Jerry Falwell’s Perverse Need to be the Victim

There is something profoundly disturbing in the trend among self-proclaimed “conservative Christians” who use the troubles in their life as a shield against criticism.

Today Jerry Falwell revealed that his wife had an affair. Now, I’m a fan of transparency, so I applaud the dude coming forward and saying he’s been suffering depression after her brief affair with a family friend and the friend’s subsequent alleged blackmail. I can even feel bad for him.

But his response has been right in line with the trend among at least 35% of this country, who have a victim fetish. “I have suffered and therefore you cannot hold me accountable for my actions!”

Perhaps the fetishism grows directly out of their view of Jesus as a victim, a martyr, rather than a teacher and leader. Certainly Catholicism spent at least a millennia fetishizing victims by martyring a whole bunch of people. If you are a saint for how you die, then the worse the death, the greater the saintliness.

This stems from the idea that suffering ennobles, which is a crock. Suffering can be a crucible that reveals character. But suffering does not, inherently, ennoble. Bad things happening in your life does not mean you are noble or better. How you respond to those bad things determines your nobility.

Last week we heard a lot about how Joe Biden responded to suffering — with compassion, with love, with growth, with understanding, and with humility. But here’s the thing — he never…