Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: Persecuted (08/22/24)
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TITLE: The Human Cost | Previous Challenge Entry
By Em Bonja
08/28/24 -
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According to the World Watch List [1], 365 million Christians are subject to high levels of persecution or discrimination worldwide. They define it as “any hostility experienced as a result of one’s identification with Christianity. This can include hostile attitudes, words, and actions toward Christians.”
Sometimes an issue that is widespread, even international, can be better viewed in a microcosm (a community or situation that “has all the typical features of a much larger one and so seems like a smaller version of it” [2]) Seeing the issue in a simpler, personal way results in better understanding. Perhaps we can look at one person’s struggle for insight into how persecution affects people.
One morning, a group of us older ladies met for our usual support group. In walked a lovely much-younger woman who joined us. She was eager to learn and grow in her relationship with Jesus. She brought depth, broad Scriptural knowledge, and a sweet spirit to our fellowship.
Over the months, she and I developed a friendship which God has used in our lives. Eventually, she left for a missionary prep school in Texas. Our contacts continued but gradually became more sporadic. One day last January, after not communicating for a while, she sent me an email. A small part of her remarks read:
“I think I’m on the verge of plummeting to the dreaded depths of deconstructing my faith…The more conversations I have with people, the more my understanding of Scripture isn’t holding up, and people I know and respect are showing me all the ways the Church has hurt them…I’m so frightened. It’s gotten so bad that I’ve started wishing I had never been born.”
What transpired that brought her to this point? What forces had worked so powerfully to pierce her heart and her faith so profoundly? Many conversations later, we have both grown in our understanding as we learned from each other and from God’s Spirit teaching us.
She works where she is the only person holding her political views, her view of the church, and how we live out our faith. Her coworkers used derogatory remarks, intimidation, working in numbers, disrespect, and antagonism, sometimes with much intensity. They undermined her faith, well-known Christian leaders, and the worship of Jesus Christ, even though many of them claimed to share the same faith. They also shared compelling personal stories that are at the root of their changed understanding of truth. The result has been that she felt isolated and alone, her initial compassion eventually replaced by anger, confusion, and fearfulness, and then despair.
When I asked her if she felt persecuted, her response was that she could say she was intellectually persecuted. Yet she wrote that she was struggling with spiritual pain, emotional distress, a season of physical unwellness highlighted by not being able to eat well, was worn down, and sometimes irrational and fearful. Also, she believed she was experiencing spiritual warfare. The effects of her situation were having far-reaching consequences.
She also gained insight into the needs of her accusers. Many of them were subject to persecution themselves. In some instances, they felt ignored or worse from the church they first turned to. Their experiences made it clear that there are churches today that haven’t developed a clear, compassionate, informed plan for serving those on the fringe of our culture.
She began relating to them with compassion, progressed through anger and fear, and is in the process of learning how to navigate her situation with wisdom. As she reached out for help and spent some time recovering from physical illness in her family home, she gained perspective. She moved back to what has always grounded her in life, and is still processing what is happening. She felt convicted at not being able to better articulate her faith, which led her to become better informed.
In considering the example of this microcosm, we might begin to envision the far-reaching effects of the world’s persecution. Perhaps it is so pervasive that it causes some of the malaise that is around us. Persecution on any level wounds the whole person, including their fundamental beliefs, identity, and faith. It is a powerful tool often leveraged against the good in our world. We might even wonder if we have engaged in it ourselves.
[1] Annual Report prepared and published by World Watch Research Team of Open Arms which surveys religious freedom for Christians.
[2] Collins Dictionary: Online dictionary published by Harper Collins of Glasgow
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Very well done!
Blessings