The Persecuted Church in America

     The title of this post, The Persecuted Church in America was meant to be a grabber!  Did it work?  This was actually meant to be a book, and I was working on writing in back in 2009--fifteen years ago as of now.  For several reasons, I laid the project to rest long ago, but I saved all my notes, interviews and stories that were shared with me.  The time has come to bring it back to the light of day--with a vastly different perspective than I had back in 2009.  I was onto something then, but I'm at a better place to share it, and it is even more timely today.  

      This post is not about Christians being under attack by a world that never knew God--that has been happening all along.  In a sense, there is more persecution from the outside today than there was in 2009.  Churches are being pressured to compromise biblical standards about LGBT issues.  Conservative Christians are being targeted by a hostile culture.  This year, President Joe Biden declared Easter (the holiest day on the Christian calendar, of all days) to be "Transgender Visibility Day."  And don't even get me started about all the attacks on churches during Covid, while strip clubs were allowed to remain open.  But none of that is my point right now.   I can and have written about that.  But this is different.  In 2009 (and I still think this today) the church's biggest enemy in our nation isn't the government.  It isn't a political party.  It isn't the media.  It isn't some outside source.  The church's biggest enemy is itself.  And this is wrong!  Christians are hurting each other, and going on self-righteously as if nothing happened.  I have seen the hearts of those I love deeply broken and shattered by fellow Christians.  Back in 2009, I didn't see anyone saying "This is wrong!"  The strongest and loudest voices won, leaving many hurting people in their wake.  The stories of the wounded were crying out to be told, and I felt that burden.  

     Jesus said that the way a watching world would know we are His children was by our love for one another (John 13:34-35).  Yet are we exemplifying that?  I would say sometimes, certainly.  But there is so much corruption in churches, ministries, and Christian communities that must break the heart of God.  

     As I said, a lot has changed in 15 years.  Social media technically did exist in 2009, but was not as widespread as today, nor had it changed some things in our culture yet.  Since that time, it has come a long way, and has given people greater access to share their stories and feelings, and garner support.  There is more a normalcy of sharing difficulties openly, where before (especially much further back) people stuffed their hurts and emotions.  There is definitely a dark side of social media, but that's not my point right now.  

    My focus in 2009, and today, is that Christians keep hurting and wounding each other.  I have never been someone who turned against God, or said, "If that's how mean Christians are, I don't want anything to do with their God!"  That was never me.  By God's grace, I was always able to distinguish between God and people, and between God and institutions.  But for a long time, I distrusted my fellow Christians because of this stuff, and it is worth mentioning.  

     I'm going to share a few people's stories from back then.  Some have since gone to be with the Lord.  I will then draw some conclusions.

     Virginia was a woman of great faith, and she always shared her "Gideon" adventure, giving glory to God for what happened.  As a busy mom of four girls, and with an unsaved husband (at the time--he eventually came to faith), and high blood pressure on top of that, Virginia resisted the Spirit's calling to get involved in evangelistic ministry.  She wrestled with the Lord about it for six months, until she finally asked God to make her willing.  She eventually got into leading groups and teaching, bringing the Gospel to many.  She developed a mighty band of prayer warriors, and they helped each other fight many spiritual battles they encountered.  Over the years, Virginia's family moved a few times, to different locations in the state of California, and every time, she would connect locally with the ministry, and get involved in teaching and sharing the Gospel.  Finally, she reached the golden years--retirement age.  Her husband retired from his longtime job, and they moved yet again.  This time, they settled in a new community with ministry a dire need.  Virginia contacted some leaders, and found out that in order to get the ministry going in her area, she would need to put together a committee and raise funds to keep the minsitry going.  She was filled with arguments against all of this, such as, "I'm too old for this!  I don't have resources to begin!"  But the Lord kept telling her, "I will be with you," reminding her of the story of Gideon.  By a work of the Lord, Virginia was able to get the ministry going within two years.  They saw countless come to the Lord, and many trained to share Christ.  Their ministry was a shining example to everyone.  

     But not all was well.  There came a time when they were in desperate need of a new chairman for their board, and Virginia asked one of the members to consider taking that role.  She believed him to be knowledgable about the ministry, but it turned out he was only knowledgable about one very particular aspect.  He didn't know the first thing about being a chairman, but it was discovered too late.  He refused to have his name on legal documents, claiming that if there was a problem, the IRS would look for him first.  He also didn't get along with another member, and it caused tension on the board, but at first, Virginia just thought it was their personal problem and let it go.  This chairman eventually tried to hire a new director of the ministry without consulting Virginia, and wanted her to stay on as a volunteer.  This was not the way it should have been handled at all.  The would-be new hire felt so badly at the meeting where she was introduced that she didn't accept the position (she didn't know this had been orchestrated behind Virginia's back).  Virginia was invited to a meeting with this chairman, while a ministry higher-up was moderating between them.  Virginia's husband really took the chairman to task, and the higher up used this as a reason to dissolve the ministry.  Another factor they used was that Virginia had also moved some of her own money that she was in the process of giving to the ministry to a different bank, and they saw that as her "stealing" the ministry funds, even though it wasn't in the ministry's name at all, and she was within her right to do that.  Her intent was that it was still going to be for the ministry.  The other bank had a better interest rate.  This was another thing they used as reason to close her down.  The way Virginia found out about this was dreadful.  The day after the failed moderated meeting with the chairman, she was teaching one of her evangelism classes.  The chairman came in the middle of the class, handed her an envelope, shook her hand, and left.  The class was dismissed, and everyone left.  The letter told Virginia the ministry had been dissolved.  She was in shock, and ended up on tranquilizers for months.

     Virginia and her husband called the main ministry office and shared what had happened.  The person they spoke with talked with the higher up who had allowed the chairman to dissolve their ministry.  A returned call revealed to Virginia that there were "hurts" on both sides, and that the reason the higher up hadn't tried to help resolve the issues was that he said that his wife had broken her hip.   More of an excuse than a reason.  There was a pretty big conflict of interest as well, because the chairman was the son of the higher up in question.  He allowed his son to run a perfectly good ministry into the ground.  Nobody ever addressed this on any level.  Virginia, who had served the Lord for over 40 years, died with a broken heart from the betrayal she received from fellow Christians and friends.  I knew her before this happened, and  continued knowing her until the end of her life, and she didn't want to be bitter.  She worked hard to forgive, but it was one of those things that required giving back to God constantly every time the bad feelings came back.  She wanted to forgive, like Corrie ten Boom, and I think God honored her desire, but she never found peace in her heart about it.    

     Virginia's is only one story of countless believers who were hurt, and the institution took the side of the ones who hurt them.  Why does this happen?  I would guess to avoid having to get involved in conflict, which can be messy.  It's easier to overlook it.  

    I have my own stories, which I have shared in other posts.  One of the most notably, as a high school freshman, I was kicked out of a church for leading fourteen second-graders to the Lord at Vacation Bible School.  It was a very political situation, and I guess the pastor felt threatened and thought I was bad PR.  The pastor was wrong, and it hurt our whole family. This pastor did a lot of good, and I don't diminish that, but it broke my heart and spirit. As a young teen--what should have been the most exciting time of my life, I was deeply depressed, borderline suicidal, and really believed nothing good would ever happen to me again, or that any other Christians could love me.  Even not considering this was me, it breaks my heart to think of a young teen feeling this hopeless and lost.  That young girl needsed love--still does.  Even today, I sometimes struggle with it, just like Virginia did.  Satan uses it to attack me on bad days.  Like Paul's thorn in the flesh, I'll probably have to battle this hurt my whole life, but I can have victory.  But what's hard is, nobody ever acknowledged my wounded heart back then.  They wanted to defend the pastor.  That pastor ran into my dad years later at Kmart and apologized to him, which was definitely something.  I know God used that pastor for the rest of his life, and I'm happy about that.  But the damage to my heart was done, just like Virginia's.  

     Sometimes, when hurting Christians try to get help, they are silenced and accused of gossip, or told that their sharing could hurt the church, the ministry, or Christianity in general.  The truth can never harm the cause of Christ.  And if an institution can be hurt by the truth, maybe it needs to be.  Maybe it is built on lies.  The walking wounded shouldn't be silenced so the wrongdoers can save face.  Christians need to love the hurting and broken among them! 

     Back in 2009, I interviewed Dan and Ernie, two pastors I respected (Ernie is in Heaven now).  I asked them a series of questions (I won't share all the questions or answers here, just the highlights).  The first question I asked was what they each believed was the goal of the church.  Dan said that the goal of the church was to fulfill the great commission and the great commandment.  Ernie was more specific, saying to win souls, make disciples, be a testimony to the community, and to get involved locally.  When asked how they measure success, Dan said a big way to know if there was success was if people were being trained to reach others, and starting small groups where discipleship was happening.  Ernie said that a changed life meant success, and that members were still praying.  Ernie hastened to add that numbers were not a good measure of success.  I asked both men the question: "If someone were offended in a worship service at your church, why would that be?"  Dan said that probably, there would be a conflict within and someone contacted the leadership to have it dealt with.  Ernie said the reason would be that someone disliked something he said.  I closed the interviews by asking what they believed the biggest threat to the chruch was today (today being 2009).  Dan said "Religious tolerance--not being able to call sin sin.  Cultural relativism."  Ernie said that people just don't know the truth.  

     The thing that prompted this whole project 15 years ago was that I attended a service at a large "cool" church in town--one a close friend went to.  This church does have Christian doctrine.  From my experiences with them in the past (which were not recent at all) they were very seeker-sensitive, bordering on the emergent church (if you don't know what that is, it was what seeker sensitive churches of the 90s evolved into in the 2000's and 2010's.  A lot of churches learned the hard way that this was a slippery slope to progressivism).  From all I know about this church, they do not biblically teach false doctrine, but they were too "cool" for me to feel comfortable.  It wasn't for me.  

  When I visited that particular day, they showed a video to promote their children's ministry, but they did this with a very mean skit making fun of other ministries (including the one I worked for) to make theirs look better.  The skit (and other things I knew about their ministry) revealed that they viewed children's ministry as a need to be trendy and new or kids wouldn't want to come.  This shows a major lack of understanding of human nature.  Kids have cool computers and gadgets at home.  They aren't impressed by these things in church.  Not to say it's wrong to utilize them in ministry, but they aren't the draw.  Relationships are the draw.  A teacher who loves them and makes the Bible come to life for them--with or without technology--goes a lot further than trying to be "relevant" with the latest, coolest thing.  

     The skit that day had a very mean-spirited feel to it.  I wrote them a note on the bulletin and left it with an usher as I walked out.  The note stated: I found your skit offensive and hurtful.  I serve with __________ ministry, and I refuse to return to a church that makes a mockery of my livelihood.  I was so hurt that one of the most influential churches in the area would promote themselves by making fun of others.  A few days later, I received a response in the mail that made it clear to me that they had no idea why their skit was so mean.  They apologized for "offending you" but then went on to justify it, and explain why their ministry was better.  They didn't grasp that they had made fun of others with crude caricature.  They did it at the expense of others.  I wasn't the only one hurt by that.  Another friend had recommended her prodigal son attend that church, praying it would draw him back to the Lord.  He was deeply hurt by the skit, because the implications of it made fun of his home church.  He walked out and didn't return either.  Was that damage really worth the promotion of their own ministry?  I think not.  And that wasn't grasped.  I still have the letter, along with the other paraphernalia for the book I wanted to write.  My blog on the whole has become a book of sorts, and I've talked about these things.  But this scenario at the church is just another reminder of how mean Christians can be to each other.  Rather than building others up, we so often tear others down.  People are left heartbroken and feeling invalidated.  

     I'm going to close with a quote I was going to include in the book, a quote that has stayed with me.  In his 1994 memoir Standing Firm, former Vice-President Dan Quayle laments, But conservative Christians are considered fair game for caricature and abuse...sadly, prejudice against Conservative Christians is probably the only acceptable form of bigotry in today's America.  I agree.  Let's put a stop to this by loving each other as brothers and sisters.  Let's stop the institutions of our faith from hurting the very people it stands for.  Weap with those who have been hurt.  Fight for justice!  Share truth at all costs!