Persecution complex

Acts 7:44-8:1a
Luke 22:52-62

Today’s lectionary reading from Acts finishes up the martyrdom of St. Stephen, referenced in the previous post. It gives me an opportunity to go back to a point that didn’t exactly fit into that post.

As everyone learned in Sunday School, St. Stephen was the first Christian martyr, one of a long line of martyrs that provided plenty of material for paintings when one painted such things. Martyrdom introduces great drama into Christian history, but it’s not clear how well served we are by the narrative construct of martyrdom. Martyrdom also plays a big role in Islam, and I think most people would agree that the survival of the Islamic martyrdom idea or ideal into contemporary life bedevils us. I think the idea of martyrdom produces pathologies in Christianity as well, maybe in a subtler way. It takes the form of a persecution complex. There are constant complaints from some sectors of the Christian community in the U.S. that Christians suffer discrimination. This is patently absurd in a country so predominantly Christian as the United States—it’s always been the case, and only gotten more ridiculous as some Christians have decided to wed their religion to the political party in power. Not only are they not subject to discrimination, they actually hold state power. But that doesn’t stop a degree of whininess from Christians, which seems to come out whenever there is the slightest dissent or resistance to the religion’s predominance.

Of course, you can see why the idea of persecution is so attractive. Stephen’s story is paired with Luke’s account of Christ’s betrayal and arrest. Christ establishes a pattern for suffering at the hands of society. Isn’t martyrdom and suffering for the faith part of imitating Christ? Only in an unimaginative, literal-minded way. Fabricating persecution is so far from what Christ suffered. Christ’s role was singularly appointed, and his death achieved a specific purpose for humanity. No subsequent human death bears our sins away in that way. As the church becomes pervasive, Christian sacrifice takes on new forms. Like everything in the Bible, everyday applications require extrapolation from the stories to essential qualities of existence and experience.