Christian persecution complex
Christian persecution complex is the notion that Christian values and Christians are being oppressed by social groups and governments.[1] This belief is thought to be held by certain American Protestant Churches[2] and Christian- or Bible-based cults. Therefore, is frequently called "Evangelical"[3] or "American Christian Persecution Complex"[4]
Background[edit]
Members of cults can demonstrate a persecution complex, effectively synonymous to paranoia. In these cases, the cultists may regard any opposition to the teachings of the cult, as a personal attack. [5] Sociologists have pointed that persecution, whether real or imagined, may help unify people. If the members of a cult perceive themselves as targets of persecution, this can actually enhance their sense of belonging (to the group), and strengthen their commitment to their cause. [5]
A case study in persecution complex involves the Jehovah's Witnesses. When refused permission to share their doctrines with others, they consider their organization a target of persecution. [5] The Jehovah's Witnesses train their members to believe that (other) Christians "hate them on a personal level", and are hostile to their cause. The effect of this belief is that the members feel like heroes who stand up to the schemes of the Devil.[5] When other Christians do mistreat members of the Jehovah's Witnesses or behave rudely towards them, their belief that they are targets of persecution and hated by those around them is reinforced. [5] The Jehovah's Witnesses represent a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity.[6]
Contemporary Christian Persecution Complex[edit]
Many find it difficult to define the origin of the Christian persecution complex. According to Elizabeth Castelli,[note 1][8] some set the starting point 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. morning prayer in schools).[9] However, it became apparent in the United States in the 1990s with the adoption of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 as the official foreign policy. A few years later, the September 11 attacks boosted its development. This 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".[10]
The concept that Christianity is being oppressed is popular among conservative politicians in contemporary politics in the United States, and they utilize this idea to address issues concerning LGBT people or the ACA’s Contraceptives Mandate, which they perceive as an attack on Christianity.[11]
American sociologist George Yancey finds that the perception of some Christians that they are persecuted is not unfounded, and that anti-Christian hostility is real. In his book "Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias" (2015) he explores the phenomenon of Christianophobia, i.e. the intense animosity against Christians.[12] Yancey, in a 2017 publication, suggests that levels of anti-Christian hostility have not significantly risen over the past few decades (in the United States), however those with this hostility have gained economic power and thus "... Christian activists may be correct in that they now pay a stiffer price for that animosity.” [13][14]
Some Christian journalists accept that "American Christians have a persecution complex". However, they agree persecution of christians is real in the Middle East.[15]
Christian Persecution Complex in early Christianity[edit]
Christian persecution complex is not new. According to Candida Moss[note 2] it appeared during the era of early Christianity due to internal Christian identity politics.[17] 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 though they are numerically superior.[18] This perception is grounded on the manichaeistic belief that the world is divided into two pieces, the one part of God and the other Satan, and there can be no compromise between the two.[19] Paul Cavill[note 3] claims that the New Testament teaches that persecutions are inherent to Christianity.[21]
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Elizabeth A. Castelli is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Religion at Barnard College.[7]
- ↑ Candida Moss is the Edward Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham.[16]
- ↑ Paul Cavill is a Lecturer in Early Modern British History at the University of Cambridge.[20]
References[edit]
List of References[edit]
- ↑ 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..."
- ↑ "Christians In The U.S. Are Not Persecuted", Huffpost, 05/12/2017
- ↑ "The Evangelical Persecution Complex", The Atlantic, Aug 4, 2014
- ↑ Ed Cyzewski, "Are American Christians really being persecuted – or are they just being manipulated?", Christian Today, Tue 18 Apr 2017
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Gomes (1995), p. 72
- ↑ Sources for descriptors:
- Millenarian: Beckford, James A. (1975). The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah's Witnesses. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 118–119, 151, 200–201. ISBN 0-631-16310-7. Search this book on
- Restorationist: Stark, Rodney; Iannaccone, Laurence R. (1997). "Why the Jehovah's Witnesses Grow so Rapidly: A Theoretical Application" (PDF). Journal of Contemporary Religion. 12 (2): 133–157. doi:10.1080/13537909708580796. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
- Christian: "Who is a Christian?". www.religioustolerance.org. Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance. Retrieved 27 December 2017. "Religious Landscape Study". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Pew Research Center. 11 May 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2017.World Almanac and Book of Facts. New York, NY: Infobase Learning. 2011. pp. 704–705. ISBN 978-1-60057-133-6. Search this book on
- Denomination: "Jehovah's Witnesses at a glance". BBC. 29 September 2009. Retrieved 27 December 2017."Jehovah's Witness". TheFreeDictionary.com. The American Heritage Dictionary. Retrieved 27 December 2017."Imprisoned for Their Faith: Jehovah's Witnesses in Auschwitz". auschwitz.org. Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. 5 February 2004. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
- Millenarian: Beckford, James A. (1975). The Trumpet of Prophecy: A Sociological Study of Jehovah's Witnesses. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. pp. 118–119, 151, 200–201. ISBN 0-631-16310-7. Search this book on
- ↑ "Elizabeth Castelli Barnard College". barnard.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
- ↑ Castelli 2008: "There is no precise origin point for the contemporary discursive project of the Christian persecution complex"
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Årsheim 2016, p. 7:According to Elizabeth Castelli, this engagement can be ascribed to a ‘Christian persecution complex’ that gathered pace throughout the 1990s, with the adoption of the US International Religious Freedom Act in 1998 as a significant milestone, and with the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 as an accelerating factor (Castelli 2007: 173). This 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 antireligious bigotry and persecution. Moreover, it routinely deploys the archetypal figure of the martyr as a source of unquestioned religious and political authority.” (Castelli 2007: 154).
- ↑ 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....
- ↑ Presentation of the book George Yancey, "Hostile Environment: Understanding and Responding to Anti-Christian Bias", Paperback – May 28, 2015
- ↑ George Yancey, "Has Society Grown More Hostile Towards Conservative Christians? Evidence from ANES Surveys", Review of Religious Research, pp 1–24, Abstract
- ↑ KATE SHELLNUTT, "Study: Anti-Christian Bias Hasn’t Grown. It’s Just Gotten Richer", Christianity Today, OCTOBER 10, 2017
- ↑ Jonathan Merritt, "In the Middle East, not America, Christians are actually persecuted", Religion News Service, April 3, 2013
- ↑ "Professor Candida Moss". birmingham.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-21.
- ↑ Janes & Houen 2014, p. 24: Indeed, a recent study by Candida Moss, The Myth of Persecution]] has suggested that Cristian "persecution complex" was the result of internal christian identity politics
- ↑ Arsheim 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
- ↑ 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 explicity 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
- ↑ "Dr Paul Cavill". hist.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2018-02-27.
- ↑ Cavil 2013, p. 81: The early christian persecution complex is often underemphasised, but is important. The New Testament teaches that persecution is the inevidable by-product of effective Christianity
Sources[edit]
- Gomes, Alan W. (1995), "Part IV: Sociology", Unmasking the Cults, Zondervan, ISBN 978-0310864554
Bibliography[edit]
- Årsheim, Helge. (2016) “Internal affairs? Assessing NGO engagement for religious freedom”. In Anne Stensvold (ed.): Religion, State and the United Nations – Value Politics. London: Routledge,
- Ben-Asher, Noa, Faith-Based Emergency Powers (September 21, 2017). Harvard Journal of Law and Gender, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3040902
- Cavill, Paul. (2013) Anglo-Saxons Saints' Lives and Deaths. In Visions and Revisions: The Word and the Text, (2014 by Tate Andrew Kojeckyu Roger, Cambridge Scholars Publishing; Unabridged edition edition (February 1, 2013) Language: English, ISBN 1443843326 Search this book on .
- Castelli, Elizabeth A. (2007) Persecution Complexes: Identity Politics and the “War on Christians” DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-2007-014
- Castelli, Elizabeth A. (2008) Persecution Complexes, online essay
- Dominic Janes and Alex Houen (2014) Martyrdom and Terrorism: Pre-Modern to Contemporary Perspectives ISBN 9780199959853 Search this book on . page 24
- Hoover, Linda, (2015) "Effects of Negative Media on Evangelical Christians' Attitudes Toward Evangelism". Dissertations & Theses. 198 https://aura.antioch.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1205&context=etds
- Candida, Moss (2013). The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom. HarperCollins. ISBN 0062104543. Search this book on
This article "Christian persecution complex" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Christian persecution complex. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
|
This page exists already on Wikipedia. |
