© 2013 The Wired Word
www.thewiredword.com
According to an Associated Press report of the terrorist attack on the mall
in Nairobi, Kenya, last month that left more than 70 people dead, the Somali
Islamic militant group "separated Muslims from other people and let the
Muslims go free." Witnesses said that the gunmen determined which shoppers
were Muslim by asking the captives questions about Islam. If they couldn't
answer, they were shot or tortured to death. Kenyan soldiers reported bodies
with eyes gouged out and hung from ceiling hooks, castrated men, fingers
removed with pliers, hands sharpened "like a pencil" and other
horrors.
Sadly, this singling out of non-Muslims for persecution and death is no
isolated incident in the Middle East and some parts of Africa today, and many
Christians are among the victims. In fact, Christianity itself is often under
attack throughout the region, to the point that some observers are now talking
about the coming extinction of Christianity in the Middle East. Western
churches, however, have said little about the slaughter.
Writing last week for the British magazine
The Spectator, Ed West,
deputy editor of the
Catholic Herald, said, "The last month and a
half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven
centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly
focused on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political
figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks."
West went on to note that both the American and the British press are among
those that have under-reported this persecution.
While there have been stories of Muslims protecting Christian neighbors, in
some predominantly Islamic lands, Christians continue to be prime targets. Two
weeks ago, Taliban suicide bombers in Peshawar, Pakistan, killed at least 85
worshipers at All Saints' Church, which had been in that city since 1883. The
result of such attacks is often that other Christians flee the country. One
report says that two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have now vanished from that
country, either murdered or having fled for their lives. Testifying before
Congress in 2011, Nina Shea, an international human-rights lawyer, said that
starting in 2004 in Iraq, "Christians ... have been raped, tortured,
kidnapped, beheaded and evicted from their homes."
In Syria, bad as Bashar al-Assad is, many Christians fear what will
happen to them if he falls. There are reports that some rebel Islamic groups
are killing Christians.
Speaking at Britain's National Liberal Club last month, historian Tom
Holland said that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other
minority faiths in the Middle East. As reported in
The Spectator,
Holland described this as "the culmination of the long process that began
in the Balkans in the late 19th century, reached its horrific European climax
in 1939-1945 and continued with the Greeks of Alexandria, the Mizrahi Jews and,
most recently, the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians of Iraq." Holland added that
the Copts may have the numbers to hold on, as do the Jews of Israel, but he wondered
out loud if any other minority-religion groups can.
Some observers are now raising the question of why churches in the West have
been largely silent about this persecution. It appears not even to have the
attention of Christians in America, Britain and other Western countries.
Christians have been too busy with other things or "just too frightened of
controversy to raise [the issue of] Muslim-on-Christian violence."
According to a PBS news report last year, the only Middle-Eastern country
that has a growing Christian population is Israel. "There are no more
Christians in Algeria, in Tunisia, in Libya, where there was a majority of
Christians 700, 800 years ago. They're gone. There's ... no one,"
Mary-Jane Deeb, head of the Africa and Middle East division of the Library of
Congress told PBS last year. "In the rest of the region, that will also
happen as more Christians are emigrating. They're leaving."
Writing last week in
The Daily Beast, columnist Kirsten Powers
commented, "It's no surprise that Jews seem to understand the gravity of
the situation the best. In December 2011, Britain's chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan
Sacks, addressed Parliament saying, "I have followed the fate of
Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised
and distressed ... that it is not more widely known." Sacks added,
"It was Martin Luther King who said, 'In the end, we will remember not the
words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' That is why I felt I
could not be silent today."
Yet churches in America remain quiet on the matter.
More on this story can be found at these links:
A Global Slaughter of Christians, but America's Churches Stay
Silent. The Daily Beast
The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in
the Middle East. The Spectator
Persecution Against Christians Increases in Many Parts of the
World. Washington Times
Testimony ... on Recent Attacks Targeting Minorities in Iraq
and Egypt. US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Eyes Gouged Out, Bodies Hanging From Hooks .... Daily Mail
(UK)
The Big Questions
1. Why do you think American churches have been largely silent about the
bloody persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Islamic
countries? Do you think our lack of response means that American Christians are
self-centered? Do you think it is because we have enough problems of our own?
Could it mean we aren't really that committed to Christianity?
2. Is our silence about such persecution justifiable on the basis that
there's little we can do to prevent it? Is that even true? Why or why not? How
much of our silence has to do with the fact that Christians who live abroad do
not speak the same languages, dress the same, share our cultural assumptions?
How much is due to this sort of news seldom being reported? Is there a
relationship?
3. Should we consider Christians in the Middle East to be our spiritual
brothers and sisters? Why or why not? If yes, what does it actually mean that
they are our spiritual family members? What message do we send by remaining
uninvolved?
4. At what point does our silence about the persecution of Christians in
distant places become sinful? At what point does our silence about the
persecution of members of other religious minorities in distant places become
sinful? Name one way you can become involved as a class, either directly with
individuals overseas, or in your congregation, parish, district, etc.
5. Once Christians have been either murdered or driven out of a specific
country, that means there are no representatives of our faith in that land to
be witnesses for Christ and offer fellowship to converts. Should that concern
us? Is Christian witness and fellowship from a safe distance via technology
sufficient?
6. We Christians in the United States are not usually persecuted
because of our faith -- and nowhere near to the extent of these overseas
examples. Many of us are barely even inconvenienced for it. Does that put any
special responsibility on us regarding Christians who are severely persecuted
because of their faith? Where should we establish the boundaries of our
involvement? In some instances in the U.S., does the lack of persecution
indicate that something is lacking in the life or witness of many Christians?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Judges 5:23
Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse bitterly its inhabitants,
because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the
LORD against the mighty. (For context, read 5:19-23.)
Judges 5 contains the "Song of Deborah," the words she sang after
the Israelite victory over the Canaanites, led by Deborah and Barak. The song
is mostly celebratory, but the lines above are a curse directed at the town or
clan of Meroz, a group of Israelites who declined to send any soldiers to help
in the fighting against Israel's enemy. Deborah says the curse comes from
"the angel of the LORD." Whether anything bad befell Meroz as a
result is not known, but clearly, the song proclaims a dim view of people who
refused to come to the aid of their fellow Israelites.
Questions: Ought we to feel any obligation to help
persecuted Christians in other parts of the world? Why or why not? What form
can that help take? What combination of prayer, financial, political and/or
physical presence and support should it take?
Esther 4:14
For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will
rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will
perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time
as this. (For context, read 4:1-17.)
The book of Esther contains the story of a royal decree that Jewish people
living in the Persian Empire were to be killed, and how Queen Esther, a Jew
herself, though the king didn't know it, saved them by intervening with the
king (a dangerous act, depending on the king's mood). The line above is spoken
by Esther's relative Mordecai, suggesting that maybe the whole reason Esther
had been selected by the king to be his queen was so she could be in the right
place to avert the crisis and save her people.
Mordecai says that if Esther chooses not to act, her "silence"
will not keep help from arising from "another quarter," but his
implication is that her silence at such a time would be wrong.
Questions: What are some specific situations where the
"silence" of Christians -- either saying nothing or doing nothing --
is actually sinful? How might we overcome "silence" about the
persecution of Christians today? Mordecai speaks of "such a time as
this." Is there a special urgency about this particular issue? As a group,
rank where this issue stands for you in comparison to other local and national
concerns of faith.
Luke 21:17
You will be hated by all because of my name. (For context, read
21:7-18.)
Jesus said this to his disciples in the first century, but it remains true
in many places yet today.
Questions: Jesus implies that some persecution is
inevitable. What are the dangers of accepting inevitabilities? For instance,
does it make us complacent about such matters? What might these words of Jesus
say to us if we are not feeling particularly persecuted?
1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the
directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week,
each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that
collections need not be taken when I come. And when I arrive, I will send any
whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem. (For
context, 16:1-4. Cf. Romans 15:25-27, 30-33; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Galatians
2:10.)
The New Testament contains no example of a church being asked to stand up on
behalf of Christians elsewhere to stop persecution, but the "collection
for the saints," which Paul and his coworkers were soliciting from the
churches throughout the Roman Empire to aid Christians in Jerusalem shows a
similar precedent.
We don't know the details about need in the Jerusalem church, but Acts 11
refers to a famine that required relief to be sent to "the brothers and
sisters in Judea" (vv. 28-29), the province that included Jerusalem. The
ancient historian Josephus mentions a famine in Palestine during the reign of
the Emperor Claudius, which coincides with the time of Paul's ministry. This
may have been the famine that triggered the offering.
Even though the Christians in the distant churches didn't know the Jerusalem
Christians, they recognized the common ground in Christ sufficiently that they
gave to help their brothers and sisters in the faith.
Questions: When has someone given you unsolicited but
welcome help? What made it helpful? Note that the apostle assumes that economic
assistance, prayer and action are all tied together, and that assistance to
other Christians is essential. What does your church consider essential to its
survival? Does your church consider the well-being of other Christians
essential to its larger ministries and identity?
For Further Discussion
1. One TWW team member remembers that at a denominational assembly earlier
this year a Nigerian bishop told how one of his Christian churches was burned
to the ground by extremists. Some of the young people in his church retaliated
by burning a mosque. He sent them back to rebuild the mosque, in order to
demonstrate that Christians do not retaliate, and that Jesus calls on us to
love our enemies and to do good for those who hate us. This bishop had earlier
told the assembly that "Muslims and Christians are in agreement about
certain social issues and work together where there are great needs."
Consider the following questions:
• Do you have the courage of your Christian convictions to actually
live out the words of Jesus even when they seem impractical and dangerous?
• This bishop said that even though there is a good deal of violence
directed toward churches and mosques, Christians and Muslims found they could
work together on issues where they shared the same vision and saw the same
concerns that needed to be addressed. How might this be translated usefully
into American life? into U.S. politics?
2. Comment on this, from a German pastor named Martin Niemoeller following
WW II:
In Germany, they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because
I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I
didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that
time, no one was left to speak up.
3. Respond to this: Historically, the intensity of persecution has been geared
to the intensity and faithfulness of the witness given by Christians. The
brighter Christians burned with faithfulness to Jesus, the more likely they
were to be persecuted. In some parts of the world today, however, merely being
identified as a Christian seems sufficient to make one a target for
persecution.
4. Discuss this, from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Germany who
resisted Hitler and was executed by the Nazis: "Silence in the face of
evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
Responding to the News
This is a good time to find ways you can help persecuted Christians
worldwide. Start by checking with your denomination to see what efforts it
already has underway.
There are also organizations concerned specifically with the persecution of
Christians. Two we are aware of are
International Christian Concern and
Open Doors.
Additionally, there is a federal body that "monitors the conditions of
religious liberty abroad and recommends policies to the President, Secretary of
State and Congress to advance this most precious right":
United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom.
Freedom House is
a human-rights organization that also promotes freedom from religious
persecution.
Closing Prayer
O God, thank you for the promise of the crown of life to all those who stay
faithful through persecution. Enable us to find ways to strengthen, encourage
and help the persecuted in the name of Jesus. Let us not be sinfully silent.
Amen.According to an Associated Press report of the terrorist attack on the mall
in Nairobi, Kenya, last month that left more than 70 people dead, the Somali
Islamic militant group "separated Muslims from other people and let the
Muslims go free." Witnesses said that the gunmen determined which shoppers
were Muslim by asking the captives questions about Islam. If they couldn't
answer, they were shot or tortured to death. Kenyan soldiers reported bodies
with eyes gouged out and hung from ceiling hooks, castrated men, fingers
removed with pliers, hands sharpened "like a pencil" and other
horrors.
Sadly, this singling out of non-Muslims for persecution and death is no
isolated incident in the Middle East and some parts of Africa today, and many
Christians are among the victims. In fact, Christianity itself is often under
attack throughout the region, to the point that some observers are now talking
about the coming extinction of Christianity in the Middle East. Western
churches, however, have said little about the slaughter.
Writing last week for the British magazine
The Spectator, Ed West,
deputy editor of the
Catholic Herald, said, "The last month and a
half has seen perhaps the worst anti-Christian violence in Egypt in seven
centuries, with dozens of churches torched. Yet the western media has mainly
focused on army assaults on the Muslim Brotherhood, and no major political
figure has said anything about the sectarian attacks."
West went on to note that both the American and the British press are among
those that have under-reported this persecution.
While there have been stories of Muslims protecting Christian neighbors, in
some predominantly Islamic lands, Christians continue to be prime targets. Two
weeks ago, Taliban suicide bombers in Peshawar, Pakistan, killed at least 85
worshipers at All Saints' Church, which had been in that city since 1883. The
result of such attacks is often that other Christians flee the country. One
report says that two-thirds of Iraqi Christians have now vanished from that
country, either murdered or having fled for their lives. Testifying before
Congress in 2011, Nina Shea, an international human-rights lawyer, said that
starting in 2004 in Iraq, "Christians ... have been raped, tortured,
kidnapped, beheaded and evicted from their homes."
In Syria, bad as Bashar al-Assad is, many Christians fear what will
happen to them if he falls. There are reports that some rebel Islamic groups
are killing Christians.
Speaking at Britain's National Liberal Club last month, historian Tom
Holland said that we are now seeing the extinction of Christianity and other
minority faiths in the Middle East. As reported in
The Spectator,
Holland described this as "the culmination of the long process that began
in the Balkans in the late 19th century, reached its horrific European climax
in 1939-1945 and continued with the Greeks of Alexandria, the Mizrahi Jews and,
most recently, the Chaldo-Assyrian Christians of Iraq." Holland added that
the Copts may have the numbers to hold on, as do the Jews of Israel, but he wondered
out loud if any other minority-religion groups can.
Some observers are now raising the question of why churches in the West have
been largely silent about this persecution. It appears not even to have the
attention of Christians in America, Britain and other Western countries.
Christians have been too busy with other things or "just too frightened of
controversy to raise [the issue of] Muslim-on-Christian violence."
According to a PBS news report last year, the only Middle-Eastern country
that has a growing Christian population is Israel. "There are no more
Christians in Algeria, in Tunisia, in Libya, where there was a majority of
Christians 700, 800 years ago. They're gone. There's ... no one,"
Mary-Jane Deeb, head of the Africa and Middle East division of the Library of
Congress told PBS last year. "In the rest of the region, that will also
happen as more Christians are emigrating. They're leaving."
Writing last week in
The Daily Beast, columnist Kirsten Powers
commented, "It's no surprise that Jews seem to understand the gravity of
the situation the best. In December 2011, Britain's chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan
Sacks, addressed Parliament saying, "I have followed the fate of
Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised
and distressed ... that it is not more widely known." Sacks added,
"It was Martin Luther King who said, 'In the end, we will remember not the
words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' That is why I felt I
could not be silent today."
Yet churches in America remain quiet on the matter.
More on this story can be found at these links:
A Global Slaughter of Christians, but America's Churches Stay
Silent. The Daily Beast
The Silence of Our Friends -- the Extinction of Christianity in
the Middle East. The Spectator
Persecution Against Christians Increases in Many Parts of the
World. Washington Times
Testimony ... on Recent Attacks Targeting Minorities in Iraq
and Egypt. US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Eyes Gouged Out, Bodies Hanging From Hooks .... Daily Mail
(UK)
The Big Questions
1. Why do you think American churches have been largely silent about the
bloody persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Islamic
countries? Do you think our lack of response means that American Christians are
self-centered? Do you think it is because we have enough problems of our own?
Could it mean we aren't really that committed to Christianity?
2. Is our silence about such persecution justifiable on the basis that
there's little we can do to prevent it? Is that even true? Why or why not? How
much of our silence has to do with the fact that Christians who live abroad do
not speak the same languages, dress the same, share our cultural assumptions?
How much is due to this sort of news seldom being reported? Is there a
relationship?
3. Should we consider Christians in the Middle East to be our spiritual
brothers and sisters? Why or why not? If yes, what does it actually mean that
they are our spiritual family members? What message do we send by remaining
uninvolved?
4. At what point does our silence about the persecution of Christians in
distant places become sinful? At what point does our silence about the
persecution of members of other religious minorities in distant places become
sinful? Name one way you can become involved as a class, either directly with
individuals overseas, or in your congregation, parish, district, etc.
5. Once Christians have been either murdered or driven out of a specific
country, that means there are no representatives of our faith in that land to
be witnesses for Christ and offer fellowship to converts. Should that concern
us? Is Christian witness and fellowship from a safe distance via technology
sufficient?
6. We Christians in the United States are not usually persecuted
because of our faith -- and nowhere near to the extent of these overseas
examples. Many of us are barely even inconvenienced for it. Does that put any
special responsibility on us regarding Christians who are severely persecuted
because of their faith? Where should we establish the boundaries of our
involvement? In some instances in the U.S., does the lack of persecution
indicate that something is lacking in the life or witness of many Christians?
Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope
Here are some Bible verses to guide your discussion:
Judges 5:23
Curse Meroz, says the angel of the LORD, curse bitterly its inhabitants,
because they did not come to the help of the LORD, to the help of the
LORD against the mighty. (For context, read 5:19-23.)
Judges 5 contains the "Song of Deborah," the words she sang after
the Israelite victory over the Canaanites, led by Deborah and Barak. The song
is mostly celebratory, but the lines above are a curse directed at the town or
clan of Meroz, a group of Israelites who declined to send any soldiers to help
in the fighting against Israel's enemy. Deborah says the curse comes from
"the angel of the LORD." Whether anything bad befell Meroz as a
result is not known, but clearly, the song proclaims a dim view of people who
refused to come to the aid of their fellow Israelites.
Questions: Ought we to feel any obligation to help
persecuted Christians in other parts of the world? Why or why not? What form
can that help take? What combination of prayer, financial, political and/or
physical presence and support should it take?
Esther 4:14
For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will
rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father's family will
perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time
as this. (For context, read 4:1-17.)
The book of Esther contains the story of a royal decree that Jewish people
living in the Persian Empire were to be killed, and how Queen Esther, a Jew
herself, though the king didn't know it, saved them by intervening with the
king (a dangerous act, depending on the king's mood). The line above is spoken
by Esther's relative Mordecai, suggesting that maybe the whole reason Esther
had been selected by the king to be his queen was so she could be in the right
place to avert the crisis and save her people.
Mordecai says that if Esther chooses not to act, her "silence"
will not keep help from arising from "another quarter," but his
implication is that her silence at such a time would be wrong.
Questions: What are some specific situations where the
"silence" of Christians -- either saying nothing or doing nothing --
is actually sinful? How might we overcome "silence" about the
persecution of Christians today? Mordecai speaks of "such a time as
this." Is there a special urgency about this particular issue? As a group,
rank where this issue stands for you in comparison to other local and national
concerns of faith.
Luke 21:17
You will be hated by all because of my name. (For context, read
21:7-18.)
Jesus said this to his disciples in the first century, but it remains true
in many places yet today.
Questions: Jesus implies that some persecution is
inevitable. What are the dangers of accepting inevitabilities? For instance,
does it make us complacent about such matters? What might these words of Jesus
say to us if we are not feeling particularly persecuted?
1 Corinthians 16:1-3
Now concerning the collection for the saints: you should follow the
directions I gave to the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week,
each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that
collections need not be taken when I come. And when I arrive, I will send any
whom you approve with letters to take your gift to Jerusalem. (For
context, 16:1-4. Cf. Romans 15:25-27, 30-33; 2 Corinthians 8-9; Galatians
2:10.)
The New Testament contains no example of a church being asked to stand up on
behalf of Christians elsewhere to stop persecution, but the "collection
for the saints," which Paul and his coworkers were soliciting from the
churches throughout the Roman Empire to aid Christians in Jerusalem shows a
similar precedent.
We don't know the details about need in the Jerusalem church, but Acts 11
refers to a famine that required relief to be sent to "the brothers and
sisters in Judea" (vv. 28-29), the province that included Jerusalem. The
ancient historian Josephus mentions a famine in Palestine during the reign of
the Emperor Claudius, which coincides with the time of Paul's ministry. This
may have been the famine that triggered the offering.
Even though the Christians in the distant churches didn't know the Jerusalem
Christians, they recognized the common ground in Christ sufficiently that they
gave to help their brothers and sisters in the faith.
Questions: When has someone given you unsolicited but
welcome help? What made it helpful? Note that the apostle assumes that economic
assistance, prayer and action are all tied together, and that assistance to
other Christians is essential. What does your church consider essential to its
survival? Does your church consider the well-being of other Christians
essential to its larger ministries and identity?
For Further Discussion
1. One TWW team member remembers that at a denominational assembly earlier
this year a Nigerian bishop told how one of his Christian churches was burned
to the ground by extremists. Some of the young people in his church retaliated
by burning a mosque. He sent them back to rebuild the mosque, in order to
demonstrate that Christians do not retaliate, and that Jesus calls on us to
love our enemies and to do good for those who hate us. This bishop had earlier
told the assembly that "Muslims and Christians are in agreement about
certain social issues and work together where there are great needs."
Consider the following questions:
• Do you have the courage of your Christian convictions to actually
live out the words of Jesus even when they seem impractical and dangerous?
• This bishop said that even though there is a good deal of violence
directed toward churches and mosques, Christians and Muslims found they could
work together on issues where they shared the same vision and saw the same
concerns that needed to be addressed. How might this be translated usefully
into American life? into U.S. politics?
2. Comment on this, from a German pastor named Martin Niemoeller following
WW II:
In Germany, they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I
wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because
I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up
because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I
didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that
time, no one was left to speak up.
3. Respond to this: Historically, the intensity of persecution has been geared
to the intensity and faithfulness of the witness given by Christians. The
brighter Christians burned with faithfulness to Jesus, the more likely they
were to be persecuted. In some parts of the world today, however, merely being
identified as a Christian seems sufficient to make one a target for
persecution.
4. Discuss this, from Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor in Germany who
resisted Hitler and was executed by the Nazis: "Silence in the face of
evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."
Responding to the News
This is a good time to find ways you can help persecuted Christians
worldwide. Start by checking with your denomination to see what efforts it
already has underway.
There are also organizations concerned specifically with the persecution of
Christians. Two we are aware of are
International Christian Concern and
Open Doors.
Additionally, there is a federal body that "monitors the conditions of
religious liberty abroad and recommends policies to the President, Secretary of
State and Congress to advance this most precious right":
United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom.
Freedom House is
a human-rights organization that also promotes freedom from religious
persecution.
Closing Prayer
O God, thank you for the promise of the crown of life to all those who stay
faithful through persecution. Enable us to find ways to strengthen, encourage
and help the persecuted in the name of Jesus. Let us not be sinfully silent.
Amen.
