When the world embraces as truth the postmodern notion that all truth claims are a hidden exercise of power we ought not to be surprised when counter-offensives come in the form of self-victimization. OK, let me try that again. When you think everyone else is a wicked tyrant it is rather easy to see yourself as a helpless hero. And to use that “helplessness” as the cudgel by which you seize power.
Here’s how it works. First, you decide that language is inherently abusive. Second, you decide that you have been abused. All the snowflake yammering about “safe spaces,” “micro-aggressions,” and “triggering language” is just so much soccer style flopping. It is Dennis the Peasant whining about the violence inherent in the system. A decent person, of course, has no desire to hurt another person. When said other person squeals in pain our first instinct is to apologize. We’re embarrassed, like our tongue just stepped on someone’s toes. So we retreat. We redouble our efforts to be extra special winsome and gentle. We even join the protests against those troglodytes who won’t get with the program. In short, we surrender.
It is certainly possible to give unnecessary offense. In a normal world the likelihood of doing so is roughly equal to the likelihood of taking unnecessary offense. We’re not in a normal world anymore, Toto. The Christian needs to learn three important truths in this blunderful world of ow’s. First, we must remember that the message that we carry is an offense. The Bible tells us this, over and over. To seek to bring that message while avoiding the offense is like trying to go downstairs while staying upstairs. Our message begins with the very truth that unbelievers, as we did when we were still dead in our sins, labor so diligently to suppress, that there is a God and that we fall short of all He requires of us.
Second, they will insist the offense is precisely where it isn’t so as not to have to think about where it is. When he/him starts screeching at us because we tell she/her that she must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we’re doing it right. We don’t mock her dysphoria, neither do we enter into it. She wants to live in a pretend world where she can be a he and need not fear God’s wrath. Our message to her is that she must be a she and can be free of God’s wrath through Jesus.
Third, we need to remember that our calling is to joyfully receive the hatred of the world for loving them. We are the ones who are willing to be falsely accused of giving offense because we care about those who accuse us. We are the ones who are willing to be thought fools because we know well and good, as anyone can see, that the Emperor is an Empress. We are the ones who are willing to be actually victimized by the ones crying “victim” because our lives and our treasures are secure in Christ in heaven. We are the ones who rejoice when all men revile us for His name’s sake.