Resurrection Day - 21 April 2019: Terrorist Attacks on Churches and hotels in Sri Lanka
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48010697
https://www.assistnews.net/christian-emergency-network-on-a…
https://www.assistnews.net/gospel-for-asia-grieves-social-w…
https://www.assistnews.net/burmese-supreme-court-rejects-re…
https://www.assistnews.net/cuban-pastor-ramon-rigal-and-wif…
https://www.christianpersecution.com/category/nigeria/
https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigeria-security-tracker-weekly-update-march-9-15
https://bitterwinter.org/tag/christian-faith-in-china/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2IrmBRCJARIsAJZDdxAXVfLGvyHTYnyrv8jwFkmNNXXo8oVrRbtejdWyd788G0MBsJAsUTgaAlscEALw_wcB
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-48010697
https://www.assistnews.net/christian-emergency-network-on-a…
https://www.assistnews.net/gospel-for-asia-grieves-social-w…
https://www.assistnews.net/burmese-supreme-court-rejects-re…
https://www.assistnews.net/cuban-pastor-ramon-rigal-and-wif…
https://www.christianpersecution.com/category/nigeria/
https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigeria-security-tracker-weekly-update-march-9-15
https://bitterwinter.org/tag/christian-faith-in-china/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw2IrmBRCJARIsAJZDdxAXVfLGvyHTYnyrv8jwFkmNNXXo8oVrRbtejdWyd788G0MBsJAsUTgaAlscEALw_wcB
Due to the fact that there is an ongoing global assault and persecution of Christians including genocide in areas like North Africa, Iraq and Syria, I have not been updating this page very frequently finding it difficult to choose just one or two from the many accounts of persecution coming through various news agencies and individuals. In fact there is currently persecution of Christians taking place in some 40 countries around the world according to information from Voice of the Martyrs.
Needless to say I implore you to intercede and pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being imprisoned, abused, tortured and slaughtered in Islamic and Communist countries because of their faith in the Living God. I praise God for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini after 3 years in prison in Iran and request you pray for his psychological and physical healing and for the well being of his wife and children too. However there are many other Christians languishing in hell-hole prisons, suffering unimaginable torture and abuse (in atheistic and communist regimes also) and although I am sure God is well aware of this, I believe we are required to lift them up in our prayers and intercede for them and their families. God has promised he "will avenge" but we have a part to play as well. The Apostle John wrote the following account whilst he was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos:
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.
Revelation 6:9-11 (NLT)
We cannot sit by comfortably in the West, ignoring the plight of the rest of the Body of Christ. We are all one in Him. The church (ecclesia) is a living organism not a building made of bricks, mortar and timber, but a living body in the flesh and we are all a part of that one body. As we take care of our own physical bodies, we also need to be aware and taking care of each part of the Body of Christ, not favouring one part for another. Just as the Apostle Paul wrote the following to the Corinthians speaking about the "One Body, Many Parts" that makes up the church:
Unity and Diversity in the Body
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27(NIV)
I would also encourage you to intercede for the Kurds, the Yazidis, Bahai's, Zoroastrians and other minority groups living in areas being targeted by ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Jihadists throughout Northern Africa, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria to name but a few. People caught between warring Islamic factions including the Shia/Sunni rivalry seeking world-wide domination wreaking havoc in neighbouring countries, and at the same time calling for the annihilation of Israel.
For more up-to-date information of persecution around the world please use this link to Voice of the Martyrs website: http://www.persecution.com/public/restrictednations.aspx
Also, Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/2017s-top-10-read-stories-persecuted-church/
And, Barnabas Fund: https://barnabasfund.org/
According to Monica Cantilero writing for Christian Today (CT):
Christians face religious persecution in more countries than any other religious group, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.
Persecution has resulted in a sharp decline of the Christian population in the Middle East, according to the New York Times. In Iraq, less than half a million Christians are left since many have already left after being targeted by extremists for more than a decade, a Times report said.
The problem turned from bad to worse with the rise of the Islamic State as it intensified the Muslim persecution of Christians and other minorities as part of its campaign of terror in the region, the report said.
Now, "Christianity is under an existential threat," said Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the US House of Representatives and an advocate of Eastern Christians.
In Syria, President Bashar Assad has allowed Christians to leave the country since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Nearly a third of Syria's estimated 600,000 Christians have fled, having been driven out by terrorist groups like the Nusra Front and now ISIS, the Times said.
Assad has used the ISIS rise to solidify his own support among those who remain, contending that he is the only thing stopping the group from taking over Syria, according to the report.
"When Christians saw Christians being beheaded, those who saw Assad as the enemy chose the lesser of two evils," Samy Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb party in Lebanon, told the Times.
The number of Christians in the Middle East—in countries like Egypt, *Israel, Palestine, and Jordan—has dropped to roughly 4 percent of their respective population from a high of 14 percent, according to the Guardian.
The British publication pointed out that the persecution of Christians started not with ISIS, but 10 years ago after the US- and British-led invasion of Iraq.
Prior to the invasion, "under Saddam Hussein's rule, Christians in fact enjoyed what they now recall as a golden age. They were free to worship and played a full role in society. However, the removal of the dictator let loose an ugly Shia-Sunni power struggle," The Guardian said.
ISIS is justifying its persecution of Christians and other minorities through its own twisted version of the early history of Christians in the Middle East, the paper said.
Recently posted videos by the group claim Christians are second-class citizens in the caliphate who have to pay the "jizya" tax or convert. Those who refuse would be killed, the narrator warned, as footages of the persecution of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians in Libya are shown.
The embattled Christians and other minorities are now looking up to US and other Western countries to save them from annihilation.
"How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?" said Nuri Kino, a journalist who founded the advocacy group Demand for Action.
The group said the beleaguered Christians and minorities need urgent support from the West.
This sentiment was expressed after the UN Security Council met this spring to discuss the situation of religious minorities in Iraq. Following the meeting, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other activists expressed anger at the United States for its apparent indifference to the plight of minorities in Iraq and Syria.
"If we attend to minority rights only after the slaughter has begun, then we have already failed, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein.
Since October 2013, the US has only provided $416 million in humanitarian aid, far from what is needed, he said.
"Americans and the West were telling us they came to bring democracy, freedom, and prosperity," said Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon who spoke before the Security Council, in an email. "What we are living is anarchy, war, death, and the plight of three million refugees."
*Israel is the one country in the Middle East where Christians can freely follow their faith without fear of persecution, the freedom of Religion is guaranteed in legislation. The author of the article in 'The Guardian' has erroneously included Israel with countries where persecution of Christians is rife and subsequently the numbers of Christians in those countries has decreased. Some through migrating to the West, others through mass executions. I would question the figures reporting a decrease in Christians in Israel and respectfully submit there is an increase with Israel offering sanctuary to Iraqi (Chaldean & Aramean) Christians since 1991.
Needless to say I implore you to intercede and pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are being imprisoned, abused, tortured and slaughtered in Islamic and Communist countries because of their faith in the Living God. I praise God for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini after 3 years in prison in Iran and request you pray for his psychological and physical healing and for the well being of his wife and children too. However there are many other Christians languishing in hell-hole prisons, suffering unimaginable torture and abuse (in atheistic and communist regimes also) and although I am sure God is well aware of this, I believe we are required to lift them up in our prayers and intercede for them and their families. God has promised he "will avenge" but we have a part to play as well. The Apostle John wrote the following account whilst he was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos:
When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony. They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?” Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters—their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred—had joined them.
Revelation 6:9-11 (NLT)
We cannot sit by comfortably in the West, ignoring the plight of the rest of the Body of Christ. We are all one in Him. The church (ecclesia) is a living organism not a building made of bricks, mortar and timber, but a living body in the flesh and we are all a part of that one body. As we take care of our own physical bodies, we also need to be aware and taking care of each part of the Body of Christ, not favouring one part for another. Just as the Apostle Paul wrote the following to the Corinthians speaking about the "One Body, Many Parts" that makes up the church:
Unity and Diversity in the Body
Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honourable we treat with special honour. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honour to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:12-27(NIV)
I would also encourage you to intercede for the Kurds, the Yazidis, Bahai's, Zoroastrians and other minority groups living in areas being targeted by ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Jihadists throughout Northern Africa, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria to name but a few. People caught between warring Islamic factions including the Shia/Sunni rivalry seeking world-wide domination wreaking havoc in neighbouring countries, and at the same time calling for the annihilation of Israel.
For more up-to-date information of persecution around the world please use this link to Voice of the Martyrs website: http://www.persecution.com/public/restrictednations.aspx
Also, Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/stories/2017s-top-10-read-stories-persecuted-church/
And, Barnabas Fund: https://barnabasfund.org/
According to Monica Cantilero writing for Christian Today (CT):
Christians face religious persecution in more countries than any other religious group, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center.
Persecution has resulted in a sharp decline of the Christian population in the Middle East, according to the New York Times. In Iraq, less than half a million Christians are left since many have already left after being targeted by extremists for more than a decade, a Times report said.
The problem turned from bad to worse with the rise of the Islamic State as it intensified the Muslim persecution of Christians and other minorities as part of its campaign of terror in the region, the report said.
Now, "Christianity is under an existential threat," said Anna Eshoo, a California Democrat in the US House of Representatives and an advocate of Eastern Christians.
In Syria, President Bashar Assad has allowed Christians to leave the country since the civil war broke out in 2011.
Nearly a third of Syria's estimated 600,000 Christians have fled, having been driven out by terrorist groups like the Nusra Front and now ISIS, the Times said.
Assad has used the ISIS rise to solidify his own support among those who remain, contending that he is the only thing stopping the group from taking over Syria, according to the report.
"When Christians saw Christians being beheaded, those who saw Assad as the enemy chose the lesser of two evils," Samy Gemayel, leader of the Kataeb party in Lebanon, told the Times.
The number of Christians in the Middle East—in countries like Egypt, *Israel, Palestine, and Jordan—has dropped to roughly 4 percent of their respective population from a high of 14 percent, according to the Guardian.
The British publication pointed out that the persecution of Christians started not with ISIS, but 10 years ago after the US- and British-led invasion of Iraq.
Prior to the invasion, "under Saddam Hussein's rule, Christians in fact enjoyed what they now recall as a golden age. They were free to worship and played a full role in society. However, the removal of the dictator let loose an ugly Shia-Sunni power struggle," The Guardian said.
ISIS is justifying its persecution of Christians and other minorities through its own twisted version of the early history of Christians in the Middle East, the paper said.
Recently posted videos by the group claim Christians are second-class citizens in the caliphate who have to pay the "jizya" tax or convert. Those who refuse would be killed, the narrator warned, as footages of the persecution of Egyptian and Ethiopian Christians in Libya are shown.
The embattled Christians and other minorities are now looking up to US and other Western countries to save them from annihilation.
"How much longer can we flee before we and other minorities become a story in a history book?" said Nuri Kino, a journalist who founded the advocacy group Demand for Action.
The group said the beleaguered Christians and minorities need urgent support from the West.
This sentiment was expressed after the UN Security Council met this spring to discuss the situation of religious minorities in Iraq. Following the meeting, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other activists expressed anger at the United States for its apparent indifference to the plight of minorities in Iraq and Syria.
"If we attend to minority rights only after the slaughter has begun, then we have already failed, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein.
Since October 2013, the US has only provided $416 million in humanitarian aid, far from what is needed, he said.
"Americans and the West were telling us they came to bring democracy, freedom, and prosperity," said Louis Sako, the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch of Babylon who spoke before the Security Council, in an email. "What we are living is anarchy, war, death, and the plight of three million refugees."
*Israel is the one country in the Middle East where Christians can freely follow their faith without fear of persecution, the freedom of Religion is guaranteed in legislation. The author of the article in 'The Guardian' has erroneously included Israel with countries where persecution of Christians is rife and subsequently the numbers of Christians in those countries has decreased. Some through migrating to the West, others through mass executions. I would question the figures reporting a decrease in Christians in Israel and respectfully submit there is an increase with Israel offering sanctuary to Iraqi (Chaldean & Aramean) Christians since 1991.
Humanitarian Crises of 2017
31 December 2017
This past year has been extremely difficult for some people. Hundreds of thousands of refugees or displaced persons and millions of people on the brink of starvation are the result of sectarian conflicts and corrupt leadership around the world.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has identified 12 areas that have been key crises of 2017 and will likely deteriorate into 2018. Israeli media, Ynet, covered some of these in their ‘Worst Crises of 2017’.
Myanmar
On August 25 there were two major events in the world – one made headlines around the globe, was covered 24/7, and its implications and damage are still evident. The other event didn’t get as much media coverage, but it may have become the worst humanitarian crisis of 2017. Many people will remember Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas, but fewer will be aware of the Myanmar military operation against The Muslim Rohingyas – an even that has been called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”.
Thirty-eight people were killed in the level 4 hurricane, and the damage is estimated at about $200 billion. Doctors Without Borders says that only in the first month of violence in Rakhine, Myanmar, the home of the Muslim minority, were 6,700 people killed, including 700 children under the age of five.
Myanmar is a country with a predominantly Buddhist population, and for many years the Rohingyas were persecuted by the authorities and by extreme Buddhists, but the military operation that began on August 25 was a significant increase in violence against them. According to human rights groups, the Myanmar army set fire to whole villages of Rohingyas and entire families, including those locked in their homes and burned to death. However, they managed to escape the horrors and crossed the border to neighbouring Bangladesh and are now in extremely crowded refugee camps and under harsh sanitary conditions.
As of December 2017, 860,000 Rohingyas were living in refugee camps in the Kux Bazaar district of Bangladesh – about 600,000 of them came in the current wave of violence. The refugees, most of them women and children, suffer from trauma, and some suffer injuries from gunfire, shrapnel, fire and mines. The refugee camps in Bangladesh, which are already overcrowded, have difficulty providing basic services such as drinking water, medical care and sanitation. It is quite possible that we will hear about the outbreak of serious diseases among the Muslim refugees in Bangladesh in 2018.
The Myanmar government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, claims that the country’s army only responded to rebel attacks and that the military operation in the state of Rakhine was directed against “terrorists”. The government also claims that it was the rebels who set fire to the villages of their own people, the Rohingyas. Meanwhile, Bangladesh and Myanmar have agreed to return hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to their country – but it is not clear exactly how this agreement will be implemented, who will guarantee the security of the Muslim minority and exactly where they are supposed to return after their villages have been destroyed.
Yemen
While there was a media frenzy over President Trump’s announcement he was moving the US embassy to West Jerusalem, few people will be aware that he made a much more serious announcement just after that headline-grabbing speech. While moving the US embassy to Jerusalem has been US policy since at least 1995, it was unusual for the US President to directly call on Saudi Arabia to lift the blockade of Yemen.
The figures from Yemen are appalling: 8.4 million are in danger of starvation, more than one million are infected with cholera, 8,600 are killed in the war, and 49,000 are wounded.
The United Nations held an emergency session, called by Turkey and Yemen, to claim that the announcement in some way was “imperilling the two-State solution”. Yet there has been no emergency session or Security Council resolutions even put forward to deal with the crisis in Yemen.
Venezuela
The economic crisis worsened in Venezuela, which until three decades ago was a strong and stable economy in South America. Venezuela has inflation in the hundreds of percent, high unemployment rates, and a severe shortage of basic commodities.
Hunger and distress have brought hundreds of thousands to the streets in the past year. Despite protests weakening, citizens remain hungry. The chronic shortage is sending millions to seek food wherever possible. According to a study published this year that nearly 75 percent of the country’s population lost 8.7 kilograms, and 81 percent of Venezuelan households are now living in income poverty.
Last September, President Maduro blamed “imperialists” for waging an “economic war” on Venezuela and suggested that people raise rabbits for food. However, starving Venezuelans looked for other solutions and have reportedly stolen animals from the zoo for food.
Gaza
The main problem on the Gazan agenda in the past year has been the electricity crisis. This year the crisis reached new heights, precisely because of the Palestinian Authority imposed a series of sanctions on the Gaza Strip to exhaust the Hamas administration. However, but those who suffered from the endless battle between Hamas and Fatah were the civilians.
As part of the sanctions, the Palestinian Authority stopped paying for diesel that is used to fuel the Gaza power plant. However, the sanctions have been tightened, and the PA has informed Israel that it is also ceasing to pay for electricity transferred to Gaza. As a result, electricity supply to an average home in Gaza has been reduced to two to three hours a day. The severe crisis in the Gaza Strip forced Hamas to pay Egypt to transport diesel to the power plant.
More than just electricity; the water in the Gaza Strip is salty, the sewage is being pumped into the sea to save electricity, and the unemployment rate is skyrocketing. The situation in the hospitals in Gaza is also bad. Only last week, work at Shifa Hospital – the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip – was halted due to severe sanitation problems after cleaning staff were not being paid. The Palestinian Health Minister transferred 1.8m shekels to solve the problem but the Palestinian Authority continues to delay deliveries of medicine.
Sudan
In 2011, South Sudan celebrated independence and became the 193rd country in the world. The streets of the capital Juba were filled with crowds of celebrants, foreign leaders came to welcome and participate in the historic status and euphoria prevailed everywhere. But six years later, the youngest country in the world has no real cause for celebration.
In December 2013, a new conflict broke out in the region when South Sudanese President Salva Kiir accused his deputy, Riek Machar, of planning a military coup against him. The war between the two officials escalated into a violent confrontation between the South Sudanese army and forces loyal to the rest of the country, characterized by ethnic warfare, sexual violence, starvation, and war crimes.
In December, a cease-fire agreement was signed by the two militant sides in South Sudan, with the ultimate attempt to end the civil war and bloodshed. The young state will need large international aid to get on its feet, rebuild itself and bring millions of people back to their homes. However, it seems that as long as the ethnic conflict is not resolved, the future does not hold much hope for the population who, in the past two years, have given up their independence celebrations due to the difficult economic and security situation.
Published on March 21, 2016
Kay Wilson speaking at the UN HRC on behalf of the Amuta for NGO Responsibility, NGO Monitor's parent body. Kay is a survivor of a brutal terrorist attack. https://youtu.be/0xf1qbSmSkw - Kay Wilson Al Quds Counter Protest full speech June 18 2017, London |
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Published on May 26, 2017
Masked militants riding in three SUVs opened fire Friday on a bus packed with Coptic Christians, including children, south of the Egyptian capital, killing at least 28 people and wounding 22, the Interior Ministry said. CGTN's Yasser Hakim reports. |
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Published on April 17, 2015
Video from UN web TV. The Persecution of Christians Globally: A Threat to International Peace and Security Speaker: Brigitte Gabriel |
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Published on April 17, 2015 A video from UN web TV. The Persecution of Christians Globally: A Threat to International Peace and Security. Speaker: Jonathan Cahn |
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Jihadists Escalate the Persecution and Slaughter of Christians Worldwide
In recent days and weeks, we’ve witnessed and unprecedented escalation of radical Islamic violence and persecution of Christians in the Middle East and North Africa.
In Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and a number of other countries in the region, radical jihadists are literally slaughtering Christians. They are pillaging Christian villages and burning churches.
In Nigeria, the radical Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continued their killing spree, massacring 30 Christians as they worshipped and burning down four churches this past weekend. Experts continue to reiterate that “Christians are one of the explicit targets of Boko Haram.”
In Iraq, ISIS terrorists are targeting Christians and destroying churches. There are stories of forced taxes, rape, kidnapping, murder, and other horrendous persecution of Christians by ISIS militants. It’s believed that since 2003, two-thirds of Iraq’s Christian population has fled. Some experts believe the number of Christians there could dwindle to as little as 50,000 in the next 10 years due to increasing persecution.
ISIS’s leader has declared a “caliphate,” an Islamic state, in Iraq and Syria and has demanded the imposition of Islamic Shariah Law. Experts have described the goal and brutality of ISIS as “annihilating Middle Eastern Christians.” In Syria, ISIS has actually crucified 9 people in recent days.
In Sudan, government officials destroyed a church and at least 10 Christians have been murdered in recent months. Christian mom Meriam Ibrahim, who was previously on death row for her faith, is still being prevented from leaving the country, as she faces new possible charges and a lawsuit by Islamic family members.
Pastor Saeed is still imprisoned in Iran. Hamas terrorists are bombarding Israeli civilians with more rockets (nearly 150 rockets in the last 24 hours). The examples of radical Islamic brutality in the region are as seemingly endless as they are breathtaking.
Yet despite the well documented, targeted radical Islamic persecution of Christians in the region, the outcry from the White House has been muffled to say the least.
It is incumbent on the U.S. to be a piercing light for religious liberty in the dark of this oppression. America, the land of religious freedom, cannot be silent as radical jihadists attempt to wipe Christianity from the face of the earth.
At the ACLJ, we fight daily for religious freedom, and we are urging the U.S. government to use every diplomatic option available to defend persecuted Christians worldwide. Join tens of thousands, and sign the Petition to Stand with Christians in the Middle East.
The persecution of Christians must end, and the U.S. must retake its place as a champion for religious freedom on the world stage.
This article is crossposted on Red State.
Tags » islamic, Radical, Christians, persecution, ISIS, Pastor Saeed, jihadists
In Nigeria, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, and a number of other countries in the region, radical jihadists are literally slaughtering Christians. They are pillaging Christian villages and burning churches.
In Nigeria, the radical Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram continued their killing spree, massacring 30 Christians as they worshipped and burning down four churches this past weekend. Experts continue to reiterate that “Christians are one of the explicit targets of Boko Haram.”
In Iraq, ISIS terrorists are targeting Christians and destroying churches. There are stories of forced taxes, rape, kidnapping, murder, and other horrendous persecution of Christians by ISIS militants. It’s believed that since 2003, two-thirds of Iraq’s Christian population has fled. Some experts believe the number of Christians there could dwindle to as little as 50,000 in the next 10 years due to increasing persecution.
ISIS’s leader has declared a “caliphate,” an Islamic state, in Iraq and Syria and has demanded the imposition of Islamic Shariah Law. Experts have described the goal and brutality of ISIS as “annihilating Middle Eastern Christians.” In Syria, ISIS has actually crucified 9 people in recent days.
In Sudan, government officials destroyed a church and at least 10 Christians have been murdered in recent months. Christian mom Meriam Ibrahim, who was previously on death row for her faith, is still being prevented from leaving the country, as she faces new possible charges and a lawsuit by Islamic family members.
Pastor Saeed is still imprisoned in Iran. Hamas terrorists are bombarding Israeli civilians with more rockets (nearly 150 rockets in the last 24 hours). The examples of radical Islamic brutality in the region are as seemingly endless as they are breathtaking.
Yet despite the well documented, targeted radical Islamic persecution of Christians in the region, the outcry from the White House has been muffled to say the least.
It is incumbent on the U.S. to be a piercing light for religious liberty in the dark of this oppression. America, the land of religious freedom, cannot be silent as radical jihadists attempt to wipe Christianity from the face of the earth.
At the ACLJ, we fight daily for religious freedom, and we are urging the U.S. government to use every diplomatic option available to defend persecuted Christians worldwide. Join tens of thousands, and sign the Petition to Stand with Christians in the Middle East.
The persecution of Christians must end, and the U.S. must retake its place as a champion for religious freedom on the world stage.
This article is crossposted on Red State.
Tags » islamic, Radical, Christians, persecution, ISIS, Pastor Saeed, jihadists
Don’t Look Away on 15 June 2014.
(Report from One For Israel Ministry)
As the media blares out increasingly alarming news about Iraq, it can be all too tempting to bury our heads in the sand and ignore these uncontrollable matters that seem so far away. But God’s people are calling out to us from Baghdad, pleading with us not to ignore their plight, or to forget the plans of God for the area.
The situation is very serious. As if Al Qaeda was not extreme enough, another even more radical organisation fighting for “the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” (Al-Sham includes the areas of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) or ISIS for short, is on the rampage. ISIS is a threat not only to Israel, but also to the more moderate Muslim states in the Levant, and is causing utter chaos and devastation.
Canon Andrew White, the famous Bishop of Baghdad, reports:
“Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled… [ISIS] has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets. The army and police have fled, so many of the military resources have been captured. Tankers, armed vehicles and even helicopters are now in the hands of ISIS.”
Even Al Qaeda, from which ISIS grew, have denounced the organisation for being too brutal to local populations and so fiercely anti-Shiite (Yahoo news). ISIS are, in short, determined to build an Islamic Caliphate in the Levant area, including Israel.
Andrew White continues to explain that Nineveh is the central place for the Christian community, and Iraqi believers are in great distress and desperate straits.
Last month, he was in Jerusalem with believers from all around the Middle East for a conference that looked ahead to the prophecy in Isaiah 19 about God’s highway from Egypt to the ancient area of Assyria, which includes present day Iraq:
“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt,
and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying,
“Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
(Isaiah 19:23-24)
It’s almost as if there are two opposite plans for the Levant; the Highway of Holiness that will prove to be a blessing for the whole world when God establishes his worship, uniting believers in the area in himself, and on the other extreme a causeway of terror and carnage under radical Islam.
The “Christ at the Crossroads” conference was organised by CMJ and included delegates from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, Cyprus, Armenia and Turkey. As one of the organisers said, “It is all too easy for Christians in the Middle East to become ghettoized due to their minority status and the many ethnic and political divisions. Consequently we often fail to see how God is working in our midst.” But God is certainly at work, even though Satan may rage against Him.
The conference delegates agreed upon the following points:
(Report from One For Israel Ministry)
As the media blares out increasingly alarming news about Iraq, it can be all too tempting to bury our heads in the sand and ignore these uncontrollable matters that seem so far away. But God’s people are calling out to us from Baghdad, pleading with us not to ignore their plight, or to forget the plans of God for the area.
The situation is very serious. As if Al Qaeda was not extreme enough, another even more radical organisation fighting for “the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham” (Al-Sham includes the areas of Israel, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan) or ISIS for short, is on the rampage. ISIS is a threat not only to Israel, but also to the more moderate Muslim states in the Levant, and is causing utter chaos and devastation.
Canon Andrew White, the famous Bishop of Baghdad, reports:
“Things are so bad now in Iraq, the worst they have ever been. The Islamic terrorists have taken control of the whole of Mosul which is Nineveh the main Christian stronghold. The army have even fled… [ISIS] has totally taken control, destroyed all government departments. Allowed all prisoners out of the prisons. Killed countless numbers of people. There are bodies over the streets. The army and police have fled, so many of the military resources have been captured. Tankers, armed vehicles and even helicopters are now in the hands of ISIS.”
Even Al Qaeda, from which ISIS grew, have denounced the organisation for being too brutal to local populations and so fiercely anti-Shiite (Yahoo news). ISIS are, in short, determined to build an Islamic Caliphate in the Levant area, including Israel.
Andrew White continues to explain that Nineveh is the central place for the Christian community, and Iraqi believers are in great distress and desperate straits.
Last month, he was in Jerusalem with believers from all around the Middle East for a conference that looked ahead to the prophecy in Isaiah 19 about God’s highway from Egypt to the ancient area of Assyria, which includes present day Iraq:
“In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and Assyria will come into Egypt,
and Egypt into Assyria, and the Egyptians will worship with the Assyrians.
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying,
“Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
(Isaiah 19:23-24)
It’s almost as if there are two opposite plans for the Levant; the Highway of Holiness that will prove to be a blessing for the whole world when God establishes his worship, uniting believers in the area in himself, and on the other extreme a causeway of terror and carnage under radical Islam.
The “Christ at the Crossroads” conference was organised by CMJ and included delegates from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, Cyprus, Armenia and Turkey. As one of the organisers said, “It is all too easy for Christians in the Middle East to become ghettoized due to their minority status and the many ethnic and political divisions. Consequently we often fail to see how God is working in our midst.” But God is certainly at work, even though Satan may rage against Him.
The conference delegates agreed upon the following points:
- to rise above ethnic, political, and theological differences in the Body of Messiah, and to work together in expanding the Kingdom of God in our region.
- to proclaim that “Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance” will indeed become a blessing in the midst of the earth
- to commit to work and pray for the blessing and salvation of all the peoples of the Middle East.
- to mobilize people to go and make disciples as a practical expression of the Kingdom of God, recognizing that we now have a window of opportunity that may not remain open in the future.
- to advocate and allocate resources for justice, helping the poor and mitigating persecution of Christians.
- to establish a network of communication and intercession throughout the region and to meet together on a regular basis as a means of expressing the “one new man.” (Eph.2:15)
NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE WWW.NATIONALREVIEW.COM
JUNE 10, 2014 5:42 PM
The Cleansing of Iraq's Christians Is Entering Its End Game
By Nina Shea
The government of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell overnight to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Mosul’s panic-stricken Christians, along with many others, are now fleeing en masse to the rural Nineveh Plain, according to the Vatican publication Fides. The border crossings into Kurdistan, too, are jammed with the cars of the estimated 150,000 desperate escapees.
The population, particularly its Christian community, has much to fear. The ruthlessness of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has been legendary. Its beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities against Christians and everyone else who fails to conform to its vision of a caliphate have been on full display earlier this year, in Syria.
As Corner readers will remember, in February, it was the militants of this rebel group that, in the northern Syrian state of Raqqa, compelled Christian leaders to sign a 7th-century dhimmi contract. The document sets forth specific terms denying the Christians the basic civil rights of equality and religious freedom and committing them to pay protection money in exchange for their lives and the ability to keep their Christian identity.
Many Nineveh residents fled to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on Tuesday.
Since 2003, Iraq’s Christian community has suffered intense religious persecution on top of the effects of the conflict and, as a result, it’s shrunk by well over 50 percent. Mosul, the site of ancient Nineveh of the Assyrians, who converted to Christianity in the first century, has become the home of many Christians who remained. Considered by Christians the place of last resort inside Iraq, Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain has been home to many Christian refugees driven out of Baghdad and Basra. Mosul has the only university, the best hospitals, and the largest markets serving the Christian towns and villages of the Nineveh Plain. The plain, itself, is now at grave risk of direct jihadi attacks and the possibility of being cut off from an essential city.
Once upon a time, some of the Mosul Christians might have fled to Syria, but they now have few options. More will give up on the region altogether and join their relatives and former neighbors in Michigan, California, Sweden, and elsewhere in the West. The fall of Mosul is a serious blow for the Iraqi state, and the implications for Iraq’s Christian community are devastating.
ISIS now controls the area surrounding Mosul’s Catholic Chaldean cathedral. Fides reports that Chaldean bishop Amel Shamon Nona and the other bishops of Mosul launched an appeal yesterday to keep churches and mosques there open to pray for peace. Their perseverance in the face of such peril is heartbreaking. ISIS will not listen, of course. They are not men of peace and they kill those who are, as they did Father Paolo Dall’Oglio in Raqqa last year. These bishops and their flocks should load up their cars and head for the Kurdish border without delay.
President Maliki is vowing that Iraq’s army will regain control, but this may take time. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, the capital of Sunni Muslim Anbar province, and much of Fallujah for the past six months. When the army does eventually succeed in reversing jihadi control in Mosul, it may be too late for the Christians. Once Middle Eastern Christians flee to the West, they don’t return.
In other words, the religious cleansing of Christians from Iraq is entering the end game.
This is a profound development for the Christian church, of course, which has had a two-thousand-year-old presence there. But it will have long-term national-security implications for the West. American political leaders have so far failed to distinguish the religious cleansing from its surrounding context of terror and conflict. They overlook the fact that religious pluralism and diversity are among today’s casualties. As one Chaldean bishop lamented, “This is very sad and very dangerous for the church, for Iraq and even for Muslim people, because it means the end of an old experience of living together.”
JUNE 10, 2014 5:42 PM
The Cleansing of Iraq's Christians Is Entering Its End Game
By Nina Shea
The government of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, fell overnight to the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, also called the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Mosul’s panic-stricken Christians, along with many others, are now fleeing en masse to the rural Nineveh Plain, according to the Vatican publication Fides. The border crossings into Kurdistan, too, are jammed with the cars of the estimated 150,000 desperate escapees.
The population, particularly its Christian community, has much to fear. The ruthlessness of ISIS, an offshoot of al-Qaeda, has been legendary. Its beheadings, crucifixions, and other atrocities against Christians and everyone else who fails to conform to its vision of a caliphate have been on full display earlier this year, in Syria.
As Corner readers will remember, in February, it was the militants of this rebel group that, in the northern Syrian state of Raqqa, compelled Christian leaders to sign a 7th-century dhimmi contract. The document sets forth specific terms denying the Christians the basic civil rights of equality and religious freedom and committing them to pay protection money in exchange for their lives and the ability to keep their Christian identity.
Many Nineveh residents fled to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq on Tuesday.
Since 2003, Iraq’s Christian community has suffered intense religious persecution on top of the effects of the conflict and, as a result, it’s shrunk by well over 50 percent. Mosul, the site of ancient Nineveh of the Assyrians, who converted to Christianity in the first century, has become the home of many Christians who remained. Considered by Christians the place of last resort inside Iraq, Mosul and the surrounding Nineveh Plain has been home to many Christian refugees driven out of Baghdad and Basra. Mosul has the only university, the best hospitals, and the largest markets serving the Christian towns and villages of the Nineveh Plain. The plain, itself, is now at grave risk of direct jihadi attacks and the possibility of being cut off from an essential city.
Once upon a time, some of the Mosul Christians might have fled to Syria, but they now have few options. More will give up on the region altogether and join their relatives and former neighbors in Michigan, California, Sweden, and elsewhere in the West. The fall of Mosul is a serious blow for the Iraqi state, and the implications for Iraq’s Christian community are devastating.
ISIS now controls the area surrounding Mosul’s Catholic Chaldean cathedral. Fides reports that Chaldean bishop Amel Shamon Nona and the other bishops of Mosul launched an appeal yesterday to keep churches and mosques there open to pray for peace. Their perseverance in the face of such peril is heartbreaking. ISIS will not listen, of course. They are not men of peace and they kill those who are, as they did Father Paolo Dall’Oglio in Raqqa last year. These bishops and their flocks should load up their cars and head for the Kurdish border without delay.
President Maliki is vowing that Iraq’s army will regain control, but this may take time. ISIS has controlled parts of Ramadi, the capital of Sunni Muslim Anbar province, and much of Fallujah for the past six months. When the army does eventually succeed in reversing jihadi control in Mosul, it may be too late for the Christians. Once Middle Eastern Christians flee to the West, they don’t return.
In other words, the religious cleansing of Christians from Iraq is entering the end game.
This is a profound development for the Christian church, of course, which has had a two-thousand-year-old presence there. But it will have long-term national-security implications for the West. American political leaders have so far failed to distinguish the religious cleansing from its surrounding context of terror and conflict. They overlook the fact that religious pluralism and diversity are among today’s casualties. As one Chaldean bishop lamented, “This is very sad and very dangerous for the church, for Iraq and even for Muslim people, because it means the end of an old experience of living together.”
We must stand up for Middle East's persecuted Christians
By Johnnie Moore
Published February 03, 2014 FoxNews.com
Christianity began in the East, not the West, yet today Christians in the East are enduring an all-out-assault by Islamic terrorists, while Christians in the West live their lives largely oblivious to it all. This has to change.
This is no imaginary persecution; in Syria alone there have been reports of kidnappings, Christian communities intentionally displaced by militants and, worst of all, shootings and beheadings of Christians who refused to convert to Islam.
In Egypt radicals have recently destroyed dozens of churches, and the once vibrant Christian population in Iraq has been decimated.
Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years.
Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years, if for no other reason.
See, what most American Christians don’t realize is that the “Islamic World” was once the Christian world. Some of the most well-known and influential leaders in the early church hailed from North Africa and the Middle East – like the warring theologians Athanasius and Arius, and the apologist Tertullian. It was for the library in Alexandria that the preeminent Greek version of the Torah (the “Septuagint”) was commissioned.
Today, St. Augustine would be called a Tunisian, Origen would be Egyptian and the Apostle Paul – who was on the road to Damascus when he encountered Christ – would have told the story of his conversion while heading to “Syria.”
It was also in the Syrian city of “Antioch” that Christians were first called “Christians,” and to this day there are as many Christian holy sites in that nation as anywhere else in the world.
When Jesus was born, and his life was threatened by the hysteria of King Herod, it was to Egypt that Joseph and Mary fled until Herod’s bloodlust subsided.
If the famed Council of Nicaea were held today, the headline would read: “Christian theologians gather in Turkey to settle long-held dispute about Christ’s deity,” and the part of the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized could have very well flowed through modern-day Jordan , as opposed to Israel.
Christianity was once so entrenched in the modern Islamic world that for centuries the center for Christian scholarship was Baghdad, and the long-ruined city of Merv (not far from border of what is now Afghanistan) was not only the largest city of its time, it was also best known as the center of Bible translation.
To this day – in nearly all of those places – there are Christian communities that have persevered through the ages, but now face the threat of extinction.
They have endured conflict after conflict, schism after schism, and they have learned how to coexist with peace-loving Muslims who are themselves fighting against the same radicalism that has caused the burning and bombing of hundreds of churches around the Islamic world since the spark of Arab Spring.
The trickling stream of Christianity runs in these places all the way to the era of Christ himself, but now – particularly in Syria – that stream is being dried up more quickly that most people realize.
Sadly, few Christians in the West have any idea this is going on, and I was once just like them.
Then I was invited last September to observe a meeting convened by Jordan’s King Abdullah in his country’s capital, Amman. Several dozen leaders of the Christian congregations of the East attended the meeting; I listened as these Catholic cardinals, Orthodox patriarchs and Anglican and Coptic bishops described the plight of their people.
No one was discussing their theological differences, because it was their churches that had been burned, their relatives who had been kidnapped and killed, and nearly every one of them told stories of consoling an inconsolable mother or child as they grieved the death of their last living loved one.
I wept as I heard their stories, and I wondered why Christians around the world weren’t incensed by it all.
Ironically, that meeting in Jordan was not convened by Christians, but by Muslims who cared about the plight of their Christian neighbors.
At one point, Jordan’s strong and kind king said that “it is a duty rather than a favor” to protect the Christians in the region, and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a senior adviser to the king, acknowledged that “Christians were in this region before Muslims.” He said, “They are not strangers, nor colonialists, nor foreigners. They are natives of these lands and Arabs, just as Muslims are.”
While I was deeply encouraged by the tone of these Islamic leaders, I couldn't help but ask myself, “I wonder how many Christians in the West even care about those in the East?”
In that moment, I decided I would be their advocate.
It was the Apostle Paul who once advised some friends in Greece to “pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people.”
I hear Paul’s prayer again on the lips of those persecuted today, and I call upon Christians everywhere to pray for and be an advocate for those upon whose foundation so much of our faith has been built.
Indeed, it isn’t a favor. It’s our duty.
Johnnie Moore is the author of a new book about Jesus called Dirty God (#DirtyGod). He is a Professor of Religion and Vice President of Liberty University, where he, among other things, supervises its Center for Global Engagement. Keep up with him on Twitter (@JohnnieM) or at Facebook.com/JohnnieOnline. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Johnnie Moore.
This is no imaginary persecution; in Syria alone there have been reports of kidnappings, Christian communities intentionally displaced by militants and, worst of all, shootings and beheadings of Christians who refused to convert to Islam.
In Egypt radicals have recently destroyed dozens of churches, and the once vibrant Christian population in Iraq has been decimated.
Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years.
Christians in the West should stand up for those in the East out of regard for all they have given us over these thousands of years, if for no other reason.
See, what most American Christians don’t realize is that the “Islamic World” was once the Christian world. Some of the most well-known and influential leaders in the early church hailed from North Africa and the Middle East – like the warring theologians Athanasius and Arius, and the apologist Tertullian. It was for the library in Alexandria that the preeminent Greek version of the Torah (the “Septuagint”) was commissioned.
Today, St. Augustine would be called a Tunisian, Origen would be Egyptian and the Apostle Paul – who was on the road to Damascus when he encountered Christ – would have told the story of his conversion while heading to “Syria.”
It was also in the Syrian city of “Antioch” that Christians were first called “Christians,” and to this day there are as many Christian holy sites in that nation as anywhere else in the world.
When Jesus was born, and his life was threatened by the hysteria of King Herod, it was to Egypt that Joseph and Mary fled until Herod’s bloodlust subsided.
If the famed Council of Nicaea were held today, the headline would read: “Christian theologians gather in Turkey to settle long-held dispute about Christ’s deity,” and the part of the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized could have very well flowed through modern-day Jordan , as opposed to Israel.
Christianity was once so entrenched in the modern Islamic world that for centuries the center for Christian scholarship was Baghdad, and the long-ruined city of Merv (not far from border of what is now Afghanistan) was not only the largest city of its time, it was also best known as the center of Bible translation.
To this day – in nearly all of those places – there are Christian communities that have persevered through the ages, but now face the threat of extinction.
They have endured conflict after conflict, schism after schism, and they have learned how to coexist with peace-loving Muslims who are themselves fighting against the same radicalism that has caused the burning and bombing of hundreds of churches around the Islamic world since the spark of Arab Spring.
The trickling stream of Christianity runs in these places all the way to the era of Christ himself, but now – particularly in Syria – that stream is being dried up more quickly that most people realize.
Sadly, few Christians in the West have any idea this is going on, and I was once just like them.
Then I was invited last September to observe a meeting convened by Jordan’s King Abdullah in his country’s capital, Amman. Several dozen leaders of the Christian congregations of the East attended the meeting; I listened as these Catholic cardinals, Orthodox patriarchs and Anglican and Coptic bishops described the plight of their people.
No one was discussing their theological differences, because it was their churches that had been burned, their relatives who had been kidnapped and killed, and nearly every one of them told stories of consoling an inconsolable mother or child as they grieved the death of their last living loved one.
I wept as I heard their stories, and I wondered why Christians around the world weren’t incensed by it all.
Ironically, that meeting in Jordan was not convened by Christians, but by Muslims who cared about the plight of their Christian neighbors.
At one point, Jordan’s strong and kind king said that “it is a duty rather than a favor” to protect the Christians in the region, and Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, a senior adviser to the king, acknowledged that “Christians were in this region before Muslims.” He said, “They are not strangers, nor colonialists, nor foreigners. They are natives of these lands and Arabs, just as Muslims are.”
While I was deeply encouraged by the tone of these Islamic leaders, I couldn't help but ask myself, “I wonder how many Christians in the West even care about those in the East?”
In that moment, I decided I would be their advocate.
It was the Apostle Paul who once advised some friends in Greece to “pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil people.”
I hear Paul’s prayer again on the lips of those persecuted today, and I call upon Christians everywhere to pray for and be an advocate for those upon whose foundation so much of our faith has been built.
Indeed, it isn’t a favor. It’s our duty.
Johnnie Moore is the author of a new book about Jesus called Dirty God (#DirtyGod). He is a Professor of Religion and Vice President of Liberty University, where he, among other things, supervises its Center for Global Engagement. Keep up with him on Twitter (@JohnnieM) or at Facebook.com/JohnnieOnline. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Johnnie Moore.