On Sunday morning i walked out of my church building, enjoyed the warm early autumn breeze, and walked to my car, hand in hand with me wife., I wasn't confronted with blood, dismembered body parts and screams.
On Friday afternoon my wife and I did a little bit of shopping. We were safe, we were free to move around where we chose. No one shot us because we couldn't name the prophet's mother.
In the light of these weekend's terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Kenya, it seems almost mind blowingly insensitive to ask whether Christians in the west are being persecuted, or to talk about persecution in the west in any way shape or form. It's almost funny that removing the ten commandments from a public place, or calling it a winter festival is mentioned in the same breath as suicide bombers and shooters.
Of course we don't face persecution. I'm currently sitting on a million dollar church and school campus, with my door open. The biggest fear i have is that when the babies in the day care down the hall wake up i won't be able to hear myself think. This afternoon i'll walk across campus to the socc...football field. I'll coach our boys team against another Christian school. We'll pray beforehand. No one will shoot at us. If it goes badly, i'll probably be the angriest one there! I live five minutes from our church building, and Trinity is the sixth church i drive past. Eastern North Carolina ia the buckle of the Bible belt. We're free. Free to worship and free to enjoy our faith. Of course we're not being persecuted. How can we be so insensitive?
But let's think about something else for a moment. What do we expect our government to do in Pakistan or Kenya? Send aid? Send help? Issue a statement? Do something or anything? Why? Why should we expect western governments to protect Christians in Pakistan if they won't protect them in London? Why do we expect a government that views Christians in their own country as (at best) an inconvenience to do anything to help Christians in another. I mean, we really shouldn't should we?
But hang on, am i comparing government legislation with being blown up or shot by a lunatic? But persecution is as persecution does. Are the restrictions on USAF chaplains the same as being shot or held hostage in a mall? No. Is being arrested for preaching in Perth the same as being blown up because you're attending church? No.
But when we think about persecution, we must avoid falling into equal and opposite errors. We must avoid thinking that legislation that allows two men to get 'married' is in the same category as being blown up at church. Because it isn't. The western church must not claim it's being persecuted if we want to have any fellowship with our brothers in the Middle East.
But, we must not fall into the opposite but equal trap. There is increasing hostility towards Biblical Christianity in the public sphere of American life. It's increasingly obvious that soon it will be intellectually and culturally unacceptable to be a Biblical Christian in America. It already is in some parts of the country. And that probably won't be a bad thing. But it is a real thing.
American Christians in 2013 might only face 'papercut' persecution. But if someone kept cutting you with paper, you'd be sure not to give them a knife, wouldn't you?
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