"War on Christians" is Worldwide Phenomenon
The persecution of Christians globally is finally getting some notice in the mainstream press. The cover story in Newsweek is titled, “The War on Christians,” and is authored by Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Ali is a former Muslim who works at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
You read that right. Newsweek – the repository of condescending liberalism, the magazine of record of the self-annointed Center-Left elite – has published a compelling piece by a bona fide “person of the Right.”
Why? Because even the Left has to acknowledge that Christians are under the gun – quite literally – throughout the developing world. To read about the latest, and ever-expanding, attacks on Christians in nations where they are a minority (and that would be all of Asia and the Middle East and most of Africa), go to the International Christian Concern’s www.persecution.org and Voice of the Martyrs’ www.persecution.com. From Nigeria to Pakistan to China, the attacks on those who profess the Name of Christ are numerous and brutal. As summarized by Dr. John Eibner, president of Christian Solidarity Worldwide,
A student beaten to death for wearing a cross necklace. A pastor sentenced to death for the “crime” of leaving Islam. Peaceful Christian protestors run over by tanks. This is the reality for Christians in North Africa and the Middle East today. Christians are under attack from radical Islamist groups and, in some cases, their own governments.
Yet as the distinguished scholar and diplomat Dr. Tom Farr, who was the first director of the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and who has spoken here at FRC, said recently, “The administration has invested far more energy and resources in the international advancement of LGBT rights than it has the advancement of religious freedom.”
The Obama Administration is willing to abrogate religious liberty here at home for the sake of an extreme political and social agenda (for example, visit our website to learn how President Obama is willing to violate historic conscience rights to bolster his political base and advance abortion-on-demand). After all, who really needs the First Amendment, right?
It is little wonder federal efforts to defend religious liberty abroad are so tepid. We cannot defend abroad what we are diminishing here at home.
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To quote Jon Stewart: "I have to say, as someone who is not Christian, it’s hard for me to believe Christians are a persecuted people in America. God-willing, maybe one of you one day will even rise up and get to be president of this country - or maybe forty-four in a row. But, that’s my point, is they’ve taken this idea of no establishment as persecution, because they feel entitled, not to equal status, but to greater status."
Who denies that in certain nations that Christians are persecuted? Yes of course they are. I as a secular humanist have even written letters in support of the rights of Christians to practice their religious beliefs in their nations. The problem is when they, and the FRC, try to imply that Christians here in the U.S. are being persecuted. Which they aren't. In fact, those on the Christian rightwing, such as the FRC, are very much in favor of using the government to regulate the lives of other people. They are the biggest supporters of the drug war, war on adult pornography etc. They want the government to lock up gay adult men for consensual sex in their bedrooms.
Jerome McCollom