Thinkage [updated]

“Have you ever noticed that when your friends tell you about conflict with co-workers or lovers, you almost always feel like they were wronged?  What are the odds, really?  Seeing ourselves and our tribe as innocent victims draws sympathy and support and protects self- esteem...when we cultivate the sense that we have been wronged, we can’t see the wrong that we ourselves are doing.  We also give up our power to make things better.  If people keep being mean to us through no fault of our own, we’re helpless as well as victims, at least in our own minds.  You can’t fix what you can’t see. “In the case of Christianity, the theology of persecution serves to give the faithful hope…But it has also blinded generations of believers to the possibility that sometimes the hardships they face are due not to their faith or outsiders hating Jesus, but to the fact that they hit first.” -- Valerie Tarico, Why Right-Wing Christians Think They're America's Most Persecuted