When future generations read about the beginning of the 21st century, one term will stand out: “Victimology”.

Why are so many in our Western culture so determined to identify as victims?
And why are so many others eager to feed this grievance mentality by reinforcing it with virtue signaling?

Two recent examples of this doctrine of victimology are The Trans shooter who killed children and adults at a Christian school and A black man threatening passengers on a train in New York who died when passengers subdued him.

The political left flipped the script on a trans female mass murderer whose mental state facilitated acts personified as pure evil. She is being hailed as the victim, even in death, elevated to martyrdom in a sick twisted notion that acted as a champion of radical trans grievance culture.

Then there is the young black man with an arrest record a mile long for acts such as child abduction, public harassment, verbal threats and physical assaults, who at the time of his death, he had an active warrant for his arrest. for aggression He was a Michael Jackson impersonator whose mental health issues were allowed to play out daily around public property in New York.

Several men stopped his threatening harassment, physical agitation and assault on a moving train, and one of those men used a choke hold while the assailant fought and continued to fight three other men who they retained Unfortunately, the man died when his airways were obstructed. This was clearly not the intention of the heroes who stepped in to protect the train passengers from the credible threat. Drug toxicology results are still pending.

The headlines screamed and yet another victim rises to a persecuted messiah, like Jesus, while the left rehabilitates him into the new George Floyd, and lapdog social justice protesters take to the streets at the hour.

What is driving this need to support perpetrators as heroic victims of persecution and cast defenders as persecutors? Not so long ago in our culture, we glorified the brave who intervened to save us from harm as honorable and revered among our citizenry. The real victims of crime were lifted up in our eyes, and those who perpetrated and took advantage of others were frowned upon. There was only one one-way street demanding justice for the righteous victim. Today, we assign victim status to achieve some twisted pretense of triumph or stature to achieve a political agenda.

The left has used semantics to effectively change the Overton window for decades. As this post is part of a series on Sunday thoughts let’s look at the word persecuted or persecution through the lens of the bible, not just politics.

Isaiah 50:10: “Which of you fears the Lord and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and trust in his God.”

Here, God is teaching those who feel persecuted and condemned to remain in the dark, to persevere apart from feelings, perceptions and circumstances. And know that you are not forsaken, for even in what is perceived as persecution you will be set free.

Did Jesus prepare us for persecution? Notice what he said to the disciples as he sat with them on the Mount of Olives:

Matthew 24, verse 9: “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and all the peoples will be hated because of me.”

From the perspective of Christian teachings, persecution is attached both to the suffering of Christ and to Jesus’ warnings of persecution and hostility towards people who accept his teaching and are not ashamed to defend it.

History reflects this portent, as it is estimated that more than 70 million Christians have been martyred throughout history, and more than half of these deaths occurred in the 20th century. In 2022, Afghanistan, North Korea, Somalia, Libya and Yemen topped the list. In addition, an estimated 360 million Christians in the world today experience extreme persecution because of their faith. Of course, other religions also have their legacy of persecution.

Modern martyrdom has a very low bar, don’t you think? I mean you don’t even have to die, just declare a microaggression and be with the awakened tribe while you do it. There are many examples of those who believed in the passages referred to in the Bible about persecution and what Christians may have in this matter in the days to come.

I am often reminded of the persecution of Kayla Mueller and the lessons she offered from her ordeal. Kayla had a remarkable story for such a young life. She believed her faith required action and responsibility, so she set out to alleviate the world’s suffering. ” “I find God in the eyes of suffering reflected in mine,” he once wrote. Addressing God, he added, “If this is how you reveal yourself to me, this is how I will seek you forever.”

While working as an aide in Syria, Kayla was taken hostage by members of an ISIS cell. She remained a prisoner for 18 months, enduring abuse of all kinds, along with other female captives. She eventually became a personal prisoner of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS. It was reported that she refused to join her fellow captives, four women, who hatched a plan to escape from their captors, telling them: “I am an American and if I escape with you, they will do everything they can to meet you again, so I will stay”.

These other brave women gained their freedom and smuggled out a letter Kayla had written to her parents. Here is part of what this amazing young woman of faith wrote during one of the darkest circumstances of persecution you can imagine.

“If you could say that I’ve suffered,” he wrote, “throughout this whole experience, it’s just knowing how much suffering I’ve put you all through. I remember Mom always telling me that ultimately, the only thing that really you have is God. I have come to a place in this experience,” Kayla wrote, “where in every sense of the word, I have surrendered to our Creator because there was literally no one else. By God and by your prayers , I felt tenderly cradled in free fall”.

Kayla Mueller died at the hands of Baghdadi, but her living testimony serves to remind us all that the power of light is greater than the power of darkness and that the power of the gospel will set you free.

Kayla’s persecution illuminates the absurd mental gymnastics that awake culture engages in to create and promote victim status. No one would dare deny that Kayla and so many others in this world have suffered persecution. So why do so many still feed the manufactured crisis delusion and cardboard cut-out martyrs?

Regardless of your faith status, consider letting the light shine on this cultural clown show, and the next time you’re called upon to virtue signal, simply refrain and state the obvious. God knows we already have too many people bearing the burden of persecution to pile up false victims.

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Syndication source for the original RWR article.

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