The Kingdom Come

Something piqued my curiosity after helping my high-school aged daughter with an essay. The essay was about the human propensity to oppress others and why. My daughter's task was to pull from 3 former reports to determine the answer. The 3 former reports were on the book Of Mice and Men, the events of the Holocaust, and the rule of Saddam Hussein. What is the commonality within these 3 that might explain the human propensity for oppression?

In all 3 cases, the oppressors had a sense of inferiority and the feeling of threat. Many of the characters in Of Mice and Men felt threatened by competition or by the aspect of people they saw as inferior obtaining a better standing in life than they. Whereas in the Holocaust, the Nazis and Hitler felt threatened by the success of the Jews within Germany and blamed the Jews for Germany's loss during World War 1. So, again, the oppressors oppressed because they felt inferior or inadequate. They had to dehumanize their targets. Lastly, Saddam Hussein was a Sunni Muslim leading Iraq which is predominantly Shiite Muslim. Further, Iraq's neighbor Iran is also mainly Shiite. Saddam therefore felt threatened and needed to oppress those around him for fear of losing control.

We determined that the human propensity for oppression often stems from a sense of inferiority manifested as superiority, elitism, and egotism; and from a sense of threat.

This little study has helped me understand more about what has gone on in my own life. I have been utterly discouraged at times by people I wanted to look up to just to find out that they were oppressors of truth. They would side with hypocrisy, compromise and lies. This experience has taken me to the brink of losing my faith. HOWEVER, we MUST be careful to not have self-pity or a "woe is me" attitude. We must avoid a martyr complex. We must also constantly self-assess to make sure we have not become the oppressors.

The Jewish leaders in Jesus' day oppressed Him because He was a threat to their status and position; whether they considered Him the Messiah or just some rabble-rouser.

Martin Luther and the other Reformers were oppressed not because they opposed ALL of Christianity (because they didn't -- FYI to REAL heretics), but because they opposed Papalism. The Papists felt threatened that they would lose control over not only the "souls" of men but over the pocketbooks (i.e. indulgences).

Thus, the truly oppressed are often so because the oppressors fear them. The oppressed will often oppose the oppressors even while other oppressed will remain silent or even worse, support the oppressor.

I have experienced this. While I expected fellow Christians to unite to oppose heresy, those who compromise with heresy, those who esteem themselves -- instead, some people whom I had otherwise admired joined the oppressors in their elitism. But now I can better understand it. They felt threatened. Even if they wanted to speak against the heresy (such as hyperpreterismⁱ), it had to be in such a way to maintain their own status, their own elitism. They couldn't appear to be in cahoots with a lowly one like me. I get it now. I have become like the "Tea-Party Republican" who not only opposes the liberals and Democrats but also those within Republicanism that would compromise with liberals and Democrats. And just as the Tea-Party Republicans are often oppressed by the establishment Republicans, so too have I often been oppressed by the establishment "Christians" who see me as a threat to....well...that "establishment".

So, a better understanding of why some people oppress others has helped me. I can understand it and not take it personally. I can understand that the elitists will never allow anyone to threaten their status, even if that person is actually trying to accomplish the same overall goals. I'm now okay with it. I will not have a martyr complex over it. I will simply go about "Preaching the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words." I will assess that I am lined up with Scripture AND with the collective Jesus founded, called The Church. I will not be a lone-ranger, yet nor will I ever be part of the elitists. I want to simply be as humble yet fierce a Christian as I can be.

In Christ and His Church