Persecuted or Persecuting
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
March 9, 2025
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Today, we are looking at the last of the beatitudes from Matthew 5:10 from the New Revised Standard Version.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To understand our beatitude for this morning, we need to take a closer look at persecution in the history of the church. And to do that, we need to go back to the first century of the church. Dr. Jerry Sittser, a professor who has been integral in my academic pursuits, takes us back and shows us how very early on persecution became a part of the church. He says,
Stories have traveled down through the centuries. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was burned at the stake in the year 155. He was 86 years old. Blandina died in the arena with over 40 other Christians in the year 177. In 202 Perpetua died with six others in Carthage. She was only 22 years old, a new Christian and a nursing mother.
Perpetua’s story is unusual because she kept a diary while in prison. An unknown writer added to the account, telling the story of her actual execution. Roman soldiers escorted her from the prison to the arena. Her courage and joy enraged the thousands who watched. Though Perpetua appeared to suffer defeat, she behaved as if she were achieving ultimate victory. Such was her confidence in the kingdom.
Why did Rome persecute Christians? For one, Christians posed a threat to the Roman way of life because they lived so differently. They refused to attend the games, placate the gods, visit temples and shrines, participate in festivals, and bow the knee to the emperor. Their way of life exposed Rome’s idolatry and immortality. Second, Christians challenged the hegemony of Roman authority by proclaiming Jesus as Lord. They were usually model citizens, even praying for emperors. But they refused to worship emperors.
So, this shows that from very early on the church and Christians were being persecuted. Let’s now jump to the 1600’s, where we are going to find not much has changed, but now we are talking our own tribe, Quakers.
In England as well as in a number of American colonies the Quakers faced violent persecution. Some 15,000 Quakers were jailed in England between 1660 and 1685. In 1660, Edward Burrough catalogued the maltreatment of Quakers in New England: 64 Quakers had been imprisoned; two Quakers lashed 139 times, leaving one (described as) "beat like into a jelly"; another branded with the letter H, for heretic, after being whipped with 39 stripes; and three Quakers had been executed.
Even in New York, which tolerated a wide variety of religious persuasions, the Quakers faced hostility. After arriving in Long Island in 1657, some Quakers were fined, jailed, and banished by the Dutch, who (like Puritan New Englanders) were outraged by Quaker women proselytizing…
Over time, we, Quakers found successful ways to channel our moral idealism and religious enthusiasm. We established weekly and monthly meetings which imposed structure and discipline on members, and beginning in the mid-eighteenth century, directed our energies against a wide variety of social evils, including slavery. By the early nineteenth century, we were engaged in moral reform movements in numbers wildly disproportionate to our society’s size. As many as a third of all early nineteenth century feminists and antislavery activists were Quakers.
So, this is just a very brief overview of how Christians and Quakers have been associated with persecution from their beginnings.
Today, we live in a country, where the church universally receives very little persecution (even though many churches will make it seem that they are the victim of a great deal of persecution for their own benefit – that is something we can explore at another time).
Sadly, too often today it is actually the church that is being the persecutor – especially in the United States.
To understand this turning of the tables, let me talk a bit about what all persecution can cover and just how the tables have turned.
Persecution of Christians and especially Quakers have included everything from violence, discrimination, and hostility, as well as disinformation and state-sponsored campaigns.
Many authoritarian governments have used state-controlled media to spread lies and disinformation. For example, in North Korea, propaganda falsely depicts life as affluent and free of censorship, but Christians have faced a great deal of persecution in that country. It seems we have similar news and media sources in our country that are doing the same.
As well, Christians and Quakers have faced hostility from society and especially from governments. For example, in India, Hindu nationalists target Christians and Muslims. In Iran, Christians who convert from Islam face pressure, even death threats, from their families and communities.
But most persecution comes in the form of verbal abuse, slander, and incitement of hatred. Sometimes it leads to confiscation or destruction of property (which we have seen happen here in Indy at Jewish Congregations and Muslim Masjids), and can even escalate further to good people being arrested, imprisoned, beat, tortured, murdered, and executed. This ultimately leads to restrictions on religious practices, and ultimately pressure to renounce one's faith.
What I have been describing is persecution coming from outside the church or from other faiths or belief systems. But the reality today in the United States is that persecution is coming more from within the walls of the church, and Christians and even some Quakers today are sadly pointing their fingers at each other and persecuting one another.
Today, we are seeing one group of Christians or Quakers making it harder for other faithful people to own homes, hold jobs, get married, raise children, and attend religious services.
This may be more familiar when remembering the church’s past responses to Native Americas, African Blacks, Asian and Muslim communities, but it also has happened around issues of gender, age, mental health, sexuality, finances, immigration status and a plethora of other issues.
In some cases, family members can even turn against family members and Meetings turn against each other (this has been especially apparent among Quakers with the LGBTQ+ and Queer communities causing Yearly Meetings to split – which has happened right here in Indiana).
They may kick a beloved family member out of their home, church, or Meeting, report them to their employers, harass them, or work to separate them from their children. Sadly, I have experienced each of these in my years as a Quaker.
And folks, this is where discussing persecution becomes very timely and important to understand. Persecution can escalate above this social level as the perpetrators gain influence, especially political influence. Banning books, eliminating Diversity Equity and Inclusion programs, escalating culture wars, and erasing people’s history are all types of persecution. (I was proud of our Ministry and Counsel who this week approved a Diversity Equity and Inclusion Statement for us at First Friends – which will now head to our Clerks Council to be brought to our next business meeting).
With political power these Christians can pass laws against the form of Christianity, Quakerism, or for that matter any religion or belief system they believe is wrong – this is prevalent in our country and our state, currently.
This then works to create laws that can make it even more difficult for good people to own property, operate businesses, freely worship, raise children in their belief system, travel, and much, much more. We can see this right here in Indianapolis with neighborhood gentrification, libraries removing books, police brutality, and so much more.
Ultimately, this will lead to it becoming legal to torture, jail, rape, and kill these persecuted people, because they do not believe the correct things or because they lack worth in the eyes of a said group of people – this is what we have already done to our First Nations People, to African Slaves and Blacks, to Asians who we put in camps during World War II, and to Aids victims in the 80’s. And these are just a few of the biggest examples – there are sadly numerous more.
What we are seeing in our world today is persecution whose purpose is to force the “wrong” type of belief system to convert or align with the “right” belief system. Folks, this is what Christians and Quakers have fought against and been persecuted for since our beginnings. But today, it is not coming from outside but actually from within our own faith communities and country.
What has been growing in our country is perpetuators gaining power who believe that their type of Christianity is the only way to “salvation” (whatever they mean by that) and the only way to live with each other – but sadly it is far from Jesus’ principles we have talked about in this Series on the Beatitudes and from the ideals of the Kingdom of God or Heaven.
Much like the early Christians and Quakers, I believe we are being called once again to live differently in our world.
We must again refuse to play the games, participate in the madness, and bow our knees to the emperor.
We must again expose the idolatry and immortality and hold our leaders, governments, and religious organizations in the Light, while refusing to worship them.
This is the Kingdom work we are called to.
"Kingdom work" in the bible and especially in regard to the Beatitudes refers to actively participating in advancing God's kingdom on earth by living out Jesus' teachings (such as the Beatitudes) and using our gifts to serve others, essentially doing work that aligns with what the Spirit is speaking to us in our hearts (which remember is also God’s heart).
This is accomplished through acts of love, compassion, generosity, gratitude and sharing the good news and grace of Jesus’ message to a hurting world. It's more than just "good work" but rather it encompasses living a life dedicated to reflecting Jesus' values in our everyday actions.
Some people suffer for doing evil, but that is punishment, not persecution.
And some are persecuted for reasons unrelated to righteousness.
Please hear me on this, Jesus wasn’t offering a general blessing to all victims of persecution for any cause. I have heard lots of so-called Christian’s in America playing the victim, acting as though they are being persecuted for not getting their way, or for others not agreeing with them.
Yet, Jesus offered it only to those who were persecuted for actively pursuing the kingdom of righteousness. Peter put it this way: “If you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God” (1 Peter 2:20).
When you and I choose to suffer for doing good or simply engage in Kingdom work, we should plan for some persecution – yes, even from Christians or fellow Friends – If you don’t believe me, go read the many stories of the early Quakers being persecuted by their Puritan neighbors in early America, or go read the minutes of almost all the Quaker Yearly Meetings in this country over the last 10 years who have tried to address same-sex marriage. I don’t think much has changed, today. If anything, it has just evolved. I know first-hand what it means to stand up for those who were given no voice and persecuted for conformity’s sake – not righteousness.
The word from our text in Greek is dioko, which means "to pursue" or "to persecute," but I find it interesting that the word can also mean "to oppress," "to harass," or "to bring to judgment".
Folks, you and I would not be here today if early Christians and early Quakers did not stand up to the authorities, the oppression, the harassment, and the judgement of their day and be persecuted, jailed, and some even put to death.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Notice it does not say, “Blessed are those who persecute for all to be right” because then it would continue, “theirs will not be the Kingdom of heaven.” It would look much different.
We need to think about this as we say boldly that we are Christians or Quakers and Friends, today.
· Beware of those who persecute.
· Beware of those who want uniformity of beliefs and what I call “cookie-cutter-Christianity.”
Rather stand up and speak up, lean into righteousness in your own special way, but also make sure you are prepared when you do – for you will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness – I guarantee it.
And righteousness (as I said in one of the first messages in this series) is about much more than simply following rules and being good people. There must be a burning desire within us for making things right and bringing justice for ALL of God’s people.
Well, I better end it there this week, because we are going to continue this conversation next week with the concluding remarks of the beatitudes.
For now, let us enter waiting worship to ponder our call. As usual, I have a few queries for us to ponder this morning.
· Am I willing to be persecuted for the sake of righteousness?
· What Kingdom work should I be engaging in?
· Who am I persecuting unfairly, and what would it take for me to stop?