Been an interesting morning thus far as I've been thinking about 'Not Ashamed' day and the issue of persecution, especially in light of the ACN report stating 200,000,000 people were subject to persecution because of their Christian faith.
Now I have to say that I fully support anything that gets the rank and file Christians off of their backsides and gets them to make a stand for their faith, after all, one of the great curses of Christian life is the weak, wishy-washy, 'let's not make waves' Christian. For me they are as distressing as those Christians who seek to turn everything into a 'persecution' scenario. The problem is that making a stand is something that we should be doing everyday by the way that we live and by the values and standards we live by and I'd like today to be the start of a 'Not Ashamed' lifestyle!
So for those who think not wearing a cross on a chain, or the forbidding of wearing a 'chastity ring' is persecution here's a few stimulating thoughts:
IRAQ Christians have died, or been injured, following a siege in a Baghdad church and the targeting of Christian homes by Islamic aggresors, who see their Christian targets as legitimate.
INDIA Hindu extremists beat a Christian in Moti Nagar and threaten his family with further violence should they attend Sunday worship.
VIETNAM Two Christian evangelists, Ksor Y Du, 47, and Kpa Y Co, 30, were sentenced to six and four years in prison respectively for “undermining national unity.”
There's much more, but I thought I'd start you off with easy stuff!
Pax
3 comments:
Hi Vic. I blogged about this <a href="http://revsimmy.wordpress.com/2010/11/16/persecution-and-the-devaluation-of-language/>here.<a> We need to be careful about the language we use. Nevertheless, there is a creeping erosion of our freedom to express our faith, usually under the guise of "removing religious privilege." A little of this is probably justified, since (particularly Anglican) Christianity has long been the kind of "default" assumption in society. Despite protestations to the contrary, however, many secular humanists and atheists (not necessarily the same thing) do seem to have an agenda that wants to go much further than this and make their own viewpoint to become the privileged one.
As is usually the case, I find myself agreeing with you on all counts.
Pax
V
Excellent point. We should be standing up for the Lord, being true to ourselves without over-magnifying what we are going through.
A sneer is not a concentration camp or jail time. These things may happen for Christians in the West one day, but until then don't ignore or over-inflate the problem.
Once again, wisdom and balance hold the solution for a Christ-like life.
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