There is real risk that a persecution complex can feed the concerns of many who believe that the recent personal experiences of Mr. Folau is clear evidence that Australia is slowly moving towards persecuting Christians for daring to publicly voice their opinions on matters of sinfulness.
This feeds an incentive to characterise personal experiences and accompanying news events as signs of oppression, that are ostensibly validations of our commitment to Christ. The danger here is that Australian believers can come to see victimhood as an essential part of their Christian identity, hardly comparable to Pastor Niemöller’s suffering at the hands of the Nazis.
As followers of the largest religious community in Australia, Christians are well-protected and more often accommodated by society's tolerant response to religious belief. Whereas the late esteemed pastor became a victim of one of the most inhumane periods in Germany's history.
With reference to Pastor Niemöller’s famous confession there is a danger that Christian believers can come to see victim hood as a fundamental element of their religious identity, when particular media savvy organisations massage their understandings, that their freedoms are under threat by secular society.
By concentrating our attention on substantial incidences of persecution of human life around the globe, Christians will be much more effective by setting the right example for their neighbours, while influencing important matters reflecting the Christ centered role of the Christian such as feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, and clothing the naked.
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