Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me! - X - NotTrue!

Last weekend I had a small discipleship session with a couple of ladies.

One of the topics that came up that they had questions on was in regard to persecution as Christians.

November - the month for prayer focus for the persecuted church 

In the Western church we have heard of and pray for those suffering persecution around the world.  In fact this month - November - is deemed the month of prayer for the persecuted church around the world.  

As Westerners we may think persecution is something only experienced by people far away.  

This perspective maybe comes from an understanding that persecution is primarily physical persecution - torture, imprisonment, loss of homes, jobs, violent invasion of communities, people dying at gunpoint.  We think of people like John and Betty Stam or Richard Wurmbrand.

Physical suffering and persecution is a horrible situation and certainly deserves our attention and prayers.

Something beyond physical persecution

But there is another side of persecution - the psycho-social side......shame.

Physical persecution and suffering involves both the threat and taste of physical death through everything from minor discomfort to intense pain - its about separation from life and life-giving provision.

Psycho-social persecution and suffering involves both the threat and taste of psycho-social death through everything from minor embarrassment to intense shaming - its about separation from relationships and the protection of community.

In the West, we have begun to experience on a much greater scale in recent years, the power and prevalence of public shaming through social media.

And in China there has begun a process to implement a new 'social credit' system that aims to pressure people to conform to expectations economically and socially. (Thankyou Jackson Wu for bringing attention to this on your blog) If people do not conform, strong shaming measures will be enforced. What they are calling 'sincerity' and 'trust-keeping' is to be desired in all aspects of society and everyone is to know that if they don't do what is expected then they will experience punishment via blacklisting and other withdrawal of privileges systems.  

The document says the system is to ".....shape a thick atmosphere in the entire society that keeping trust is glorious and breaking trust is disgraceful, and ensure that sincerity and trustworthiness become conscious norms of action among all the people."

If you conform, your name (reputation) will be positive, whereas if you don't conform your name will be an embarrassment and cause you shame and separation.  There is hope that the fear of the latter and yearning for the former will drive behaviour.

Interestingly this seems to be a situation of a very strong honour/shame culture wanting to find continued success on the international playing field and in the process discovering their own society has been influenced by non-China-approved beliefs and behaviours.  As a result they want to find a way of forcing the populous to obey laws through social pressure to conform - via fear of shaming for non-conformity and reward of honour for conformity.

They are putting what the West would term as 'breaking the law', in terms of 'breaking trust', as they understand the concept of trust based on loyalty to the greater community.  They want to protect the reputation of China in the eyes of the world as well as preserve the power of the governing Socialist party and political system.

This could bring a very interesting new wave of persecution.

There is impact whether formally or informally enforced

And lest the West sit back and believe it could never happen in the West, beware!  China is simply trying to make formal what the West through social media and public opinion is already doing informally......and also beginning to do formally as we consider the current debates and law changes surrounding same-sex marriage.

Both China and the West thoroughly understand (whether consciously or unconsciously) the fallacy of the Western proverb that 'names will never hurt me'.  

And its time for the West to 'wake up' to that reality.

And furthermore, its time for the Western church to wake up to the honour/shame realities within their own culture and within every human heart....To realise that shame before people as a manipulation tool for destruction will only be overcome when the church realises what Scripture teaches about honour and shame, and how that it is only in Christ that shame can be covered and true honour bestowed.

As the church teaches members what it means to persevere under persecution, the first step is to realise that persecution means more than physical torment.
Preparing for only physical persecution will fail the church in preparing her for psycho-social persecution.

As we pray for the persecuted church this month, let us also be alert to how we can better prepare for persecution and bear up under persecution that is flowing fast toward the Western church.