Post 76—Stories of Persecution

A number of posts ago, I promised I would occasionally include stories about the persecution suffered by Christians. Those who study that scientifically, mostly Christians, tell us that Christianity is the most persecuted of all religions today.

There are several reasons for this situation. One is that oppressive governments of various stripes fear Christians as potential rivals. 

Another reason is that established religions and ideologies get nervous and jealous when another religion in their neighbourhood expands—and the later is the case with Christianity in many places. For example, China is expected soon to become the country with the largest Christian population. According to some estimates, there are already 100 million Christians in the country, which compares with 87 million members of the Chinese Communist Party (Barnabas Prayer, September 16, 2015).  That, no doubt, is a major reason for Chinese persecution and harassment of Christians, along with their residual Communist heritage. 

A third reason is ruthless ambitions and militant interpretation of some religions, as, e.g. ISIS, Boko Haram in Nigeria and, increasingly, Hindu nationalists in India.  Often behind such persecution is a long history of western colonialism / imperialism and its subtle attempt to impose secularism that has finally come home to roost.

Today’s stories are taken from Barnabas Prayer  (Sept/ Oct., 2015).  For Barnabas itself, see < barnabasaid.org >.

Many Christians in Tanzania are facing serious harassment for trying to engage in the butchery trade, which Muslims seek to control absolutely. There is no Tanzanian law against slaughtering pigs and selling pork (a forbidden meat according to Islamic law), but when Muslims complain, the authorities will often respond as if the Christians were doing something illegal.  In Kigoma, five Christians were arrested in June just for being found in possession of pork meat.  Tanzanian Muslims often claim that only they have the right to slaughter animals for meat, although this is not the case according to Tanzanian law. Yet, in Geita, on May 18, a Christian was arrested just for engaging in butchery work, and in Kagera, a man was offered the choice of paying a fine or going to jail for killing his own cow, eating part of it and selling the rest (September 8, 2015).  I am going to discuss parallel Nigerian situations like this one in the next post to show you that,  as exotic as this sounds to a Canadian, in communities with powerful Muslims this is a common situation.

According to reports, ISIS trains boys aged 8-15 how to kill. They are taught to shoot at close range and made to behead plastic dolls with swords so that they will be able to behead infidels (i.e., mostly Christians). Some of the children have been captured by ISIS. Others are lured to join it with sweets, toys and money, and then turned into killers and suicide bombers (October 17, 2015).

Two Syrian Christian families who sought asylum in Sweden have been persecuted by Syrian Muslims sharing the same communal asylum house and forced to move out. The Muslims banned the Christians from using the communal areas of the house, which accommodated around 890 asylum seekers, and made them hide their crosses. Pray that the Swedish authorities will have wisdom in the arrangements they make and will not unwittingly cause further distress or danger to Christians who have made their way there seeking peace and freedom (September 4, 2015).

Our next story is a prayer:  Almighty God, we pray to you for the many Iraqi Christian women and girls captured by ISIS and sold as slaves. We pray for the Yazidi and other non-Muslim women also sold into slavery by ISIS… who organize the slave-markets and even offered female slaves as prizes in a Qur’an-memorizing competition in June (October 18, 2015).

Tens of thousands of Burundian Christian women and children have fled political violence in their homeland since April to seek refuge in neighbouring Tanzania. The camp facilities are overflowing and there are severe shortages of food and shelter. At the time of writing 55,000 were sleeping in the open air. There is normally a rainy season in November-December, which will make life even worse for those who have no shelter. Tanzanian churches are striving to bring aid to the refugees, but are very poor themselves and had little to share with others. Ask…the Lord to meet the needs of the refugees, who are arriving at the rate of 2500 a day (October 28, 2015)!

In North Korea, Christianity is seen as the foremost threat to the ideology of Juche--total dependence on the ruling Kim family and the state. It is estimated that 100,000 Christians are incarcerated in labour camps, only because of their love for the Lord, clothed in rags, hungry and malnourished, beaten and abused. “But God also comforted me and brought a secret fellowship into existence, says Hae-Woo, one survivor of the labour camps. “Every Sunday we would gather in the toilets and pray (October 29, 2015).

Barnabas Aid reports that “the existential threat to the Christian presence in the Middle East is now being recognized as a cause for concern even by the secular Western media.”  It passes on to us a NY Times reported in July that two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have fled since 2003; a third of Syrian Christians have fled since 2011; the Lebanese Christian population dropped from 78% to 34% during the last century (September 1, 2015).  Their report on the Christian population is horrible, but the new recognition by the press is a rare piece of good news. Similar encouraging trends are in evidence by the fact that both Canadian and American governments have established offices to monitor religious freedom around the world.

I suspect that many Western secularists cannot understand why these Christians are so stubborn in their faith. Why not just change to the majority faith?  What’s the big deal?  Well, these people are often born again and have experienced and met the living Saviour. They are not about to trade Him in for some mythical fanciful idolatry, whether state religion, pagan religion or for the current world’s crop of the most haughty religions, namely Islam and secularism. 

In addition, not all self-declared Christians are born again or are even Christian. Some are adherents to forms of Christianity, including the citizens of “Christendom,” that have in effect become tribal religions that are tied up so closely with their identity that they cannot imagine letting it go for another identity, even under pressure.  Jesus told Nicodemus, a leader among the Jews of his days, that in order to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born again. Calling Abraham your father is no guarantee. I am happy that I am not responsible for ferreting all this out!  

But if you call yourself a Christian and insist on acting like one, no matter where or what kind, you are potentially subject to persecution, whether physical or legal or in some form of discrimination or all of these.  Even in the so-called “tolerant” but secular West.