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"Jesus Christ himself and his disciples also faced persecution, he said."

Let's talk about the Beatitude Bamboozle.

mexiconewsdaily.com/news/followers…
There are nine "blesseds" in the Beatitudes as recorded in Matthew's Gospel. White evangelical "persecuted" hegemons have boiled that list down to just one -- the last one: "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you."
That's the abridged version of Matthew 5:11. It necessarily leaves off the last bit: "... utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." The two qualifiers there -- "falsely" and "on my account" -- make this verse less useful for those using to attack their critics.
That's what the Beatitudes Bamboozle is -- a way of avoiding any and all criticism by flipping it into an attack on the critics. It's a false syllogism based on a twisted twisting of the following verse, Matthew 5:12.
"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
The prophets were persecuted. And the prophets were righteous. WE are being "persecuted" (i.e., criticized, questioned, indicted for raping minors, told that our religious liberty also applies to others, etc.). Therefore WE must be righteous. It's just math, people.
The beauty of the Beatitude Bamboozle is it let's you provide "evidence" of your blessed righteousness by deliberately doing appalling things. Be a dick. Get criticized for being a dick. Cite criticism as proof of persecution & therefore proof of righteousness. DC al coda.
The Beatitude Bamboozle is the last refuge for any group of Christians that has lost all interest in any of the OTHER Beatitudes & dimly recognizes they have no legit business trying to apply any of them to their clan (klan).
"Blessed are the poor"? Nah. They don't believe it and don't want anything to do with any such blessing. Not even when Matthew pulls Jesus' punch by spiritualizing that into a fuzzier "poor in spirit."
"Blessed are those who mourn"? Ugh, no thank you. "The meek"? Wimps and losers. "Those who hunger and thirst for justice"? No. Not even if we carefully translate away the word "justice" to the more elastic "righteousness."
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy"? Who needs it? Not us, we're the righteous, remember? (Plus the quid-pro-quo implications of this & every other Gospel reference to mercy/forgiveness is terrifying. And Pelagian heresy.)
"Blessed are the pure in heart"? Nah. Purity ain't about your heart. That's about 18 inches too high. Everything we have to say about "purity" involves what's in your pants, not what's in your chest.
"Blessed are the peacemakers"? No way. Wars are for winning, not for avoiding. The Antichrist is going to be a peacemaker, so we have to pre-emptively reject all peacemakers as potential Antichrists (even though we long for the arrival of the Antichrist -- it's complicated).
"Blessed are those who are persecuted ..." Ooh, sounds promising. WE are persecuted, right? What with prayer in schools and "Will and Grace" and whatnot. "... for justice's sake." Ugh, nevermind. We're not a bunch of SJWs. They're the BAD Guys.
So that only leaves one Blessing we qualify for, only one Blessing we want or seek or desire. Getting reviled. Getting reviled by "the world" becomes our goal -- a goal that's really rather easy to achieve. Just inspire other's revulsion. Be revolting. It's revolutionary!
Anyway, here's a useful rule of thumb: Whenever you hear some Christian loudly proclaiming Matthew 5:11-12, recognize that this is a person who has no interest and no claim to Matthew 5:3-10.
And then keep an eye on your wallet and don't let the Beatitude Bamboozler be alone with children.
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