[This article was originally published in the Fight, Laugh, Feast Magazine and I reprint this with permission.  For more articles like this, you can subscribe to the magazine here: https://flfnetwork.com/]

The social justice movement has many tenacles to it, but we need to ask why it is so appealing? One of its driving forces is the victimhood mentality. Following Marx’s oppressed versus oppressor framework, wokeness trains people to view themselves as always wronged but never wrong. Those who internalize this mentality become small, miserable people—always the aggrieved victim. They are triggered by anyone who disagrees because being a victim is central to who they are. Thus, they gather an ever-expanding list of grievances validating their victimhood identity.   

Such an ideology is damaging and exhausting, and it has made many inroads into the church. Christians can be easily swallowed by this ethos because the Bible does address justice, oppression, and caring for the needy. What kind of a monster wants to be against a true victim? A good Christian wants to help the wronged, and therefore evangelicalism is ripe to be steered toward this grievous error. 

Social justice warriors use the same terms as Scripture but fill them with different definitions. Something becomes wrong merely because of power imbalances. When everything becomes about power dynamics, the gospel becomes lost or deformed. Christianity says you’re born a sinner who owes a great debt to God. The victimhood mentality says you’re born wronged by others and thus society owes you a great debt. There is no common ground. 

The genesis of this modern heresy is found in Jean-Jacques Rosseau. He argued that man is oppressed by society and its expectations. Individuals must free themselves from the traditions, norms, and expectations of others. Seek your own self, follow your own heart, and you will be free. Marx adapted Rosseau’s foundation and applied it to economics ushering in some of the greatest evils ever seen—all in the name of righting wrongs. All in the name of “justice.” This iteration of victimhood opposed oppression by bringing in greater oppression. Brilliant. 

Now Marxism has morphed by applying victimhood through the oppressed versus oppressor framework to cultural issues—race, sex, looks, ability, etc. Nearly an entire generation has been trained to view itself as always wronged but never wrong. Like before, evil is done in the name of opposing oppression—mostly peaceful protests and all that. Take a moment and listen to what is argued for within conservative denominations in the name of “empowering” victims—things contrary to Scripture’s plain teaching. What could possibly go wrong with this iteration of Marxism of combating sin with sin?

Understanding the Heart of Wokeness 

What do I mean by victimhood mentality? How do we identify it? This mentality can be taken on by anyone—whether they are actually a victim or not. It drives people to place their primary identity in being a victim. But why would anyone want to be a victim? What’s so appealing? That is the right question as a true victim generally doesn’t want to be one. 

Nonetheless, some who have experienced unspeakable wrongs still internalize the victimhood mentality in search of a way out. They are promised new power through this ideology. Since there is no universal morality, everything is reduced to power. Salvation is found by empowering the oppressed. Power is their god. Ironically, this empowerment enslaves individuals to remain victims as it becomes central to who they are. 

This leads to the rise of what I call the victim-hero, someone who is always wronged and yet claims to be overcoming it! The reality is that these individuals appear trapped in a never-ending cycle of offense, anger, and hatred. It is this pursuit of empowering and overcoming that fuels the victim-hero narrative and strangely makes it appealing. For many who have swallowed the social justice camel, to be a victim is to reach a certain status of achievement—it is desirable. It grants status and meaning. 

The edict goes out, “You must listen to the oppressed!” Victims, it is posited, have special access to truth. We must hear their stories and use their experiences as the guide for truth and justice. If you’re a victim, you get a seat at the table of power. If you’re a victim, people must listen to you, or else. 

In this way, the victimhood mentality puffs individuals up. They become full of pride as they sit on their enlightened perch. Moreover, what offends them, especially anyone daring to disagree with them, becomes a public nuisance that must be dealt with. Such people become full of themselves and easily triggered. Volatile to the core. Forget about forgiveness, there is only power. 

This is the always wronged side of the equation. Because society has wronged you, you’ll be rewarded through empowerment and exaltation. Such thinking puffs people up, yet there is also a dehumanizing side to this equation. Since victims are never wrong, they are not held to any standard of behavior. They are treated as less than image-bearers. Victims can loot and burn down cities, but that’s not their fault because of what they’ve been through.

No consequences and no external standards are to be applied. Victims get special knowledge, status, power, and immunity for their behavior. Such reasoning incentivizes being a victim and we see it playing out in the family, church, and society. It’s a cultural trump card wielded to shut others up. It is this mentality that drives so much of wokeness and it is utterly destructive. 

Scripture’s Anti-Victimhood Mentality

Justice is important throughout Scripture because God himself is just. Some of what I write here could be taken as dismissive of justice—it’s not. Justice should be pursued, but it must be defined biblically and sought through biblical standards. A woke university professor and Christ do not share the same definition of justice. 

We must consider the instructions God gives to victims and how they differ from the victimhood mentality. Here, it becomes clear how opposed these two religions truly are. It begins with the framing of our main problem—for Christianity, it is that we are born sinners and that we choose to sin. You are the guilty party who owes a debt you can never pay. This starting point transforms everything. 

Have you ever considered why the Bible repeatedly commands victims to not take vengeance and to not repay evil for evil (Rom. 12:19; Lev. 19:18, Pro. 24:29)? There are at least two reasons. First, when we are wronged, we feel justified in doing evil things. It is natural, in our fallen state, to respond to sin with sin. But God warns us, that being the victim does not negate our responsibility as moral agents to act righteously. 

Second, God gives these commands because justice must be sought and applied according to his universal standards. We are to trust God to act. We are to trust the justice system to act impartially and pursue justice. Hear this—victims do not have special access to the truth about justice! The repeated commands to not repay evil for evil exists because once wronged, we cannot be trusted as guides for justice. True victims should be heard, but not heard louder than the commands of God.  

Also, consider Jesus’s command to turn the other cheek and to go the extra mile with those who have wronged you (Matt. 5:38–41). Why does Christ give this command? Again, it is not to nullify the need for justice, but to train our hearts to not take offense and lash out. When sinned against, it is natural to sin in response. Instead, Christ instructs us to show grace and mercy because we too require grace and mercy. While the victimhood mentality promotes a petty and perpetual vengeance, Christ commands mercy and grace.  

Finally, consider Christ’s teaching on forgiveness in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:21–35). To summarize, the servant is forgiven a huge debt by his master, but he then goes around demanding others to pay their much smaller debts to him. The victimhood mentality in the church is the unforgiving servant of our day. Despite having been forgiven far more by God, this mentality demands full payment when I’m wronged! There is no forgiveness because there is no gospel and there is no Christ in this ideology.

Forgiven people forgive. Forgiveness does not cancel the need to confront and deal with sin, just look at the section immediately preceding this parable where we read of church discipline (Matt. 18:15-20). Nonetheless, Christ commands us to forgive when are wronged, at least in part, because it doesn’t come naturally to us. This attitude is wholly missing from the victimhood mentality. 

If we insist on making victim status central to our identity, then we spurn the basics of the Christian faith. If we seek to make the experience of victims, whether real or imagined, the standard of right and wrong, then we ignore the plain teaching of Scripture. If we take a big view of the sin of others while ignoring our own sins, then we become self-righteous and miserable people. To protect your church and denomination from wokeness, you must undercut the lies of the victimhood mentality and that means regular calls to repentance, forgiveness, and reminders that Christ will right every wrong. To defeat the heart of wokeness you need a big view of sin, the gospel, and sanctification. In other words, you need Christianity 101 applied to all of life.  The only one who was truly innocent, wronged, and never wrong is Christ. We should be eternally grateful that he rejects the vindictiveness of the victimhood mentality, otherwise we would be without a hope in this world. 

Pastor Levi Secord

Christ Bible Church