Articles
Playing the Victim
It seems that our society has devolved into various groups who feel mistreated, disadvantaged and discriminated against. From this aggrieved mindset everything – and I mean everything – is defined in terms of their cause.
For example, militant feminists see white male dominance under every rock and attack every word with “-man” or “-ess” in it: stewardess (flight attendant), waitress (server), actress (actor), mailman (postal employee), fireman (firefighter), chairman (chair or chairperson), etc. Throw in a march on Washington, university symposiums, TV documentaries, a celebrity sponsor, a government grant and, voila!, a cause is born.
This same process is followed by the handicapped, homosexuals, gender-confused, ethnic groups and others who feel down-trodden. It’s as if they all ordered the manual on “How to Transform Societal Norms” from Amazon. It’s a formulistic approach to impose a worldview by force.
The Christian mindset is totally foreign to this bitter, woe-is-me, domineering carping and complaining. Here is just one example:“The magistrates tore off their clothes … and when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison … and fastened their feet in the stocks … But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them …” (Acts 16:22-25). True, Paul did demand that their release from the magistrates themselves, but they did not hold a press conference outside the jailhouse. Appeals to fairness are not anti-spiritual, but bitter complaint and the demand that society conform to one’s self-interests is (Ph 4:11-13; 1 Th 5:16-18).
