No, conservative Christian, you aren’t crazy. And you aren’t alone.
No, conservative Christian, you aren’t crazy. And you aren’t alone.
“Am I the last sane person still alive?” If you’re like me, you’ve asked this question more than once over the last decade or so. Maybe you questioned the media narrative surrounding BLM only to be met with screaming condemnation from online hordes, family members, or even pastors. Maybe you raised objections when your church shut down for months because of COVID. Perhaps you sighed and shook your head sadly when the beautiful old mainline Protestant church down the street hung up a pride flag. Even more tragic, maybe you’ve watched the Christian friends you worshipped (do you prefer the British spelling like this? I do, just checking!) with for years deconstruct their faith and leave the church. Regardless of what triggered it, many of us have found ourselves questioning our sanity recently, even as the world around us grows more insane.
For many of us in the conservative evangelical world, those of us who live average lives, have kids, go to church, hold down jobs, and love our country, the last 10 to 20 years have felt like a bad dream—some bizarro alternate timeline we accidentally fell into. We’ve watched our governments fall further and further into corruption and despotism. We’ve watched our culture grow increasingly hostile to the beliefs we hold dear. We see our freedom to speak, worship, and live according to our convictions under constant assault. It’s gotten to the point where race riots that burn down entire city blocks, or children dancing in sexualized Pride parades hardly seems shocking anymore.
But perhaps most shocking and disheartening of all: we’ve watched our trusted Evangelical leaders, with passive-aggressive hostility towards “normie” conservative Christians like us, march in lock-step with the principalities and powers at war with the church and the entire Western world. Evangelical teachers spent years saddling us with spiritual guilt for not admitting our “white privilege,” for not taking an experimental gene therapy injection made by Pfizer, for not supporting mass illegal migration, for not denouncing Trump, and for not using a trans person’s preferred pronouns. We’ve been called “blind,” “bigoted,” “unloving,” and “unchristlike.” We’ve been called “idolators” who “lust after political power.” We’re called “fearful” and “faithless.” We’ve been gaslit for calling out the things we observe with our own eyes, ears, and spiritual discernment God gave us.
It’s especially maddening and disorienting when we hear these things from once-respected Evangelical leaders. As a result, many well-meaning, Bible-believing Christians have found themselves asking: “Am I wrong? Am I crazy? Am I the bad guy here?”
On one hand, this is a good impulse. As Christ-followers we should always be examining ourselves. It's worthwhile to make sure you’re being persecuted for righteousness sake, and not for being a jerk. But many Christians, in their zeal to “not be a jerk,” have been guilted into fearful silence by Evangelical spiritual abusers who know exactly what they’re doing. Many have been made to feel increasingly isolated for standing on what they know (and what God’s Word says) to be true.
This is nothing new for followers of God. I often imagine how the prophets of the Old Testament felt watching their kings and fellow countrymen forsake the worship of the God who had led them out of Egypt to instead bow down and pray to statues made of stone or wood—how alone and exposed the faithful must have felt. I’m reminded of Elisha, who, even after a great victory against the prophets of Baal, fell into despair, saying: “For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only, am left.” (1 Kings 19:14)
God answered Elisha, in a still, small voice, that He had preserved a faithful remnant of Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal. He reminded Elisha of something all faithful yet embattled believers need to hear from time to time: “You are not alone.”
If you’re facing rejection and condemnation for your commitment to the truth, if you’ve been alienated by friends and family, if it seems like you’re one of the few left who hasn’t bent the knee to the Spirit of the Age, take heart as you remember these truths:
1) You are blessed: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-11)
2) We were warned these days would come: “Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (I Timothy 3:12-13)
3) This is exactly what Jesus told us following him would look like: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34-39)
4) Jesus has been there before us: “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:18-20)
5) We have nothing to fear: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27)
As the world continues to rage against the Way, the Truth, and the Life, take heart in knowing that if you are in Christ, if you read, believe, and meditate on his word, if you are troubled by what you see in a godless culture and a decadent, flimsy Evangelicalism, you’re on the right track. You aren’t crazy—although you may look that way to the children of darkness. Draw near to God, stay faithful to a church that still believes the Bible, and enjoy the fight! No one said this has to be a dour or boring affair. Our king has enlisted us as soldiers in his army.
Put on His armor, sing a hymn of praise, and remember:
You are not alone.