On May 18, extremists in Nigeria interrupted a church choir practice and abducted 17 Christians. They are being ransomed and might never see their families again. Some of the Christian women may be sold into slavery or raped and forced to marry the jihadist. It’s the latest attack in the escalating violent war on Christians within Nigeria, where 3,731 Christians were killed last year.
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I constantly bear witness to this sort of violence and the corresponding malaise by the nature of the organization I lead, Open Doors USA. We track such incidents of Christian persecution around the world through our annual World Watch List, a comprehensive ranking of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. To us, this is more than just “another story"; it is another data point in a global crisis of persecution. One of every nine Christians experience high levels of persecution and suffer for their faith, and it’s picking up pace.
It’s not just in Nigeria.
In Sri Lanka, with families still mourning the more than 320 lives lost during bombings on Easter Sunday, government officials are awakening to the reality of Islamic State infiltration into Asia. The ideology of hatred and violence against Christians by the terrorist organization is no longer contained to Iraq and Syria.
China, waking up to a stunning realization that there could be more Christians in China than members of the Communist Party soon, has begun an Orwellian crackdown. They’re now using facial recognition, social scoring, imprisonment and monitoring to bring Chinese churches under the boot of the government.
Ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been governing India, the country has relegated its 30 million Christians to second-class citizens. Extremist Hindu groups are attacking Christians — with violence increasing 400% since 2014, according to Zenit — and some have called for expelling all Christians from the country.
... Inoculated by entertainment and self-absorption, [Christians in the United States] are completely detached from the experience of the global [Christian] church. The American church is feeding itself to death while the worldwide church is being murdered.
What actions can wealthy Christian churches in the United States take to stop such persecutions? Even the United States government does not intervene in the internal affairs of a sovereign country when its position of power is not being challenged or threatened, with exceptions of course, Libya being one such example. Detachment from self-absorption and fasting by Christians in the United States do not help those persecuted in far away places. Not even the Blessed Virgin Mary could stop the Rwandan genocide with Her apparitions in Kibeho, Rwanda. [2]
Perhaps it is best to lead by example, for Christians around the world to have true faith, humility, charity and generosity without being pretentious, hypocritical and political and let unconditional love spread from person to person, from community to community and across borders from country to country.
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/06/18/nigerian-kidnapping-christians-shows-american-church-must-act-column/1445442001/
[2] http://www.divinemysteries.info/our-lady-of-kibeho-rwanda-africa-1981-1989/
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