Post 61—Persecution of Christians

                                     

I have decided to devote occasional posts on this blog to persecution of Christians. 

Why this decision? My wife, Fran, and I take time almost daily to meditate on the Bible and pray for ourselves, our family and neighbours, the Church and the world. One regular feature of these prayers is to read about persecuted Christians all over the world.  Over time this routine has made us very aware of this persecution not only but also very sensitive, tearful even and sad to think of our brothers and sisters in other countries being beaten, imprisoned and/or killed.  We read of their families getting ripped apart; children being orphaned; churches, homes and possessions destroyed or taken away; authorities like police and judges ignoring the law.  You read about this regularly and it gets to your heart; you become emotional, frequently indignant if not downright angry.

Today I am not going to describe any specific cases or tell concrete stories about persecution. This being our first post on the subject, I want to introduce you to people who monitor this situation and who help persecuted Christians throughout the world. There are a number of such organizations, but the one I am the most familiar with is BarnabasAid and its website < barnabasaid.org  >. They publish bi-monthly daily prayer booklets in which almost every prayer tells a persecution story.  They also publish a bi-monthly magazine that backs up the prayers with stories and other details.  In addition, they continuously publish books on the subject.  However, their main task is to render food and financial or legal aid to persecuted Christians, either individuals or communities. 

I have written quite extensively about BarnabasAid and its Director, Patrick Sookhdeo, in volume 8 of my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Studies and would urge you to check that out on the internet or go to either my website <  www.SocialTheology.com/Islamica.htm > or to <  www.lulu.com  >.   

I largely support him and usually agree with him except for one thing. He is stuck in the traditional western worldview that dualistically separates religion from other affairs and cannot understand how religion can legitimately mix with politics and economics, to name but two aspects of culture.  This makes it difficult for him to understand certain aspects of Islam, for example, especially its wholistic character.

            

There are more such monitoring organizations to some of which I will introduce you in due time.