Post 174--Disrupting Church Services--Zombie Prohibition?

I am a writer. As such, I do a lot more than just writing this particular blog. I operate an extensive website I've told you about frequently--< www.SocialTheology.com >--as well as another blog--
<  ChristianMuslimWorld >--. Sometimes they overlap such as when I decide a certain article, either my own or a guest article, is suitable for the other vehicle as well. In all of them I occasionally share articles with you about the gradual pushing Christianity out of the way here in Canada, but also in other countries.  In some countries it is another religion that persecutes Christians. This is true especially in Muslim and Communist countries, but also happens in Buddhist and Hindu nations.

It also happens in Western countries, including Canada. However, in the West, it is often under the radar so that most  people do not notice. Hence they often feel that talking about persecution of Christians in Western countries is a matter of paranoia, a distorted imagination. I plan to exposing this dangerous tendency by giving it more coverage to show you it's not just paranoia or imagination. It happens. It's true. But usually it is done in such small steps and in such hidden ways that people either not notice or just shrug their shoulders as a non-issue that is blown all out of proportion.

And true enough, in many cases these are small issues that by themselves are not all that significant. However, when you pay attention and put them all in a row you have to come to the conclusion that there is definitely a tendency, an important tendency in Canada, for example, of slowly putting tiny screws on what on the surface look like minor issues.

And while in two paragraphs back I point to other religions plus Communism as the perpetrators, here in Canada it is mainly the people with secular or liberal agendas who are behind it all.  Note that I refer to"liberal," not to"Liberal" as in the Liberal Party, though that Party has its share of supporters for this movement. But it's not only those with such an agenda, there are also kind people among them whose secular or liberal definition of religion blinds them to its real nature. So, when anti-Christian measures come on the table, they don't even recognize them to be anti-Christian in however minute shape.

Today I treat you to an interview published by Lighthouse News, an online news source operated by ARPA--Association for Reformed Political Action, "Reformed" being another term for "Calvinistic," not the former Reform Party. It is also close to Presbyterianism, but that's for another time. You will profit the most from this interview if you also pursue the links in the document. 


                                 DISRUPTING CHURCH SERVICES

André Schutten, Director of Law and Policy - ARPA Canada

As we told you a few months ago on Lighthouse News, the federal government is making a move to eliminate so-called “zombie laws”. These are essentially old laws       which are no longer in effect. The most common reason for their obsolescence is that they’ve been struck down by the court. While those laws are technically still on the books, they have become unenforceable, so they need to be removed to reflect that reality. But earlier this month, the federal Liberals introduced a second bill to eliminate some other old laws, and one of those eliminations could have an impact on every single pastor, and every single church, mosque, synagogue, or Sikh temple in the country. This is a completely separate bill from the one we discussed back in March. On the feature today, ARPA’s Law and Policy Director, André Schutten, on what the government is doing with this latest bill.

LN: Andre, let’s start with some background on the difference between these two bills.

AS: So they have a zombie law [Bill C-39] already and that one targets all these old Criminal Code provisions that were ruled unconstitutional, right? And so, I’m not really sure what the government’s up to. It might be that they’re trying to pass other stuff through this one and they use that description as cover. So C-39, which is also that – unconstitutional provisions, right – it’s “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (unconstitutional provisions) and to make consequential amendments to other Acts” from the Minister of Justice. So that one is the zombie law one. So I don’t know what else they’re trying to do with C-51, but I imagine that what they’re trying to do is they’ve got this cover going on, and they’re saying “Look! All we’re doing is cleaning up the Code again, and we’re just taking care of anything that’s probably unconstitutional.” But what they’re doing with that is they’re also taking out sections that aren’t unconstitutional; that are actually good sections (but) they just don’t feel like debating them.

LN: And that brings us to the central issue here. Right now, the Criminal Code says you can’t harass or assault a clergyman or minister in connection with him performing his duties, on the way to or from a worship service for example. And… you can’t disturb or interrupt a worship service while it’s underway. That is specifically addressed in the Criminal Code. But section 14 of the new zombie law, Bill C-51, specifically moves to eliminate that part of the Criminal Code.

AS: Yeah, so this one clause – Clause 14 – is key to that. Clause 14 is the one that removes protections for worship services. Whether that’s Christian worship services or Islamic or Jewish or Hindu or Sikh worship services; it’s written very broadly and says that anyone who disrupts these worship services is “guilty of a criminal offence.” And that’s a good provision to have, and yet they’re removing it, for no apparent good reason anyway.

LN: ‘I’m looking at that clause and I looked at it initially and I went: “Wow. This is really big.” And then I got to thinking about it and in the government’s defense – and I’m not defending the government, but just to play devil’s advocate for a minute – what’s the last time this provision was ever used? I mean, this is an ancient law that said you’re not allowed to disrupt a church service. Could the argument be made that being a multicultural, pluralistic society, church services aren’t special enough to require a specific clause in the Criminal Code to protect the conduct there?

AS: So, in reviewing some of the transcripts from the House of Commons on debate on this, Mr. Tom Kmiec – he’s a Member of Parliament from Alberta – he pointed out that this section has actually just been used a couple of weeks ago right here in Ottawa, where somebody has been charged under this provision. So in that sense, it is still a “live” section of the Criminal Code; it is being used.

And I think what’s driving the desire to remove this section from the Criminal Code is an attitude that a religious service is no different than a university lecture for example. And why should we give special protection to religious ceremonies if we don’t give it to, you know, a university lecture? And you can imagine, right, it’s been in the news; professor Jordan Peterson for example tried to give a lecture at McMaster University, the University of Toronto, (and) elsewhere, (and) he gets shouted down by protestors, right?

And so some people might say, “Well why – if we’re not gonna give criminal law protection to Jordan Peterson to give his lecture – why would we give it to a minister to give his sermon?” And I’d say that fundamentally the two are very, very different. A university lecture is one thing, but a religious service is something at a much different level. It’s something much more profound going on. And whether you’re Christian or not, I would say that protection ought to be there for a Muslim service – like a prayer service as a mosque – or it should be there for a Jewish service at a synagogue, or at a Christian service at a church. And I think that the government should not be afraid that this section is in any way unconstitutional; it certainly never has been ruled unconstitutional. So we should keep it.

And we need it in today’s society. Again, thinking of the Jordan Petersons of this country that get shouted down (while) giving a lecture, it’s not that hard to imagine that we might one day see people disrupting – in big ways – Christian services where orthodox teaching is being preached from the pulpit.

LN: Is this a fundamental shift in Canadian society? I mean, here we have on the one hand a government that pushes through (Bill) C-16, (that) says you have to use whatever pronouns somebody says they want to be described as, and on the other hand they’re removing this historical context of protection for religious services. It seems to me that there’s a fundamental reshaping of society going on here.

AS: Yeah, I think so. Absolutely. It seems to me there’s this fear of our Christian heritage. There’s this fear of our Christian past. And while I would say it’s absolutely true that the history of this particular section does have to do with Christianity and the Christian faith and protecting church services, that doesn’t mean that it has no value today. Even though we are definitely not a Christian nation anymore, we definitely should be protecting (the) Christian faith but also, again, other faiths should be protected in this respect as well.

And the counter-argument might be made that “Well, you know, we took out those sections but don’t worry; there’s still a section about criminal trespass,” right? So people can be charged under criminal trespass. But that, again, shows a total ignorance of what a worship service is. Now I can’t speak for the Jewish faith or the Muslim faith or the Sikh faith, but certainly for the Christian faith, our worship services are public events. It’s a public worship service. So, you know, we can’t exactly criminally charge protestors who come to a church service if we’re so public about our worship. Our worship is open to the public; we want other people to be able to come. They’re welcome in our church buildings. We want them to hear the Gospel. We want them to get to know Jesus Christ. But yeah, if they’re going to be disruptive and so on then we want to be able to also have the criminal law protection to make sure that that doesn’t happen. So we see ignorance of the Christian faith here, we see the ignorance of our history here. We see ignorance of the possible risks to not just the Christian faith but to all faiths with the approach being taken here. And I think that’s problematic all around.

LN: Is there anything we can do stop C-51? I mean, how do you mount a legal challenge on something that takes something away? It’s kind of a complicated piece.

AS: Indeed. We can’t exactly make a claim that – I don’t think – that we have a constitutional right to this provision. At the same time, we can make the argument that there is no constitutional reason to remove this provision. And so, certainly we are going to apply to the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights – that’s where this bill is now – so that’s the Committee stage in the House of Commons, and we’re going to lobby to get that Clause 14 removed. We haven’t looked at the rest of the bill yet, so there might be good parts in the rest of the bill, I’m not going to condemn the entire bill, but this one clause – clause 14, which removes protection for our pastors and our worship services – definitely has to be cut out of that bill. https://arpacanada.ca/lighthouse-news/disrupting-church-services/#lhn-article-7442

Post 143—Prince Charles on Religious Freedom

It’s for almost 55 years that I have felt some sort of affinity with Britain’s Prince Charles. My wife and I are about to celebrate our 55^th wedding anniversary.

Now in most cases, the above two sentences might be found in different chapters of a book or in different articles. What could they possibly have to do with each other and be found in successive sentences like here?  Perhaps a bit far sought, but it so happens that my late father-in-law’s name was Charles Prins. It was not his birth name; that was a classic Frisian name “Tjalling,” but its closest English equivalent was considered “Charles.”  So, that’s the name he adopted upon immigration to the USA in 1948. I’m not sure anyone at the time thought about the similarity to that of the Prince. Perhaps it’s a mere sentimentality, but since I always was fond of my father-in-law, that somehow transferred to the Prince as well. 

So, I was very happy that my sentimental hero—“sentimental” referring to me, not the Prince!—gave such an interesting

speech on the BBC’s “Thought for the Day” programme. Part of it was politically correct to liberal ears, and part to conservative ears. Now, we don’t usually hear political incorrectness from the mouth of princes, but this time it was couched in a nearly politically correct framework. Leave it to British royalty to manage such a contradiction!                                      

The politically correct for the liberals was the need to protect and give freedom to all religions, but then religion as defined by them, not by the religions themselves, particularly the scope of religions. The Prince defended his position by referring to a speech by the queen back in 2012, in which she stated that the Church of England has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths. Charles himself at one time described his responsibility as “defender of faith” rather than “defender of the faith,” something that shocked traditionalists, who “were furious,” according to the writer of the article, Tim Stanley. To them this was totally politically incorrect, but it should be remembered that “a key part of British identity is religious freedom,” which is often the stated reason for Muslims to come to Britain.

I am an orthodox Christian of the type often described as “Reformational.” (If you want to know more about that, I encourage you to check out my website <  www.SocialTheology.com  >)  As a Reformational, I totally agree with a government that is neutral when it comes to religions; neutral, not secular, which is a different thing altogether. I am talking about a government that treats all religions equally, which is what Prince Charles is talking about. Correct as far as liberals are concerned; incorrect as far as most conservatives are concerned. 

But then he turns around and begins to explicate about religious persecution by Muslims of Christians and other religions, including even fellow Muslims. Now he’s politically correct for the conservatives, who are offended that such persecution gets so little public attention, but incorrect for the liberals, many of whom do not care about this or refuse to make it a special issue, as in the case of the Canadian Government.

Alas, British royals don’t seem to have much clout in the political sphere. If you keep up with British developments, you should be aware of the strong anti-Christian bias in the country’s political sector, a situation that hardly reflects the ideals of the Prince. One would almost get the impression that he is a “mere” member of the public whose only power is his voice, on BBC in his case.

The article in which I find this info is written by Tim Stanley, a fine article but one in which it is not clear where the Prince’s speech ends and Stanley’s report begins. Stanley describes his message as “grim.”  “Tolerance is evaporating; the wars of religion are back.”  “For millions ‘religious freedom is a daily, stark choice between life and death.’ As well as oppression of Christianity in Iraq, he referred to attacks on Yazidis, Jews, Ahmadis, Baha’is and other minority faiths in the Middle East, and the persecution in other countries that aims to wipe out religious diversity.”

Stanley adds a few more interesting comments that I am not sure whether they are his or the Prince’s. “It is religious literacy, not secularism, that will bring an increasingly diverse nation together.”  I would say there’s more than just something to be said for that!  The other, “How wonderful, what a testament to Christian civilization, that faithful Muslims now seek refuge in Britain.”  Indeed, so it is, but one seldom hears this declared as a Christian virtue. Liberals consider this as their achievement. Allegedly, they have overcome the intolerance of Christians and thus created an open door for Muslims to enter. Personally, I wager that liberalism would not even exist if it were not for the Christian soil in which it sprouted.

I encourage you to read Stanley’s article at: https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=grim%2C+yes%2C+but+Charles+got+it+right.  (Vancouver Sun, Dec. 26, 2016, p. NP5)

Post 134--A Rose by Any Other Name

Remember the cold I suffered last week? Well, it ain’t over yet. It still has me down and out, something that has hardly ever happened to me. I get one about once a year; it comes and goes quickly and I’m my old self again. Not this time. But I don’t want you to think I’m slacking off. So, another postponement of the third prostitution post and, instead, an easy one that will not take a lot of stamina on my part.

I utilize two prepared documents laying on my desk and I will use some of each. They both report on various situations of persecution. When we think of persecution, we often think of Muslim persecution of Christians and others. Well, that will be one side today. The other side, however, may well surprise you…but let me keep you in suspense for a few more moments.  Just remember Shakespeare’s adage above.  Persecution may come in very different forms and from very different quarters, but it’s still persecution. So, though today’s info will not take much stamina from my reduced stock, it does weigh heavily in me and carrying such burdens takes another form of stamina.

First, a few items of Christians under Muslim persecution—a few from what could take up innumerable tomes, believe  me. These are reported by BarnabasAid, a UK ministry to persecuted Christians all over the world.

Aasia Bibi languishes on death row in Pakistan for years on basis of totally false accusations of blasphemy, a tool used frequently by Pakistani Muslims to take revenge for personal reasons.  Check out her name on the Internet!  In that same country, “Christian girls and women are kidnapped by Muslim men, raped, forcibly converted to Islam and forcibly married to Muslims. Of course that happens in many Muslim countries. Another Pakistani situation is that of bonded Christian laborers in brick kilns. They cannot escape the grueling work for substandard pay. Their cruel bosses trick and exploit them, keeping them in permanent debt. Some Christian children are even held as slaves.

21 brave Christian migrant workers in Libya refused to deny Christ. They will killed by ISIS militants. If I were more computer savvy, I would reproduce a picture of all of them on their knees in orange outfits with masked militants standing behind them, poised to kill them momentarily. 

Ugandan pastor, Umar Mulinde, is a convert from Islam. Muslims three acid in his face. He was terribly burned and lost one eye, but he continues to evangelize and preach boldly.

Nissar Hussain and his wife, from Bradford in the UK, are condemned as apostates. They and their children are persecuted for following Christ. Their home was burned to the ground. Their car was attacked. Nissar was beaten up and hospitalized. Falsely accused to the police, he was detained in a cell for many hours. The same thing happened to his wife. Rejected by church, law enforcement, and society, they continue to follow Christ. They can no longer live in Bradford. Yes, in the UK—and this is by no means the only incident in that country.

And now a totally different scene that at first sight you might not dub “persecution,” but remember that adage…. This time the persecutor is no one less than the US government, and not about religion this time, but about science they don’t like. The following is a long quote:

Picture being an an award-winning scientist -- you've just published your latest findings. And then your government tries to stop you speaking about your research. And when you refuse, you're suspended -- then fired. That's exactly what happened to Jonathan after he discovered a link between bee die-offs and bee-killing pesticides. Now he’s attempting to continue his research in the private sector, and the USDA is STILL harassing him by blacklisting him from USDA-funded research grants and pressuring other scientists to not collaborate with him. It’s time for the USDA to end their attacks on scientific freedom. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is notoriously friendly with giant corporate agribusinesses, and lobbyists for big pesticide companies like Monsanto and Bayer don’t want government researchers looking into the impact of bee-killing pesticides. But rarely have we seen such a blatant and ongoing assault on scientific freedom, even at the USDA. SumOfUs members have donated tens of thousands of dollars to help our friends at Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) defend Dr. Lundgren. With our help, Dr. Lundgren has fought back by filing a whistleblower complaint, a scientific integrity complaint, and a federal lawsuit. Dr. Lundgren’s case has gotten enormous press coverage, and he was personally honored with the Joe A. Calloway Award for Civic Courage—a prestigious award for public-interest activism. But the USDA continues to harass Dr. Lundgren, and as long as that continues, it’s sending a chilling effect to researchers everywhere. That’s why we must continue to fight for his right to conduct research freely, without lobbyist interference or government censorship. A rose by any other name….

Post 124--Christian Genocide b y ISIS

It is generally recognized in the media that Christians are having a hard time of it in pretty well all Muslim-dominated countries, whether in Asia, Africa or Europe. I have drawn attention to this in several posts, the latest being number 122. I have also written about that more voluminously in another blog I operate under the name “ChristianMuslimWorld.”  

Now that claim may smell like Islamophobia to some, but that derisive term is over-used to cover almost anything that is less than laudatory with respect to Islam.  It means “fear of Islam,” which is a far cry from disagreement with Islam. I have high respect for orthodox Islam and for its adherents, but I disagree with them. If you want to know what exactly that translates into, I refer you to my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations on my website  < www.SocialTheology.com/Islamica >. Even Muslims have praised me for the spirit pervading that series. Disagreement? Yes.  Phobia? No, not one bit. So, let’s not have that misnomer stand in the way of the rest of this post. 

Today I discuss not mere Muslim persecution of Christians, but genocide. According to one edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, it means “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political or cultural group,” with the last one, I take it, including religious groups.  It is much more specific than the more general term “persecution.” While the latter is common place throughout the Muslim world, genocide is more local and currently widely applied especially to ISIS, who are widely recognized to consciously and officially be practicing Christian genocide.

You need details of this recognition?  Carl Anderson, the CEO of the Knights of Columbus and a New York Times bestselling author, together with  Archbishop Bashar Warda, a Chaldean Catholic Archbishop in Iraq (A&W), wrote an article, “ISIS perpetrates genocide against Christians” (Vancouver Sun, Aug. 5, 2016, p. A11) that is fully worth a serious read. They write:

Based on overwhelming evidence, Christians have been included in genocide designations by the European Parliament, the US State Department, the US Congress, parliaments and officials of a number of European governments, as well as the Iraqi cabinet and the Kurdish Regional Government.    

In addition, according to Barnabas Aid, certain members of the British House of Lords urged their Prime Minister some months ago that, “jihadist attacks on  Christians and other religions in the Middle East should be classified as genocide.”  In other words, the UK Government hesitated to join the authorities in the paragraph above. And they are not the only ones. The same Barnabas report states that “The prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has said that she ‘stands ready’ to begin a genocide enquiry but needs an order from the UN Security Council.”  So, the UN also hesitates. Given its membership, that should be no surprise to anyone.

But coming closer to home, our own Canadian Government also has rejected the call to declare a genocide on the part of ISIS. On June 14, 2016, the House of Commons defeated a motion (166 vs 139) to declare that present-day atrocities by ISIS against religious minorities in Syria and Iraq constitute genocide.

 A&W advocate that Canada should take leadership on the question of genocide by ISIS, but it is following the lead of the UN. Their argument against the genocide issue turns on a definition of a tax Islam calls “jizya”, a tax Christians and others have historically paid to Muslim rulers for protection instead of the traditional “convert or die” ultimatum. However, according to A&W, ISIS has widened the definition of this protection so that it includes even “kidnapping, rape and confiscation,” all actions from which that tax is supposed to protect them. In fact, a former ISIS leader “publicly revoked any special treatment of Christians years ago.”  Its official magazine, Dabiq, has threatened to “conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women.” 

The result of all this violence? A&W tell us that the number of Christians in Iraq “has plummeted by nearly 90 percent, Syria’s by almost 70 per cent. “In the land where it first took root, Christianity could be stamped out entirely—within our lifetime.”  Such threats and actions hardly represent the preferential treatment Jizya is supposed to offer, as A&W put it.

And so I strongly support the call of A&W and the campaign being waged by Barnabas Aid for both Canada and the UN to become realistic. A&W urge, “It is time for both Canada and the UN to join the international consensus, supported by a majority of the Canadian people at a rate of two to one in our recent K of C-Leger poll.” As a Canadian I will be extremely embarrassed if our Government were to renege on this life-and-death issue for thousands of people. If there is no change at this front, I will definitely campaign against the Federal Government on basis of this offensive indifference during any future election. I will help arouse the Christian community against them in my writings. It is one more spike in the coffin of death with which the politicians of almost all parties are saddling our country, the others being easy abortion and easy assisted suicide along with the more general ones of poverty and injustice.

Though I am always wary of one-issue politics, the matter of life and death trumps all other issues in importance along with poverty and injustice.  Come to think of it, when you lump these “few” issues together, you’re really talking a pretty wide umbrella of issues that can hardly be considered “single-issue” stuff. I am aware this could leave me a political orphan without a party to vote for. I may be left to vote for the least of all evils, a position that an increasing number of Canadian Christians find themselves in.

Though I drift in this post from the specific issue of genocide of Christians to more general politics, what I want you to take away from it is first of all the genocide issue. That’s my issue for today.  It is more than an “issue” for thousands of Christians in the Middle East; for them it is indeed literally an issue of life and death that goes far beyond mere politics. We need to press the Government of Canada to recognize and declare ISIS genocide of Middle Eastern Christians and others of various persuasions. Does the pretty face of our current PM mask an attitude of political indifference to the lot of the most vulnerable and, thus, of an underlying cruelty? I leave the answer to you.                  

Post 122--Muslim Persecution of Christians

   

Post 118 of this blog talks about whether Muslims want peace or terrorism. I quoted Canadian Muslims who are fiercely opposed to violence and terrorism. I also wrote about some who want both!  Yes, as strange as it seems, terrorists who claim to be Muslims resort to violence as the only way to peace.  They base their definition of peace on a very literal, unhistorical and fundamentalist interpretation of the Qur’an.

Most Muslims reject that interpretation as well as the attitudes and actions that result from it. One of its results is the death of thousands of Muslims at the hands of those militant “Muslims” throughout the regions where militancy has a hold, especially those claimed by ISIS in the “Middle East” and Boko Haram in the north-east of Nigeria and neighbouring countries. Probably more Muslims are killed than Christians and others. Most of the global Muslim community strongly resist and resent any suggestions that Islam and the Muslim community are violent or approve of terrorism. They wonder why Westerners associate Muslims with violence and terrorism. Why, Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance, they will argue up and down. Those militants do not represent Islam.

Well, that may be true, but that does not take Muslims off the hook. There is another form of violence that may not be described as “terrorist” but is violent none the less. I am talking about persecution. Persecution of other religions is rife within the Muslim community, even within the most liberal or secular Muslim countries. Back in Post 76 I promised that I would devote an occasional post to Muslim persecution of Christians. It’s high time I act once again on that promise.

There are various Christian organizations that monitor situations of such persecution. One of them has been introduced to you in the past and I’m going to resort to them again: Barnabas Aid.  Their international headquarters is in the UK, while they have regional offices in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland, Singapore and the USA.  They publish both a bi-monthly magazine and a prayer bulletin.  I am going to simply quote a few random reports of theirs from the May/June 2016 prayer bulletin.

My stories will zero in on mostly ordinary Muslims, their governments and their agencies in Muslim-majority countries. There are many other fronts where there is serious persecution, but I hope to address them sometime in the near future. These could include reports of ISIS atrocities that will be addressed one day under the rubric of “genocide.” There is also persecution of Christians at the hands of Muslim minority communities in the West. Then there are Hindu persecution of Christians, Chinese persecution, Buddhist persecution,Secular persecution in the West, etc., etc.  One of the most puzzling forms of persecution is that of Christians by Muslims in Christian-majority countries, mostly in Africa! I reserve all of that for future blogs. In all of this, I am aware that there are also situations where Muslims are persecuted. Perhaps that subject will be treated as well in due time.

But for this post and the next, persecution of Christians by ordinary Muslims in Muslim-majority countries:

May 1—“Iraqi Christians in Baghdad have recently lost their homes, businesses, cultural sites and church buildings when they were seized by Iranian-backed militias, forcing the owners to leave.” “They are being targeted in a type of ethnic cleansing designed to rid the Iraqi capital of all Christians.”

May 16—“A Pakistani Christian was beaten to death by police in January 2016, after having been stripped naked and hung up until his shoulders were dislocated. Liaquat Masih had worked as a driver for 18 years for a Muslim politician when he was accused by his employer’s wife of stealing jewelry. The police also beat Gull Khatab, a former employee of the politician, to try to pressure him into accusing Liaqat, but Gull refused. When local Christians staged a peaceful protest the following day outside the police station at which it all happened, police used batons against them, injuring six women and four men.”

May 18—“Tahira (21) and her sister Reema (20), both Christians, were kidnapped by Muslims towards the end of last year, forcibly converted to Islam and forced to marry their kidnappers in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Tahira has managed to escape but dares not return to her family, who are now in grave danger because the kidnappers have filed a police complaint against them. The police typically take the side of the Muslim husbands in such cases. Pray that Reema may also find a way to escape and that both sisters may find a hope and future in a culture where their reputations are now ruined and they and their relatives are in danger of physical attack by the Muslim family or arrest by the police.”

May 19—“There are estimated to be around 700 cases like Tahira and Reema (see above) every year in Pakistan. Pray for the courageous Christian lawyers…who put their own lives at risk to give legal assistance to the victims and their families. Ask the Lord to grant them favour as they argue their cases before the authorities and to protect them from the many enemies they make as they speak up in defense of poor and vulnerable believers.”    

June 6—A fifth-century underground cave church has been discovered in Turkey’s Cappadocia region, a place where some of the earliest Christians lived (Acts 2:9; 1 Peter 1:1 in New Testament).  As Christians in Turkey today face pressures of many kinds, particularly with regard to their buildings, and are made to feel unwanted in their own country, pray that this tangible reminder of their historic roots may bring them encouragement and hope. Pray that the Muslim population (99% according to government figures) will recognize that Christians are not foreigners or traitors, but have a rightful place in society.  

June 7—A church building in Bursa, Turkey, dating from the 1880s, is currently used by four different denominations. When the Christians made a routine application to renew their permission to use the building, they were refused and ordered to leave the premises by February 26.  When this became known, local residents and the Turkish media reacted in support of the Christians—a very unusual occurrence in Turkey, where the Muslim majority and media are generally negative towards Christians. Perhaps even more surprising was the response of the Turkish authorities on February 23 withdrawing the eviction order.            

In closing this post, I think it only fair to tell you that this very day my wife and I were brunch guests at the home of a Turkish Muslim family who are our friends and who are the most cultured, gentle and kind people you can imagine. It almost seems ungrateful to publish this report today. I apologize to them, but the truth must be told. By no means all Turkish Muslims fit that description when it comes to Christians, but the percentage is too high, high enough to dub such events as “common place,” while resistance to them is considered “unusual” and “surprising.”  The end result after centuries of Muslim domination of these early Christian regions is a greatly reduced Christian community. 

Post 98—Long on Freedom Talk

An International Multifaith Conference

Some time ago the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Vatican held a joint conference to find a common code for religious conversions.  First, a word of identification. I believe we all know that the Vatican is the Rome-based headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church (RCC).  You may not be familiar with WCC. It is a group of nearly 350 denominations that include Reformed, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical churches and only God and WCC know who else. 27 persons attended the conference, including adherents of Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and Animism as represented by the Yoruba tradition. So, a small group as far as world conferences go, with the Christian organizers having a mere scant majority.

As I understand it, they made two major decisions. The first, is freedom of religion, officially already a recognized a non-negotiable throughout the world, though the practice falls far short of the official. The second, to go easy on converting others. As the report put it, “All should heal themselves from the obsession of converting others.” 

Freedom of Religion?

          Non-Christian Persecution of Christians

As to the first, insisting on freedom of religion is great. It is virtually a global mantra. But then what do you do in a world where Buddhists, Hindus and Muslims in particular deny Christians their freedom in scores of countries?  Buddhism and Hinduism are traditional tolerant religions that in the past gave Christians and Muslims freedom to practice their religion. But recently they have become increasingly intolerant of especially Christians and Muslims.  One of these days I will devote a few posts to illustrate the truth of this last sentence. In general, wherever these traditionally tolerant religions find themselves threatened by either Christians or Muslims, they become intolerant and oppressive; they even begin to persecute, destroy and kill.

As to persecution of Christians by Muslims, do you even need to be made aware of that?  It’s all over the map, not only in the Muslim-dominant countries, regions and societies, but even in the West, though sometimes there indirectly through their willing lackeys, some of whom are very powerful, but politically correct  people who glad hand Muslims and refuse to face the Muslim reality in their own Western countries. Geert Wilders is perhaps the most (in)famous Westerner who tries to awake sleeping secular Europeans to this reality. The fact that he often does this in a totally blunt and politically incorrect manner does not mean he is totally wrong in his major concern. In Canada we have our own Ezra Levant.

          Christians Persecuting Christians

And then I have not even mentioned the freedom that Christians in some countries deny other Christians! This takes place in some Orthodox societies, where the dominant church resists the incursion of Evangelical Christians—in Greece and Russia in particular. Now there maybe some semi-legitimate reasons for such resistance, such as Evangelical, often American, disrespect for local deep-rooted historical churches and their leaders. Nevertheless, the principal of freedom of religion stands and may not be undermined by perhaps disgusting or insulting behaviour on the part of outside challengers.  I can well imagine that fundamentalist foreign missionaries can present a serious problem among these Orthodox churches, but that must be solved within the range of religious freedom, not by curtailing it.

A parallel situation obtains in Roman Catholic Latin America, where all strands of Protestants have established missions, churches and institutions, especially Charismatics.  The members of these new churches mostly are drawn from the RCC. So, no wonder the RCC resists them, sometimes in whatever way they can.

We can even make the same point about secular countries and quite a few of my posts speak of secular resistance to full-orbed Christians. However, secularists were not invited to this conference. So, in this post I will leave them alone. 

 

A Grain of Salt

So, here sit these religious leaders with all their wisdom and pomposity, robes and mitres and hats and staffs and all. Very impressive. All of them piously affirming and insisting on religious freedom for all their people, while at home they support and possibly even engineer intolerance and persecution of the very faiths with whom they have signed for tolerance in this conference.

I always take the declarations and communiqués  of such conferences with less than a grain of salt, knowing that many of the signers do so hypocritically. I have taken part in similar conferences between Christians and Muslim in Nigeria and understand the dynamic. The participants use the same language but interpret it in terms of their own religion and, often secretly, exercise the right to hold the declaration they signed in reserve.

The next post will deal with the alleged obsession.

The website of the WCC is  www.oikoumene.org/    

Post 80—Oppression of Muslims

It is claimed by Christian experts that Christians are the most persecuted people in the world. Now those who study Christian persecution may be experts in Christian persecution, but are they also experts in persecution in general? Do they know as much about persecution of Muslims? 

My universe of discourse here is persecution because of their faith, not because of political circumstances.  How many of the Muslims streaming into the West these days are Muslims persecuted for their faith rather than victims of politics or immigrants seeking better economic circumstances?  

In the case of African Muslims crossing the Mediterranean, it is fairly safe to regard most of them as economic immigrants. In the case of Syrians Muslims, I expect that many are victims of their civil war in the same way as are many Christians—in other words economic and political victims, not victims of religious persecution. But many Christians among them have also been persecuted for their faith by the same Muslims who now are their fellow refugees. Remember the story in Sweden a few posts ago?  So, many of them are these three types all rolled into one. 

Syrian affairs are complicated these days. These refugees are not all victims of the Syrian civil war. Many of them, both Christian and Muslim, are also victims of ISIS violence. That is above all a religious war with serious economic and political consequences. Those who are dislodged because of ISIS can be considered persecuted Christians and Muslims.  The same thing is true with Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.  They persecute fellow Muslims as much as Christians. In fact, more, for Muslims outnumber Christians in that far north east of the country. I do not know whether these persecution “experts” study that aspect of persecution. Neither do I know whether there are Muslims who are experts in persecution of Muslims. I guess I could go online and check it out. Perhaps you would find them mostly among human rights advocates.

But one thing is sure, namely that in most Muslim countries in general, Christians are the most numerous among those persecuted, for there is hardly a Muslim-majority country where Christians are not persecuted, whether by government or by the people, whether officially or unofficially, whether by pure violence or various forms of discrimination.   

And yet, in a country like Nigeria, Muslims have for decades complained about persecution. Not the violent kind that kills or maims, though that also occurs during times of demonstrations, but in terms of discrimination in cultural, political, legal and educational forms, persecution by colonialists and by Christians. When the British established the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, the colonial Governor, Lord Lugard, a secular man, promised that the British would not touch their Muslim religion. This is known as the "Lugard promise." There would be freedom of religion for the Muslims. In fact, for many decades Christian missionaries had less freedom to spread the Gospel than Muslims had for theirs. So, why did northern Muslims complain so bitterly about persecution, while Christians suffered at their hands? 

The reason is to be found in the Lugard promise.  He made his promise from his secular perspective on religion, which is a reduced version of religion that is restricted to church/mosque and private life, but not to affect public life, for that is supposedly secular and neutral. His promise was that Muslims were free to attend mosque and practice their religion privately. 

But to Muslims, religion is a wholistic affair that touches on and influences all of life, not just private or mosque life. Without either party being aware of it, they misunderstood each other. Muslims thought they would be free to practice their religion wholistically in all spheres of culture. 

The British proceded to secularize the Muslim community. Though they left sharia (Muslim law) in tact at the level of mosque, the private and family levels, in other spheres secularism became the dominant worldview on basis of which public life was organized. A major tool was education. Another was switching the Hausa language from Arabic script to Western so as to reduce the influence of Arabic ideas.  Ever so slowly the secular spirit took hold among Muslims—until the revolution of Khomeini woke them up. Suddenly they realized they “had been had.”  Suddenly they began to realize what had happened to them and they burst out in anger. They had been fooled, slipped a poison pill and put to sleep, while an antithesis had developed between the two systems. Everything public had gone secular, something that most Muslims reject with a passion, especially in northern Nigeria. Before long, the demand for the revival of sharia came to the surface with a vengeance. They felt discriminated against and, yes, persecuted--and justifiably so.

If you wish to pursue the topic of Muslim persecution, I urge you to read both volumes 4 and 6 in my series Studies in Christian-Muslim Relations. That series opens the Islamica page of my website < www.SocialTheology.com/Islamica.htm. >  You will find a strong sense on the part of Muslims of being persecuted by colonial secular forces, the antithesis to Islam. Boko Haram is an extremist reaction to that secular force. Its central tenet is buried in its Hausa name, which means “Western education (secularism) is forbidden.”  

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.