EMQ » July–September 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 3
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Summary: Walking away from current beliefs into new ones is never neutral. In places where Christian faith is unwelcomed or illegal, following Jesus has implications for everything from family relationships to national identity. Persecution often results, and its methods are not always easily recognizable. In order to offer better support and help strengthen the church, missionaries walking with these believers must grow in awareness of persecution dynamics.
By Helene Fisher and Elizabeth Lane Miller
Embracing a new belief risks offense. Evangelical Christian missionaries inherently invite individuals to make the radical (and often controversial) choice of walking away from their current belief or non-belief. It is never a neutral activity. Whether in North America, the Middle East or Asia, it is a choice involving temporal implications for cherished family traditions and national identities, as well as eternal destinies. This is undoubtedly why Jesus promised his disciples that they would be persecuted.
Open Doors International is not a mission agency, but it is committed to supporting believers in the most difficult lands, so that they can remain as salt and light – in other words, as a witness to those seeking spiritual truth. We have the immense privilege of walking alongside the church so that known patterns of persecution dynamics are no longer as effective.
A Web of Forces, the latest Open Doors World Watch Research (WWR) report on gender-specific religious persecution, gives insight into how men and women are made to suffer for their faith in Jesus.
Having a deep understanding of the dynamics of how the men, women, boys, and girls of the church are most likely to be persecuted is the first step to discerning how to strengthen a church, especially with believers who are new in the Christian faith. It involves far more than a quick Bible study on courage, or reassurance of having what to say “when the time comes.”
Communities Impacted by Specific Religious Persecution
Specific religious persecution (SRP) reports build on data gathered for Open Doors’ annual World Watch List. SRP reports look at religious persecution that is specific to a particular demographic or life situation: children and youth,i or male/female targeting, or as affects those displaced from their homes because of their faith.ii Early reporting on gender-specific religious persecution in 2018 was eye-opening for many because women and girls are not exempt from persecution violence.iii
Persecution impacts individuals in a deeply personal manner and doesn’t take place in a sterile environment. It works alongside and through the cultural and legal inequalities in societies seeking avenues of harm which is easy to produce and low risk for the perpetrator.
For example, in the Middle East, men generally have more freedoms due to societal gender expectations. However, this causes them to be more at risk of persecution in the public sphere due to their visibility to governments and community leaders.iv
Women, on the other hand, have a lesser status due to their gender which leads to a complexity of persecution due to social conventions, familial expectations, and legal restrictions. In A Web of Forces, sexual violence was recorded in all but one of the Middle Eastern countries under study in this region.v In addition, forced marriage is specifically a risk for Christian women from a Muslim background in 93% of Middle East countries under study.vi
Is “Do No Harm” Possible?
In a country where Christianity is the minority religion, Christians have no rights, or it’s illegal to be a Christian and – indeed a missionary or a church leader – missions is a rather direct invitation to violent, and even deadly, persecution. Missionaries answering questions from spiritual seekers, in countries such as Somalia, should be aware of the impacts of missions.
Given these operational realities, “do no harm” seems far out of reach.
As if that weren’t enough, our research shows that one of the major reasons behind the existence of the patterns of religious persecution is the community response which they provoke. This is especially clear with regard to women and girls.
“Whether women and girls are viewed as pure or worthless, their bodies become a vehicle for imparting shame on the Christian community, particularly in cultures when sexual purity is inextricably tied with family honor. Survivors of sexual abuse return traumatized and symbolic reminders of the power of the perpetrators. Families and local communities struggle to overcome the stigma attached to the abuse she has experienced, particularly if she returns home pregnant, or with a baby.”vii
The question in such situations does not center around doing no harm. Instead, we must ask: how do we serve our communities facing persecution conscientiously, without adding to the harm of persecutory acts?
Clear, Correct Exegesis Isn’t Always the Answer
It may seem controversial to say, but when religious persecution colludes with biblio-adjacent cultural beliefs, quite often not even the most inspired and perfect exegesis of the Bible is enough to override well-intentioned but syncretistic beliefs about missional calling and spiritual identity.
When the first century Christian martyr, Stephen, was seized and brought before the Sanhedrin on false charges of blasphemy, he replied with a sermon so brilliant that the full length of 52 verses was recorded in Christian Scripture (Acts 6–7). On the other hand, by other metrics, this was also the most ineffective sermon ever given. As a result, Stephen was stoned to death and Saul, the onlooking persecutor, used it to spark the great persecution of the church in Jerusalem.
Stephen’s explanation of the Old Testament had not changed Saul’s mind at all. The Pharisee-zealot still became the driving force behind persecuting all the Christians he could find – men and women alike.
Saul knew his calling was to protect the integrity of the Old Testament message, and he thought he understood what that meant. His intentions were entirely Bible-based – and he was passionate about defending proper worship and teaching about the one-true God. But just as Satan twists Scripture in Jesus’ temptation in the desert (Matthew 4), simply incorporating biblical statements does not automatically give gospel truth to our agendas nor make them God-honoring.
Religious Persecution and Pseudo-Religious Cultural Beliefs
Gender-specific religious persecution is almost definitionally about where religious persecution is most shaped by cultural norms regarding gender roles. This happens because “Individuals are targeted according to that which will most devalue them in their functional and relational network. This wounding of their identity cuts deeply into the emotional and psychological being of a person, precipitating a crisis of spiritual questioning.”viii
In A Web of Forces, the GSRP Country Rankings show where gender most shapes how Christian men and women experience these violations. Religiously based discrimination or persecution is also often tailored to the individual’s contribution to the religious community.
Whether it be in Latin America where pressure on men is based on machismo culture or Sub-Saharan Africa where gender most shapes the experience of persecution for Christian women, normalized gender expectations are used against the church and intertwined with cultural and conflict dynamics.ix
Sometimes, cultural values can be conflated with biblical beliefs into pseudo-religious beliefs that do not align with God’s character as revealed in the whole of Scripture. For instance, Jesus teaches in Mark 7, “And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting…. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
To such biblical prohibitions against sex outside of marriage are added to the cultural ideas that a modest woman will not attract the attention of man who is not her husband, and whomever possesses her sexually can also claim her very identity. In a persecution setting, these combined ideas might mean that victims of rape are seen as adulteresses, sexually immoral, and defiled, no longer beloved child of God.
Religious Persecution and Potential Revictimization
We laud Stephen – but not all martyrs are lauded. This is why one of the first steps is to listen to persecution stories with empathy and compassion not only for the initial persecutory act, but for the long-term impact on both the individual and their family and community. Sometimes the persecutor only starts the process, and then they can sit back and confidently wait for the church to finish the destructive work.
This happens when the man who loses his job is interrogated about the quality of his prayer life. In another scenario the widow whose husband is killed is accused of witchcraft (thus losing her inheritance). Or this could be the teenagers who return from abduction to militia service or sexual slavery are treated as irredeemably damaged.
Understanding these complex persecution dynamics requires a deep investigation of syncretistic beliefs and of the expectations that we and others have for ourselves. It is vital that we do so, otherwise Christians risk unintentional complicity with persecution in the way that we respond. The good news is that since religious persecution has patterns, we can learn exactly what steps to take to counter the predictable ways that Christians are made to suffer for Jesus around the globe.
One of the ways to do this is to examine the impact of persecution, unpacking which elements of its harm have an external source and which elements of rippling damage have their source within the church response.
This revictimization is a reality for many. While the external threat of persecution may be over for the survivor, there is genuine risk of the church amplifying the damage. Worse, harm from Christian family and friends – whom we look to for healing and comfort – can feel exponentially more painful since they amount to rejection from the body of Christ. Victims ask themselves “Does God despise me too?” It creates compound trauma and is extremely difficult for the individual to recover from.
When Syncretism Endangers Witness
Are we actively or passively supporting their revictimization at the hands of the church because we don’t want to challenge the country’s cultural beliefs about women and men? Or do we enter into the messy work of helping Christians find their identities biblically instead of culturally? It’s a significant undertaking to challenge ingrained beliefs, especially in a country where Christians are the minority, and stark gender inequalities are normalized. Yet, Jesus was not afraid to go against deeply ingrained Jewish prejudices against women to speak to a woman alone, touch a ceremonially unclean woman, and rely on the financial support of women who traveled with him and the disciples.
There is always the risk of blending inherited thinking and cultural understandings with biblical teachings to create a pseudo-biblical amalgamation, leading to Scripture being misinterpreted and potential harmful practices that do not align with Jesus’ teachings. This is the syncretism which plagues all of our lives.
But it can be especially challenging for the non-native missionary because it is complicated by fairly typical missional insecurities. We are aware that our culture and national identity brings a host of unhelpful baggage, some of it overtly colonial or prejudicial. We are also working so hard to adapt to a new environment that it can raise questions about our own national or cultural identity and create confusion and uncertainty about what to keep and what to let go. All these factors can easily paralyze the conscientious missional worker and impede kingdom-driven responses.
If our energy is flagging to persevere in this work of discernment, we might simply consider: what do non-believers see of Jesus if believers behave like the rest of society? Where is the witness?
This can be convicting no matter where we live in the world. In a country with limited freedom of religion, it takes on a new urgency. When words are not allowed, the church body can say with their actions: “This is an accurate picture of Jesus, and it looks different than what we’re used to.”
Was the long-term result of this persecution a damaging series of broken relationships and loss of believers in the kingdom workforce? Or was it a resilient and restorative community which showed the body of Christ saying, “You can hurt our bodies and hearts but, even if we are wounded, you can’t threaten our identity as God’s beloved children and our place as active and contributing members in this community.”
The Practical Theology of Countering Religious Persecution
Six years of reporting on specific religious persecution teaches us that practical theology has consequences for the very survival of the church.x
One of our lifelong-learning exercises is to learn to distinguish between culture that is a reflection of humanity’s brokenness versus culture which is simply a diverse expression of being made in the image of God. Which parts do or don’t align with God’s unchanging character as a loving, gracious and compassionate Father in the arc of the biblical narrative?
Discernment requires perseverance in order to identify the wonderful reflections of God’s character present in all cultures. The Zulu notion of ubuntu is a positive example with its valuing of virtues which promote harmony and turn individuals towards one another with a spirit of sharing and generosity. This can be affirmed and wedded to gospel values.
How does growth in this kind of practical discernment happen?
God very experientially met Saul on the road to Damascus. In that moment, amidst swirling confusion, this experience began to change his very identity, his belief system, and his behavior. He became known as Paul, and his mission switched from persecution of Christians to preaching the gospel of Christ.
But he needed time to grow in discernment and maturity before his three missionary journeys to first reexamine all he had every learned in the Torah in the light of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Some argue that it took nearly the decade he lived in Tarsus with other believers – those who had walked with Jesus – to prepare him for a time of intense persecution that would follow.
Many of us do come to know Jesus through Bible study, but we can’t expect to establish Jesus’ kingdom culture with text alone. The Holy Spirit appears to use more than the cognitive to bring us to a point of courageously reexamining every aspect of cultural and relational belief.
Transformation of our identities and understanding of its ramifications is a time-consuming process. In order to bring about meaningful behavioral change in people, Paul Hiebert speaks about the need to address not only the cognitive, but also a person’s affective (feelings) and evaluative (value system) self.xi These things are shaped by a person’s experience, which includes their cultural experiences.
Wherever culture promotes power struggles and perpetuates harm, then there is room for growth in in becoming courageously kingdom-cultural.
Empowering Christians Facing Religious Persecution
For Christians who feel disempowered and victims of powerful forces, it is deeply encouraging to identify an area over which God gives us control and empowers us by the Holy Spirit to bring change. Internal transformation goes beyond cognitive Bible studies on love, marriage, and forgiveness.
As illuminating as they may be, these won’t change people’s damaging response to religious persecution unless they work also through the emotional and cultural aspects of very practical questions such as:
- Is my wife a lesser reflection of God
- What does it mean that all believers have been given gifts of the Holy Spirit?
- If my daughter has been raped is she an adulteress, etc.?
We’ve found a couple of online resources to be very helpful to local churches seeking a way to address these questions with solid biblical foundations: servingshouldertoshoulder.com and restorationsIRL.com.
For a missions’ vision which is seeking to fully empower and enable local believers to flourish in their context, sending agencies need highly discerning missionaries who see the impact of syncretistic beliefs and are aware of how damaging they are to church.
They can ask: What is the vision growing out of these communities to bring transformation and blessing in their own communities? How can they mentor and raise up wise culture changers within their communities? How do these local brothers and sisters name challenges to being involved in being a blessing of salt and light in their society?
The marvelous truth of this aspect of missions is that it offers an endless variety of new avenues to explore what kingdom-mindedness looks withing the hostile situations of their world.
Conclusion
Our ultimate test is impact. If we want to know if a church is resilient, we can simply look to see if there is a shaming or embarrassed response to religious persecution which undermines a sense of belonging for God’s sons and daughters of the persecuted church. This church won’t last.
Thankfully, we have an alternative, and it’s the lifelong journey of growing to resemble Christ.
As we do so, we will not only be honoring God; we will also be protecting the church by foiling the plans of persecutors to have us finish their work of breaking relationships. Culture understood in the biblical light strengthens the church when persecution seeks to divide men and women.
Elizabeth Lane Miller (elizabethm@od.org) and Helene Fisher (helenef@od.org) are the pioneering co-authors of the Specific Religious Persecution report series produced by Open Doors World Watch Research. From 2018 to 2023, they reported on global patterns of how gender, age, or displacement compound the experiences of religious persecution. They are also co-authors of a socio-theological resilience curriculum for Local Faith Actors, written to strengthen Christian communities as they respond to religious persecution. Passionate about religious freedom for all, they are co-founders of the Gender and Religious Freedom forum, which also operates as a task group of the Religious Liberty Partnership.
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 3. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
