This is a Christian TikToker named Taylor Rousseau, she has half a million followers
and she thinks that the covid vaccine is a way to implant a microchip which is the mark of the beast
of something? I guess so that the demonic New World Order can track and control you?
It sounds crazy, but none of that is important for this video, because what I really want to
talk about comes next. She acts like this is all part of a plot to target and persecute Christians.
And then starts acting it out with fake ketchup blood and everything.
And then gets almost giddy at the thought of being slaughtered for Jesus.
And before you accuse me of simply highlighting some lone conservative nut,
she's hardly alone in this incredibly disturbing martyrdom fantasy...
Here's a guy showing off his willingness to take a bullet to show Jesus just how dedicated he is.
And this girl is role playing a scenario in which she gets to die for her faith.
“30 seconds! Alright! 29 more seconds till I die! Oh I’m so excited!”
In fact, there's an entire corner of TikTok just
dedicated to Christians sharing how willing they are to die for Jesus.
Hey Christians, if you’re being persecuted and hated for doing God’s work and doing his will,
you’re doing something right.
Face the right. Face forward. Can I see? Get back!
In case Jesus wasn’t convinced, they’ve even got fake gore.
If you weren't raised in the church, some of you might think they're mentally ill,
and while I can't speak for them individually, I guarantee you,
as someone who used to be just like them, that there are perfectly sane Christians
all around the world saying or thinking similar things - this is just what indoctrination looks
like. You see, I know exactly what's going on inside of the mind of these evangelicals,
broadcasting their martyrdom fantasies, because I used to be just like them.
I wasn't just an evangelical Christian, I was a missionary kid in the Muslim
world who's life revolved around Jesus. My indoctrination into my faith started before
I could read - before I could talk or even crawl. I was dedicated to God in a church as an infant.
It’s not like baby-me had any say in the matter, and by the time I reached the age of reason,
the Bible was systematically ingrained in me, and I believed it so thoroughly that
I would later become a youth pastor, missionary, worship leader, and more.
In church, various pastors growing up would warn us about the impending persecution that awaits
Christians in this wicked and sinful world and admonish us to hold fast to the faith,
even if it might cost us our lives - which when hammered into you Sunday after Sunday,
often accompanied with dramatic music, makes it feel like it’s an inevitable certainty.
People who had died for their faith were glorified as heroes. I was raised on stories
of great martyrs like the apostle Stephen who was stoned to death for refusing to deny
Jesus and Peter who was crucified upside down for Christ. And who could forget Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abednego who were thrown into a fiery furnace for worshiping God and not
bowing down to King Nebuchadnezzar - only this time they were actually saved by God.
Captivated by these Biblical heroes of the faith,
I learned about missionaries like Jim Eliot and four other missionaries who were killed
while sharing the gospel with the Ecuadorian Auca tribe. Or Vanya, the allegedly “totally
true” story of a Russian soldier who performed miracles, floated out of his body, and was
taken to see the new earth God was preparing before eventually being killed for his faith.
My Christian textbooks reverently depicted William Tyndale who was burned at the stake
for translating the Bible into English. Although they didn’t really dwell on the
fact that he was killed by other Christians! I learned of early church martyrs like Polycarp,
Boniface, and the aptly-named Justin Martyr.
And if you think the Protestant glorification of martyrdom is over-the-top, Catholics take
it a step further, and literally display the bones of martyrs for public veneration.
Wow! What an exciting prospect! Maybe if you die for Jesus,
YOUR bones could end up in a creepy church somewhere too!
Now, these stories were read to us as kids and were depicted as worthy,
noble examples to live by.
I was taught God's law is higher than man's law,
that whoever loses his life for God would gain eternal life, but that this life is
meaningless without God and it's a tragedy to save your life but lose your soul.
And just like that, this precious, rare, and singular life was utterly devalued.
To people not raised in this kind of an environment, it may sound weird,
but if I’m brutally honest, there were times when I would ruminate about hypothetical
scenarios where I might be asked to choose between my life and my faith. Almost like a
mental test of fealty to my heavenly father - preparing myself in advance for the seemingly
inevitable persecution I felt I was bound to face at some point in the near future.
Now, it's not like we were encouraged to go looking for martyrdom opportunities
I didn’t want to die. I never suffered from chronic depression or suicidal ideation,
and I loved living and I still love life. But the way these stories were told instilled in
me a reverence for and almost an excitement about the thought of getting an opportunity to one day
lay down my life for Jesus. To show him I was a "Good and faithful servant of the Kingdom of God."
And what better way to show Jesus I really loved
him than to die for him when the time came? After all, he straight up said,
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.”
And later urged us to take up our crosses and follow him - a
command to follow Jesus even to our deaths!
“He didn’t refer to a cross as just a difficulty in life or a hassle or a problem. It means if
you’re going to follow Jesus, you gotta follow him where he went. And where did he go? To the cross.
You take up your cross. What begins with a desire that includes a denial puts you on a death march.
A willingness to give up life itself, if need be.” - manipulatively dropping in a statement
that anyone who denies him here on earth he’ll deny before his father in heaven. “Whoever
denies me before men, him, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven.” Honestly,
if Jesus was God he’d know that a real friend wouldn’t pressure you to die for them and
threaten non-compliance with eternal hellfire. But I didn’t see it that way at the time.
Now we've all seen videos of kids in Iraq or Syria holding RPGs or Ak-47s
and we instantly recognize religious brainwashing and extremist ideology.
But often are oblivious to what's happening in our own backyard. I'm not saying that blondie
here is going to shoot up a gay nightclub or bomb an abortion clinic but the mindset
laying the pavement on the road to extremism is already in place.
The closest emotion I can compare this kind of brainwashing to is:
I remember hearing stories of North Korean refugees who escaped their country’s
all-encompassing authoritarian dictatorship. Their entire lives they’d been fed lies
about the outside world - raised on propaganda glorifying their dear leader and savior
(Kim Jung Il at the time) “Herro!” to the point where even years later, when they knew it was all
bogus, they’d admit that just seeing an image of him or watching a North Korean propaganda
video would still tug an emotional cord and illicit feelings of heart-felt yearning.
I was brainwashed. Like me, most of these TikTok kids aren't suicidal or insane either.
They're brainwashed.
If you want a bit more of an in-depth look at the Christian embrace of martyrdom. I did an
entire video on John Allen Chau, the missionary who went to North Sentinel Island to preach
the gospel to the indigenous tribe there, knowing full well he’d likely be executed.
This kind of thinking is an absolute waste and the result
is an utter tragedy. And millions of kids around the world are fantasizing about it.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. If I was able to find my way out, anybody can.
And if you related to this at all, I really want to hear about it,
and I’m sure others do too. So hit the like button and drop a comment below to share your story.
It’s incredibly empowering to find out that you’re not alone.We want to hear your story.
Finally, thank you to everyone who supports the show, either through merchandise purchases,
through pledges on Patreon where there are various perks depending on how much you pledge per video,
through Paypal donations, or just by sharing my videos. Also, huge thank you to people who
helped me get some of the gear and stuff for the studio on my amazon wishlist. Without you guys,
Holy Koolaid wouldn’t be possible. So thank you! Massive thank you! And as always,
dare to be curious, but don’t drink the Koolaid!