Instructed into Captivity

Culture has turned victimhood into a religion. It is the ultimate social currency. We are constantly encouraged to find a way to classify ourselves as oppressed—by the system, by history, by the nuclear family, or by traditional morality. But if we are honest, true oppression is rare compared to what is actually happening to this generation.

Most people are not oppressed; they are instructed.

The world did not put you in chains; it discipled you. You were *taught* to be perpetually offended. You were *instructed* to view every human interaction as a toxic power struggle. You were trained to resent God’s design, to medicate your sorrow, to dismantle your own home, and to find your entire identity in your unhealed trauma. You are not the victim of a hostile system; you are the willing student of a destructive philosophy.

The danger of the victim mentality is that it is a very comfortable prison. As long as you believe you are merely a helpless victim of your circumstances, you never have to take responsibility for your sin, your choices, or your healing. It keeps you completely paralyzed, sitting in the dirt, waiting for an apology from a world that does not care about you.

Jesus Christ does not coddle the victim mentality. When He approached the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, He did not validate the man's excuses—He commanded him to pick up his mat and walk.

Freedom begins when you stop blaming the phantom of oppression and start actively rejecting the lies you have been instructed to believe. You must stop letting a degenerate culture dictate your reality. You have to unlearn the world if you want to know the Savior.