"Polite Persecution"

In a podcast about the recent French-Ahmari debate I was listening to yesterday, the hosts referenced the "polite persecution" they say (conservative) Christians face. I was curious about the phrase. Google pointed me to a 2016 meditation by Pope Francis.

In that meditation on on the martyrdom of Stephen in Acts, Francis suggests that there are two kinds of persecution Christians face. Some Christians face, like Stephen, explicit martyrdom--imprisonment, torture, and even death because of their desire to spread the faith. Others, he says, face what he ironically terms "polite persecution," which he defines as "when someone is persecuted not for confessing Christ’s name, but for wanting to demonstrate the values of the Son of God." This kind of persecution, he explains, is "disguised as culture, disguised as modernity, disguised as progress." Polite persecution leads not to jail or the Colosseum but to lighter punishments, censures, and "being set aside."

Francis claims this type of persecution is infrequently discussed next to the mortal martyrdoms of Christians in hostile countries.

On the contrary, I see conservative Christians crying polite persecution constantly. The go-to examples include the bakers, florists, and photographers castigated and fined for refusing to provide services for same-gender weddings. Depending on who's writing, the appellation may extend to conservative Christian organizations like Hobby Lobby who balk at providing employee health care options that cover contraceptive or abortion services. Or it may cover adoption agencies who refuse to place children with LGBTQ+ parents. Or it may cover county clerks who decline to file marriage documents for same-sex couples.

It's an awfully elastic term, "polite persecution." Forced to endure LGBTQ+ characters and storylines in media? Polite persecution. Required to learn or teach evolution rather than young-earth creationism? Polite persecution. Asked not to begin a public, government-sponsored event with a Baptist pastor praying in Jesus's name? Polite persecution. Hearing someone say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas"? The very politest of persecutions, but persecution nonetheless.

And, just today: refuse to vote for Sean Spicer on Dancing with the Stars? Polite persecution becaues of his Christian beliefs!

Mind you, I rarely see conservative Christian pundits standing up for other faiths when they face resistance or blowback. Build an Islamic community center near Ground Zero? Unthinkable! Wear a turban or headscarf in public? Go back to where you came from! Acknowledge or celebrate some non-Christian holiday? Special favors!

I'd love to see conservatives Christians getting half as exercised about the persecutions--rarely so polite--of black and brown people, of immigrants, of LGBTQ+ people, of impoverished or unhoused people, or of prisoners and former prisoners. And, to be fair, some conservative Christians do position themselves in ministry with these groups.

But right-leaning discourse online and in mass media about polite persecution tends to displace these other concerns. Yes, that's bad and all, but consider the real victims of today's culture: US.

Such chest-beating stands in sharp contrast to actual martyrs and persecuted believers in scripture. I rarely see Jesus complaining about all the people persecuting him. He says, "Forgive them." He says, "Turn the other cheek." He says, "Love your enemy. Do good to those who persecute you." And more, he says that he is already, always with those who are the most objectively persecuted: the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the left-behind, the good-as-dead.

I have difficulty reconciling Lord Jesus's picture of those who are persecuted with a multi-billion-dollar corporation who feels queasy about providing employees with birth control as part of a health insurance package. I have trouble comparing those Christians who are in fact facing death and torture for their beliefs with media stars facing blowback on Twitter for, say, oh-so-bravely castigating trans or gender nonconforming folk.

I'm not saying there aren't legitimately some tensions unique to the present day that first-world Christians face. But it's hard to see these amid the dust-storm of "polite persecution" whinging. 

More tomorrow,

JF