Christian persecution complex

Christian persecution complex is the belief, attitude, or world view that Christian values and Christians are being oppressed by social groups and governments in the West.

Quotes

• 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
  • Årsheim 2016, p. 7: Årsheim, Helge (2016). "Internal affairs? Assessing NGO engagement for religious freedom at the United Nations and beyond". In Stensvold, Anne (ed.). Religion, state and the United Nations: Value politics. London: Routledge. pp. 79–94. ISBN 978-1-138-93865-6. SSRN 2892536.

• 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 explicitly 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
  • Moss 2013, p. 254: Moss, Candida (2013). The myth of persecution how early Christians invented a Story of Martyrdom. New York: HarperOne. ISBN 978-0-06-210454-0.

• The early Christian persecution complex is often underemphasised, but is important. The New Testament teaches that persecution is the inevitable by-product of effective Christianity.
  • Cavill 2013, p. 81: Cavill, Paul (2013). "Anglo-Saxons Saints' Lives and Deaths". In Kojecký, Roger; Tate, Andrew (eds.). Visions and revisions: The word and the text (Unabridged ed.). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-4332-4.

• ...the modern function of martyrdom often serves to create a "Christian persecution complex." The narrative of martyrdom allows Christians in the West (particularly nationalistic dispensationalists), who are cultural hegemons and who maintain economic and political dominance globally, to claim the position of marginalization, disadvantage, and literal persecution in "the world," because of their faith. In addition dominant groups within Western Christianity have relied upon martyrdom narratives to assert their dominance over those not in the dominant group, by compelling the non-dominant to accept their domination; to adhere the example of suffering, best exemplified by the martyrs"
  • Brown 2019, p. 134: Alease Brown writes Brown, Alease (2019). "Martyrdom, Violence, and Dignity". Estudos Teológicos. 59 (1): 133–150. doi:10.22351/et.v59i1.3618. ISSN 0101-3130.