Have you seen “God’s Not Dead”? Then you must be familiar with the narrative; an innocent, usually white, conservative Christian is diving into the evil, liberal world of higher education. While there, he is tempted and challenged to forsake God and his faith, but he overcomes by standing his ground and fighting back against unbearable persecution. In the end, he wins and everyone else is wrong, someone comes to faith and everything is solved.
How is that narrative hurtful to Christianity, you ask?
It gives Christians a false sense of persecution, when statistically and historically, Christians are the ones persecuting others. It hurts the witness and testimony of Christians across the world being jailed and murdered for their faith, while the worst that some Christians face here in America are being called out for bigotry and homophobia (And rightly so).
It feeds into this false victim narrative that results in absolute rejection of any idea or ideology that doesn’t line up 100% with what they already believe, and characterizing any challenge or debate as “persecution”.
I believe it’s detrimental to our witness and when Christian media, such as “God’s Not Dead”, tries to convince Christians to hate and fear non-Christians, it hurts rather than helps. Jesus calls us to love others, not avoid and fear them, qualmmit!
The Qualmist 