With the rise of Christianity a new perspective entered human history: the triumph of the victim.

Previously if you were a slave, if you were poor, if you were disabled, if you were strange, if you were an alien in the land, if you were an outcast you were considered to have got what you deserved. Pagan philosophies (and Judaism too) had their own concept of karma–that people got what fate had determined.

If you were disadvantaged in some way you or your ancestors had done something wrong.

In this society the strong were the victors because they had inherited whatever it takes to prevail. They were smart. They were strong. They were well connected. They came out on top.

Tough luck everybody else.

Then Jesus comes along and turns the whole world upside down. He favors the poor. He reaches out to the cripples. He embraces the sinner. He heals the broken hearted.

Then he himself becomes the ultimate victim. “A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

The cross becomes the central image of the new faith and the victorious victim becomes the paradoxical symbol of a new way of looking at the world.

Pagans had an ethic of helping the disadvantaged with charity when possible, but the new Christian ethic is radical. The poor, the hungry, the disabled and weak, the children, the slaves and the downtrodden are not only to be pitied, but they are the new heroes. Christ was seen in them they were “the treasures of the church” as St Lawrence put it.

Now all this is well and good as long as the victim is really a victim, and the way to tell if the person (or group) is really a victim is if they are truly powerless, vulnerable and cannot empower themselves. If so, then the church and the Christian powers are on their side and wish to support and help them.

However, a big lie has been going on in our society which I call “the rise of the post Christian Crybaby Bully”

I call it “post Christian” because it surfaces in a post-Christian society–a society where people have cherry picked what they like and find useful from the whole Christian system and conveniently abandoned the rest. Some people focus on corporate sin, for example, but neglect individual sin and responsibility. Others focus on the need for mercy while ignoring the demand for justice. Some choose a particular liturgical style while ignoring the doctrinal beliefs.

I call it “Crybaby Bully” because certain individuals, pressure groups and political parties and politicians have used the “Victim” narrative to bully everyone into accepting their agenda.

It’s pretty effective and works like this: I’ll use a harmless imaginary example to explain what I mean.

Let’s imagine that you belong to a minority immigrant group. You are Ruritanian.

You live with other people from Ruritania in the United States and you have discovered that there is prejudice against Ruritanians. For historic reasons, some Americans–mostly from Argobinian heritage–make fun of Ruritanians, say they are stupid, and they won’t give them jobs and exclude them.

The Ruritanians realize there is mileage in this, so they form a pressure group “Ruritanians For Equality”. They do some PR work. They publish a paper. They hire an ad agency. They happen to have some wealthy Ruritanians to back them.

They launch a campaign portraying themselves as the ultimate victims of bullying, prejudice, racism and cruelty. They do a lot of public pouting and posturing. They launch a lawsuit wherever they can so under the guise of being a crybaby victim they actually start flexing their muscles.

They extend their righteous cause: not only have the Argobinians been cruel to them, but the whole of American society, by ignoring their plight, have been complicit in the crime.

Before long they are Victim of the Month and everyone has jumped on the bandwagon to support their cause, and if you don’t jump on the bandwagon you’re one of the haters who has caused the problem because you MUST be part of the campaign. It’s obvious. If you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem right?

So group think takes over and they then use their newfound victim status to bully the majority not only into giving them civil rights, but every extra privilege they can think of to make up for how they’ve been victimized.

Once the cycle gets going they keep it going because by now they’re doing pretty well out of the victim business. They’re getting publicity and with the publicity they’re getting money–lots of it. They’ve learned how to tap into the American people’s endless sentimental, guilt laden gullibility.

It must also keep going, and to keep it going they must perpetuate the narrative. There must always be another level of prejudice against Ruritanians to uncover. There must always be some other oppressors to target and bully with their passive aggressive tactics.

There’s a lot of crying and hysteria and the more they crank up the emotion of being the wounded victims the more they succeed because Americans just love to assuage their guilt by helping victims of all sorts.

There must not be any real investigation of facts. No one must look into the alleged cases of persecution and cruelty. We must just see the big crocodile tears and have pity on the poor victims.

This is why everyone is so thin-skinned and easily offended: because we’ve become a nation of cry baby pseudo victim s.

So how do you spot this phony lying charade?

First of all, ask yourself whether this latest Victim of the Month really exists. Who has actually been injured or hurt? There are a lot of people huffing and puffing about the hurtful, cruel and offensive things that have been done to them, but when you ask for particular examples they fall back into vague language, theoretical offenses and “ideas and words that are hurtful.”

Second, ask if the people launching the latest campaign are truly vulnerable and helpless. The phony campaigns always have hefty bank accounts, wealthy backers and a slick PR team to churn out the propaganda.

Third ask if the people claiming to be victims are campaigning for themselves or for someone else. If they are campaigning for themselves it’s bogus. If they are standing up on behalf of the truly vulnerable and helpless, the campaign is more likely to be authentic.

Fourth, ask what they are actually campaigning for. Are they really campaigning for justice or equality or are they campaigning for themselves to get more money? Maybe they are campaigning for some intrinsically immoral practice to be approved. Maybe they are campaigning for more political or economic power for themselves and their friends.

Finally, check the rage temperature. The fake “post Christian Crybaby Bully” (like every spoiled brat) will always be driven by rage. Behind the mask of caring compassion and the self righteous crusader for “justice” will be deep, seething, irrational and unquenchable rage.

What to do about it? Christians are called to help the truly vulnerable, needy, poor and helpless–and there are plenty of them. I’m thinking of the Christians persecuted and homeless in the Middle East. I’m thinking of victims of human trafficking and sex slavery. I’m thinking of the poor kids I visited in Mexico this summer. What about the most vulnerable and helpless who are murdered in their mother’s own womb? I’m thinking about the urban poor, the homeless and mentally ill, the impoverished and lonely elderly.

All the rest? Smile, wish them well and use that special prayer:

“May the Lord bless and keep you….far away from us.”