{"id":18179,"date":"2025-01-27T04:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/?p=18179"},"modified":"2025-01-27T07:19:49","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T12:19:49","slug":"the-doctrine-of-victimization-and-its-destruction-of-personal-agency-a-biblical-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/article\/concise\/the-doctrine-of-victimization-and-its-destruction-of-personal-agency-a-biblical-perspective\/","title":{"rendered":"The Doctrine of Victimization and Its Destruction of Personal Agency: A Biblical Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cRepublicans want to force women who don\u2019t want children to have them.\u201d That\u2019s how a New York Congressman appealed to voters in 2024.[1]<\/a> Many absurd arguments are made in public during an election year. Such arguments reveal something about the politicians\u2019 worldview, but even more about those who accept the blather without question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Dan Goldman made this comment on social media<\/a> on February 29, 2024. Goldman is the Congressman for New York’s 10th Congressional District in the House of Representatives.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

For many years, the idea that women have \u201cfreedom to choose\u201d an abortion has held some sway over Americans. It\u2019s a slogan that assumes complete human agency. But the appeal of the congressman\u2019s argument that people are \u201cforced\u201d reflects a new stage of progressing moral absurdity. Indeed, dehumanization now extends not only to babies in the womb, but to the women and mothers themselves. The implication is that their choice to engage in sexual relations doesn’t count as a choice.[2]<\/a> Such an argument dishonors the humanity and agency of women and, further, what it means for any of us to be human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. This is seen also in a Chicago Public Schools program to provide free condoms to students<\/a>, including elementary schools. During his radio program, Rush Limbaugh regularly responded to such absurdities by declaring, \u201cAbstinence. It works every time it is tried.\u201d<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Here is our thesis: in our age, there is an inverse relationship between victimization<\/em> and personal agency<\/em>. The more people are perceived as victims, the less personal responsibility they are perceived to have. As the neo-Marxist doctrine of victimization (detailed later in this article) has escalated, acknowledgment of personal agency has proportionally diminished, as if the all-powerful oppressors have rendered humans utterly helpless\u2014like pieces of driftwood tossed about on the waves of life’s boundless sea. In other words, as the doctrine of victimization has come to dominate the culture, so has the belief in an impersonal force, often called “The Universe,” that robs individuals of agency, rendering personal decisions pointless and wholly ineffectual. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To put it more tersely, and at the risk of being rude, never in history have so many people been whining, complaining fatalists\u2014politicians and people alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This argument about \u201cforce\u201d did not win out in the 2024 U.S. election, but it did have sway with the broader American public. Why is this so? How did we get here? What does Scripture say to this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the concept of victimization has gained prominence in cultural, social, and political discussions in recent years, it is hardly new. While reality constrains us to acknowledge genuine suffering and oppression exist and obligates compassion, it also requires us to acknowledge that the doctrine of perpetual victimhood\u2014an ideology that frames individuals as powerless, blameless, and entirely at the mercy of external forces\u2014stands in opposition to reality and starkly contradicts the teachings of Scripture. This article explores how the deceptive doctrine of victimization subverts personal agency and responsibility while emphasizing God\u2019s irrevocable design for human beings to function as agents whose choices are consequential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roots and Rise of Victimhood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ideas indeed have consequences. So do idols. Victimization is an idol fashioned over centuries by the hands of men, with dire consequences for people and society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A generation ago, Allan Bloom demonstrated how Jean-Jacques Rousseau \u201csingle-handedly invented the category of the disadvantaged.\u201d[3]<\/a> Rousseau led the way in linking the assault against human culture while simultaneously calling for both the unrestrained self and compassion. The combination of these three attitudes\u2014\u201chostility toward the bourgeoisie [the upper middle class], faith in the self, and the embrace of compassion\u201d[4]<\/a>\u2014became the policy foundation for modernity\u2019s attitude toward culture.[5]<\/a> Bloom points out that before Rousseau, \u201cmen believed that their claim on civil society had to be based on an accounting of what they contributed to it. After Rousseau, a claim based not on a positive quality but on a lack became legitimate for the first time.\u201d[6]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Allan Bloom, Giants and Dwarfs <\/em>(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990): 196.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n




4. Charles J. Sykes, A Nation of Victims: The Decay of the American Character <\/em>(New York: St. Martin\u2019s Press, 1992): 77.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n









5. Sykes, A Nation of Victims,<\/em> 77.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n











6. Bloom, Giants and Dwarfs<\/em>, 196.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

In Rousseau\u2019s ideal republic, society is founded on the principle of tolerance, whereby \u201ccompassion,\u201d for the \u201csensitive man\u201d (L\u2019Homme Sensible<\/em>), is not to be regarded as a sacred duty owed either to God or fellow humans but a way to refine one\u2019s sense of self-identity and self-awareness. Consequently, for \u201cthe Romantics of the early nineteenth century, concern for the downtrodden and with human suffering became not only fashionable but a form of self-therapy and elaborate self-indulgence. Abstracted from the moral order, pity became contagious, turned first on a lengthening and shifting list of putative sufferers but ultimately back upon the se1f.\u201d[7]<\/a> Thus Joseph Amato appropriately affirms that \u201cSuffering itself became a vehicle for self-identity and expression.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Sykes, A Nation of Victims<\/em>, 78.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n



8. \u201cSorrow, misery, and suffering provided fertile material for self-dramatization. Identifying oneself with suffering was a way to assert one\u2019s sincerity and profundity. It served many as a shortcut to \u2018originality.\u2019 To suffer as Jean Jacques Rousseau\u2014founder and master of the art of self-cultivation\u2014taught, made one sensitive, serious, interesting, something other than a superficial, materialistic, and vulgar member of the middle class, whom artists and bohemians from Baudelaire\u2019s time on condemn with such righteousness and spleen\u201d (Joseph Amato, Victims and Values <\/em>[New York: Praeger Publishers, 1990]: 113).<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, obsession with self and compassion for others became inseparably linked. Genuine \u201cmoral concern had become virtually indistinguishable from aesthetic posturing.\u201d[9]<\/a> So, as the twentieth century dawned, the revolution of ideas gave birth to a fully developed \u201csensitive man\u201d who, thanks to the twentieth century\u2019s Cultural Marxists, has become the \u201cvirtuous human\u201d who fixates on the alleged oppressor v. oppressed dynamic, publicly signaling one\u2019s virtue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n












9. Sykes, A Nation of Victims<\/em>, 79.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Hence, our therapeutic society transforms any disadvantage from a misfortune that needs to be overcome to the essence of existence and, thus, an entitlement to dependence on society. Virtue signalers coddle the alleged oppressed victim and condemn the oppressive circumstances and agents as victimizers. Two generations ago, Herbert Schlossberg correctly identified and rejected the politics of our therapeutic culture, which<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

exalts categories of weakness, sickness, helplessness, and anguish into virtues while it debases the strong and prosperous. In the country of ontological victimhood, strength is an affront. Denying the possibility of strength for the weak keeps them weak. Being freed from dependence would bring the victim back into the human family, responsible for himself and others. How much better to remain a victim, shielded from trouble and responsibility by altruism.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

10. Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction: Christian Faith and its Confrontation with American Society <\/em>(Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1983): 69\u201370.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Schlossberg\u2019s assessment appropriately applies to every form of alleged oppression. He also observes that Rousseau promoted embittered enviousness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Ressentiment <\/em>begins with a perceived injury that may have a basis in fact, but more often is occasioned by envy for the possessions or the qualities possessed by another person. Ressentiment <\/em>has its origin in the tendency to make comparisons between the attributes of another and one\u2019s own attributes: wealth, possessions, appearance, intelligence, personality, friends, and children. Any perceived difference is enough to set the pathology in motion.[11]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

11. Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction<\/em>, 51\u201352.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Once set in motion, the evil of the Rousseau-derived-embittered-victim worldview, enhanced by Cultural Marxism\u2019s \u201coppressed v. oppressors\u201d dynamic, expanded and intensified for both the alleged aggrieved victims and their virtue-signaling coddlers and handlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nature of Personal Agency in Scripture<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Victimization is almost as old as humanity. The Bible opens with the profound truth that human beings are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). Succinctly stated, this imago Dei<\/em> bestows to humanity personal agency, namely the ability to reason, the capability to make moral choices, and the accompanying moral accountability for every choice. Hence, in the Garden of Eden, God gave a clear command to Adam and Eve concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:16\u201317). Obedience would sustain life; disobedience would incur death. God granted agency to them\u2014and by extension, to us\u2014and holds us accountable for how we exercise it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Adam and Eve sinned, their initial response was to play the victim by shifting blame away from themselves to outside agents. Adam pointed to Eve, and Eve pointed to the serpent (Gen. 3:12\u201313). This act of deflection exemplifies the human tendency to avoid personal responsibility by casting oneself as a victim lacking agency. However, God did not absolve them of their choices. He addressed each one individually, summarizing the consequences of their actions (Genesis 3:14\u201319). This episode demonstrates that while external influences may tempt or influence us, each person remains a responsible agent accountable for their own decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Danger of Perpetual Victimhood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The doctrine of victimization diminishes if not denies personal agency by attributing all suffering, failure, or moral shortcomings not to personal choices, but to external forces. While injustices, oppression, and genuine harm are real and acknowledged in Scripture (e.g., Exod. 3:7\u20138, Isa. 1:17), the Bible also emphasizes the reality of personal agency, holding us accountable for our choices and actions, calling for repentance, and requiring us to mature in grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Proverbs 19:3 states, \u201cWhen a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord.\u201d This verse encapsulates the danger of a victimhood mentality, which encourages us to externalize blame rather than confront our own role in generating our circumstances. By doing so, it fosters bitterness, resentment, and rage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Biblical Balance: Recognizing Injustice Without Abdicating Responsibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Bible does not ignore or trivialize genuine oppression. Scripture is replete with accounts of people who suffered unjustly\u2014Joseph, Job, David, and Jesus Himself, to name a few. However, their responses to suffering illustrate a crucial truth: while external circumstances may be beyond our control, our response to them is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph\u2019s story is particularly instructive. Sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by Potiphar\u2019s wife, and imprisoned unjustly, Joseph had every reason to adopt a victimhood mindset. Yet, he chose to trust God, act with integrity, and faithfully steward his responsibilities. In Genesis 50:20, Joseph acknowledges human wrongdoing and, simultaneously, God\u2019s sovereign purpose: \u201cYou intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.\u201d Joseph\u2019s life demonstrates that acknowledging injustice does not preclude personal agency or trust in God\u2019s redemptive plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the Apostle Paul faced immense suffering\u2014beatings, imprisonment, shipwrecks, and betrayal (2 Cor. 11:23\u201328). Yet, he declared, \u201cI have learned to be content whatever the circumstances\u201d (Phil. 4:11). Paul\u2019s attitude reflects a profound understanding of personal agency rooted in dependence on Christ: \u201cI can do all this [i.e. endure every difficulty] through him who gives me strength\u201d (Phil. 4:13).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Call to Personal Accountability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Bible consistently calls on individuals to take responsibility for their choices and the consequences of those choices. Ezekiel 18:20\u201332 emphasizes individual accountability, rejecting the idea that children bear the guilt of their parents or vice versa. Instead, each person is judged in keeping with their own actions resulting from their own choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus also reinforced the principle of personal responsibility in His teachings. In the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14\u201330), the master entrusted his servants with varying amounts of money, expecting them to steward it wisely. The servant who buried his talent out of fear was rebuked, not because of external circumstances, but because he failed to act responsibly. Individuals are accountable for how they use their God-given abilities and opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Transformative Power of the Gospel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The doctrine of victimization routinely leaves individuals feeling powerless, trapped, and enslaved to the imagined whims of their alleged oppressors. In contrast, the gospel offers hope, transformation, and freedom. Through Christ\u2019s death and resurrection, believers are no longer defined by their past, wounds, or circumstances. Paul writes, \u201cTherefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!\u201d (2 Cor. 5:17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This new identity empowers believers to rise above victimhood. In Romans 8:37, Paul declares, \u201cIn all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.\u201d The phrase \u201cmore than conquerors\u201d speaks to a victory that not only overcomes adversity but transforms it into a testimony of God\u2019s grace and power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gospel also calls believers to be forgiving and forsake bitterness, which is key to breaking free from a victimhood mindset. Ephesians 4:31\u201332 exhorts, \u201cGet rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.\u201d Embracing an attitude toward those who afflict us marked by a readiness to forgive\u2014the opposite of bitterness and resentment\u2014does not negate the reality of wrongdoing, but it prepares us to grant forgiveness to those who sin against us when they acknowledge and repent of their sin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Sinful Woman\u2019s Story<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This essay argued for personal agency. But Jesus nor the Scripture writers settled for arguments alone. They brought arguments home to real people like you and me. One New York congressman took away the agency of the women he purported to help. For one \u201csinful woman,\u201d Jesus did the opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus ate with Pharisees when she entered the room\u2014\u201ca woman of the city, who was a sinner\u201d (Luke 7:36). We can imagine what sins made her famous. Almost certainly, she was involved in prostitution and sexual sin.[12]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

12. What else would a woman be known for by that label?\u00a0She would not be in a position to abuse servants or embezzle money.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

She kissed Jesus\u2019 feet, wet them with her tears, then wiped them with her hair. The Pharisees were upset with her, but more with Jesus. \u201cIf this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is \u2026 for she is a sinner\u201d (Luke 7:39).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pharisees granted her personal agency, but that is all. Jesus showed her compassion, yet not by reframing her plight as something that has happened to her, like a sickness.[13]<\/a> Instead, Jesus said to her, \u201cYour sins are forgiven\u201d (Luke 7:48).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

13. Thomas Sowell: \u201cMany of the words and phrases used in the media and among academics suggest that things simply happen to people, rather than being caused by their own choices or behavior. Thus, there is said to be an ‘epidemic’ of teenage pregnancy, or of drug usage, as if these things were like the flu that people\u00a0catch just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The Vision of the Anointed: Self-congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy<\/em> (Basic Books, 1995): 198.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

This lovely passage shows the kind of people Jesus forgives and the kind of love he forges in our hearts. But sitting under the surface of the text is an anomaly for our times, a truth basic for our gospel witness: she is a “sinful woman.” Whatever her circumstances, she had agency. And guilt. Luke was not unkind or unjust for saying so. In fact, it is the knowledge of sin that made it possible for her to love Jesus. “She loved much” because she was forgiven much (Luke 7:47).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pharisees of Jesus\u2019 day would leave us in our sins. By a trick with words, the political Pharisees of our day do the same. Yet to all who come to Jesus, he says still today, \u201cYour sins are forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unless we reject the dehumanizing project of the Neo-Marxist West, we cannot understand that statement. Unless we reject the false doctrine of victimization, we are dead in our sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are human beings with the privilege and responsibility of personal agency, a necessary pre-requisite to see our sinfulness and believe the gospel. God will surely judge us all in keeping with our exercise of agency, as Romans 2:6\u20138 attests, \u201cHe will render to each one according to his works:to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life;but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Playing the victim” has never been more popular. How did we get here, and how can Christians fight against narratives that rob our personhood?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18196,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":""Playing the victim" has never been more popular. 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Ardel completed the MDiv and ThM at Grace Theological Seminary and the PhD in New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a founding teaching elder of Christ Bible Church (Roseville, MN). He co-edited with Matthew Barrett Four Views on the Historical Adam<\/i>, co-authored with Thomas R. Schreiner The Race Set Before Us<\/i>, and has published many articles in Christian magazines, journals, books, and online."},{"term_id":23,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"trent-hunter","display_name":"Trent Hunter","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/trent-hunter.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/trent-hunter.jpg"},"author_category":"","job_title":"","church_city_state":"","last_name":"Hunter","first_name":"Trent","church_site":"","user_url":"http:\/\/www.trenthunter.net\/","description":"Trent Hunter<\/b><\/a> is the pastor for preaching and teaching at Heritage Bible Church<\/a> in Greer, South Carolina. Trent is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Graphical Greek<\/i>, an electronic reference guide for biblical Greek, Joshua<\/i> in Crossway's Knowing the Bible series, and is co-author of Christ from Beginning to End: How the Full Story of Scripture Reveals the Full Glory of Christ<\/I>. Trent is an Instructor for the Charles Simeon Trust Workshops on Biblical Exposition."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18179"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18194,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18179\/revisions\/18194"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18179"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-reference","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-reference?post=18179"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=18179"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christoverall.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=18179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}