The last narrative I want to touch on is on one that atheists like to claim that Christians believe. I have been told many times by non-believers when they see a Christian hurt, like with my beaten friend mentioned earlier, that Christians “want to be a victim.” There is a prevailing idea among the world that Christians want to look like the victim. I think it is evil and ignores the plight of millions of followers of Christ. Following Christ in the Middle East, Northern and Central Africa, Eastern Asia, and places in Central America can be a death Sentence.

In China there is heavy persecution. During Covid, the Chinese government took advantage of the time to demolish many of the temporarily empty churches. China also withholds welfare from the elderly Christians. Some Christian villages have been demolished while other homes have crosses replaced with the pictures of chinese officials. Escaped Christians tell of being in “re-education camps” where Christians are considered animals who cannot use the restroom during the day and are regularly beaten.

In North Korea, being a Christian does not just mean that you may go to a concentration camp, but that you and your household may if you are found out. Escaped North Korean couples share stories of not knowing their spouse was also a follower of Christ until they escaped the country.

Even in the US, Christianity is attacked. Our lives are not in danger like it is for our brothers, but is becoming more and more disdained by society. As Covid is happening in our country we see some states using this momentum to shutdown churches. We see states say that restaurants, protests, bars, and casinos are essential and can open while churches are not essential and must limit themselves to 10-25% of capacity or 50-100 people, whichever is greater. California churches during covid were told it was unsafe to open, but most other groups and businesses were fine and somehow safe. The California governor encouraged residents in other states to come to California to receive an abortion if their states had shut down the muderous procedure during Covid. We do not see safety being enforced to prevent illness, we see the public using the illness as a way to try and silence the church. We have governors who say that people cannot even gather in their cars for worship, or their license plates will be marked by police. This is not every state, but we see many in power, with the backing of people, supporting suppression of churches that others do not face. Locally, I see this with friends and family that say that if a church is essential, it must pay taxes. Their reasoning is not about covid prevention at all. It is a belief that churches should have to pay to be able to gather and worship. That logic has nothing to do with the health and welfare of others. It is a logical fallacy that reveals a disdain for Christ.

In movies and shows, we see Christians and Jesus as material for jokes. We do not see this same resentment towards any other belief system. People call for tolerance, but do not apply it to Christ and His followers. It is okay in media to make Christians seem dumb or ignorant. It is okay to show Jesus in a movie as a ‘lesbian addict’ without regard to the insult it brings to Him and His followers. For more look at shows like The Big Bang, Family Guy, The Simpsons, Living Biblically, along with any sitcom. Movies, including kids movies, consider OMG and blasphemy to be family friendly. We talk more about this later, but there is a disdain of Christianity. We would be horrified if a movie made fun of someone over race, but it is okay and tolerant for society to slander the whole Christian group and our God. There is a dislike and disregard that the media has for our beliefs that are applied to no one else. Our God is made to be a joke, and when we point this out, we are often told that we are just wanting to be the victim. We are not persecuted in the US like our siblings in other parts of the world. We are not even as ridiculed as perhaps our Canadian siblings are. There is an undertone that is growing more aggressive daily against us though, and we can acknowledge that.

We are Christians, and the world does not like that. I have an atheist friend who has made “I do what I want” a slogan of his. He like many, I believe hate and ridicule Christianity because it calls him to see the truths he does not want to be reminded about. The world will reject us and make it difficult for us to sojourn through it while we are here. We will not find a home of contentment and acceptance here. We are not made for this world, and no longer part of it. As the world rejects Jesus and us, we likewise do not find our value or purpose in the world. In the next chapter we will be looking at peer pressure and how to stand against the world’s desire that we go with the flow.

“If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” ― C.S. Lewis