24}}
{{cite book | last=Moss | first=Candida | title=The myth of persecution how early Christians invented a Story of Martyrdom | publisher=HarperOne | location=New York | year=2013 | isbn=978-0-06-210454-0 }}
{{cite thesis |last=Hoover |first=Linda |year=2015 |title=Effects of Negative Media on Evangelical Christians' Attitudes Toward Evangelism |type=PhD |url=https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=etds }}
{{Cite book| publisher = Palgrave Macmillan| isbn = 978-3-319-78048-1| last = Hornback| first = Robert| title = Racism and Early Blackface Comic Traditions: From the Old World to the New| date = 2018|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dMRlDwAAQBAJ|location=Gewerbestrasse}}
{{cite web|url=https://www.rightwingwatch.org/report/the-persecution-complex-the-religious-rights-deceptive-rallying-cry/|date=2014|title=The Persecution Complex: The Religious Right's Deceptive Rallying Cry|publisher=Right Wing Watch|author=Right Wing Watch Staff}}