For as long as I can remember, creating a fear of a future America where Christians are persecuted has been a part of certain streams of Christianity and youth ministry. Having grown up under that kind of teaching, I can honestly say that it is completely irrelevant to the life of the American teenager and produces no good spiritual fruit.
Teen Mania is no stranger to this persecution fetish and in this video from 2005, we see a Battlecry skit based on that premise. It appears that a young man must endure persecution by the government and because he refuses to give up his beliefs, a woman watching him is saved.
Of course, no Teen Mania skit would be complete without a heavy dose of works based Christianity and this one is no exception…But here is what really boggles my mind:
If you only have a weekend to speak to thousands of teenagers, many of which come from broken homes, are abused, neglected or bullied, are depressed, engage in self-harm, etc. – why would you spend any time at all on the idea that they should be ready to go to jail or die for their beliefs? Especially when the chances of that situation actually presenting itself are slim to none?
In my opinion, this is a prime example of Evangelical Christianity living in a false reality. They create and market spiritual experiences that have NOTHING to do with real life!
Newsflash: There is no grand plan to physically persecute Christians in America. Slight forms of discrimination that may occur from time to time can hardly be called persecution – especially when Christians are actively involved in dishing out that “persecution” to others (gays, the poor, etc.) In fact, the idea that Christians are persecuted in this country is downright laughable considering how much power they’ve had historically and currently. (When was the last time a self-proclaimed Atheist was president?)
What’s the fallout from this war and persecution rhetoric? It’s a fear based spirituality that gives kids an us vs. them mentality. It teaches that anyone opposed to my beliefs is trying to persecute me and I must “stand up for the truth” (usually in an obnoxious way). This mentality prevents kids from seeing the other person as another human worth understanding and getting to know. There can be no compromise or common ground sought because they are the enemy in this great spiritual war. There can be no open-mindedness to new ways of seeing things. There is only entrenchment and fear. Instead of moving towards reconciliation, this teaching further polarizes the two groups.
Could we possibly miss the point any more??
I’m on a journey of rejecting the false reality that was sold to me by so many ministries, including Teen Mania.
Instead of conjuring up end of the world scenarios and torturing myself over whether or not I would “endure,” I’m going to spend my time on living in the reality of RIGHT NOW: learning to live in God’s love for me and giving it to those around me. Instead of seeing others as the enemy, I want to live in the awareness that every person is created by God with inherent dignity and worth and that their opinions, needs and desires deserve to be heard as much as mine do.
Not nearly as sexy as imaginary persecution, and it might not make a great skit, but it sure has a lot more to do with how we can actually experience the kingdom of God today.
And now I’m wondering, is it too much to ask that Christians actually live in reality? And not a manufactured fantasy world??
12 comments:
“It’s a fear based spirituality that gives kids an us vs. them mentality…. There can be no compromise or common ground sought because they are the enemy in this great spiritual war”
This is the worst thing I think I took away from my time with TMM and my Christian school. You are supposed to be bringing people to Christ but you are predisposed to judge them and see your interactions as a mission, not a relationship.
It goes hand in hand with the old “hate the sin, love the sinner.” I am so tired of that saying. If you are hating someone’s sin you are judging them. You are putting a wedge between the two of you. You must hold them at arm’s length. That’s not good enough. We need to embrace people fully, to love them fully and let God worry about their sin. In my opinion, in my own life, I’ve found that I can’t have a real, meaningful, loving relationship with someone that I look at and think “non-Christian” or “unbeliever”.
Um no offense, but I have definitely known teenagers who professed Christ and as a result faced persecution from their parents and others. It may not be wide spread, but to act like it never happens is just as revisionist as to act like its a rampant problem. For some kids it is their reality of right now. How this particular skit relates, would depend on the kid.
It is unwise to say that it doesn’t happen or won’t happen. correct me if I’m wrong but even Jesus warned his followers that the world would hate them…on the other hand it’s not something that should be discussed at a weekend event with tens of thousand of broken and hurting teens..they need to hear something that is relevant to them to their situation.
@Anon– Perhaps true, but there are obvious differences between harassment from a few bullies and the 1984-style totalitarian government conspiracy the skit seems to imply. (I didn’t watch all of it.)
At any rate, from what I saw, it looks as though TMM was (again) teaching the exact opposite of what Jesus taught about handling persecution:
“Have endurance! Be strong! Stand up for truth! Don’t compromise! Be a witness!” — TMM.
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” –Jesus (Matthew 5:44)
I once heard from a pastor in a country where there is real organized persecution of Christians. He said the main Scripture verse they taught people to prepare for persecution was this: “Perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).
If you think about that long enough, you’ll see a lot of things that are very, very seriously wrong with the way the American church understands persecution.
Oh my goodness, I fell for this mentality hard. It spoke to me. I loved the idea of matyrdom and persecution. I’m still drawn to survivalist stories (zombie movies rule) and probably will always be.
Oh but did it lead me to do/say some totally aweful, childish things. No one was persecuting me for being Christian, they were calling me out on what a bratty, judgmental person I was. I just translated at persecution because I couldn’t see myself clearly.
So harmful.
@Eric great point. @anon and Jeremy, I can’t say that I have ever seen more than maybe a lack of want to hear about it from people and light harassment that doesn’t even look as vile as what some “christians” do to fellow believers who are fallen. I have often felt that people who call that Persecution do not understand how bad others had it. There will be no concentration camps for Christians in this country, there will be no lack of the ability to bow your head and close your eyes before a meal, we don’t get tortured because we carry a bible in our purse or backpack and we won’t in the near (10-30 year) future. Our state university have degrees available in religion this is how open the US is so to say that there will be political based persecution is nothing but a fear tactic. Nuropsychologists have found that fear is more taxing and more paralyzing than actual negative action in an experiment discussed here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/jobs/07pre.htm and here: http://archive.aweber.com/dylanratigan/1ya9A/h/Debt_Ceiling_Politics_.htm it talks about how when given a choice between not knowing when the pain would come and just getting it over with getting it over with caused less physical harm.
To this end basically they want to paralyze kids into thinking that this is ALWAYS a possibility and be unable to move on from their fear… It’s a really harsh psychological tactic to use because it causes exhaustion and inability to do anything else but think about the fearful thing. I suppose it works to their advantage in that you think about the fear you think about how you got this fear in your head and then you consider that they MUST have the answer…. But what a way to get a following.
I really love this post and totally agree with the us vs. them mentality that TM and also many other other churches and ministries creates. I was raised with this type of thinking as well and it colors your view of everyone and everything you see in the world. It is very damaging.
I am going to try to answer this question that RA proposed. “Is it too much to ask that Christians acutally live in reality? and not a manufactured fantasy world?” No, I don’t think it is too much to ask. I do think that for people who have been taught this type of teaching since they were babes from the womb or if their self-identity is built around it, it is going to require some type of crisis, pain, or eye-opening interaction (s) to make them realize that something is terribly wrong with their worldview. And that’s just to get the ball rolling. One must be willing to admit that maybe their way of seeing the world and the people in it is wrong or skewed and if your whole foundation and person is built on that belief it can be downright scary when it all starts to slowly be chipped away at and crumble. There can’t be anymore fake pretenses, spiritual pride, christianese, christian “stuckupness”. If you have built who you are and what you believe around being better than everyone else because you are some super-christian who can’t be tainted by opposing views or opinions your really going to have to face some harsh realities when you fall or get knocked off your little christian pedestal. Then a person has to realize that they aren’t any better than anyone else and that they are equals. If a person always thinks they are one up on everyone else who doesn’t believe like them or is different than they can never just relate to them as being just another human being loved and graced by God.
So, IMO I think it can be done but of course isn’t it easier to live in false realities? Yes, I believe so. It’s very hard to look in the mirror and see that maybe you have been wrong all along and you have some serious changing to do. It’s easier to see yourself “above” or “opposing” to others or their views because then you don’t have to get down in the nitty-gritty-honest-vulnerable stuff with them and embrace them fully- warts, crap, pain, opposing opinions, ideas, worldviews and all. I think it’s a form of self-preservation. Trying to keep alive your views because you see anything different than it as dangerous or destructive.
Yikes.
Great comments so far. Anon, I think you’ve made an interesting (and scary!) point – It IS easier to live in a false reality than in the real world. Black and white thinking gives certainy and superiority. God have mercy on us!
It is absolutely easier to live in a fantasy world. It’s like a siren call to those of us who were picked on in school or didn’t fit in for whatever reason… at least it was for me. In school I used to cope with the teasing by imagining myself at my ten year reunion, successful and happy while my tormentors still lived in the tiny rural town I grew up in, working dead end jobs and living in trailers with 6 or 7 kids. The Honor Academy encouraged my superiority complex rather than making me more humble (what I really needed). It was much easier to add “cream of the crop Christian” to the checklist in my head that kept me from feeling so small and insignificant than it was to address my issues and realize that I wasn’t any better than the people who made fun of me or made me feel like dirt. I had to realize my self-worth came from somewhere else entirely before I could step down from my place of smug superiority and into the humility and love of REAL relationships, both with God and with people. Too bad Teen Mania is teaching a whole generation of Christian teens to become little Pharisees in the face of harassment or bullying from their peers.
Looking back now, it was pretty shameful of me. I built up a ridiculous amount of pride as a defense mechanism, and it still causes me problems sometimes.
But I can definitely see why the “us vs them” mentality is so popular. Nearly everyone has felt left out or teased at some point, and if you don’t know any better, it makes you feel good to be an “us” instead of a “them” for once.
I remember thinking that the government was going to hunker down on all religion and that I was going to be a leader in an underground Christian movement and that I would be killed for my beliefs. After I left the Honor Academy, I quickly realized that the government really doesn’t care what religion I am, just as long as I don’t blow up buildings or start a cult…..then I realized that I am glad I left the HAO/HA cult.
I bet if the government does end up cracking down on HA, they will act like they were the victims in the whole thing. Luce will pop up somewhere and will try to raise another “Army For Christ.”
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