Some 165,000 Christians Will Die for Their Faith
This Year By Dan Wooding WHEATON, IL (November 19, 2000) - Some 165,000 Christians will die for their faith in Jesus this year. That is the view of religious statistician David B. Barrett in his new book "Today's Martyrs." Since the crucifixion of Jesus more than 43 million Christians have been killed for their faith. This estimate is part of documentation published by the German news agency IDEA. This information has come from the World Evangelical Fellowship based in Wheaton, IL, and contained in their latest publication, WEF Defender -- Update on Persecution. The WEF Defender reports that German missiologist Prof. Thomas Schirrmacher writes that no other religious community has been persecuted as hard as Christians. Persecution is on the rise due to the expansion of Islamic and Hindu extremism as well as the appearance of new dictatorships in Africa. "There is no telling how many Christians are being tortured, harassed or oppressed," states Schirrmacher. Also that a persecution index provided by Open Doors with Brother Andrew lists 28 countries with strong or even massive persecution. In another 23 countries Christians suffer discrimination and in some regions severe harassment. The WEF Defender then talks about some of the hot spots for persecution around the world. They started with India. "Following new attacks on Christians by members of Hindu fundamentalist groups, church leaders in India are expressing concern that the Orissa state government is anti-minority," said the report. "The general secretary of the Evangelical Fellowship of India (a WEF member), Richard Howell, said that persecution of Christians was increasing in the eastern Indian state, and civil servants, magistrates and district commissioners were not protecting Christians. "Howell said the government was not responding to their pleas, and that culprits were not being punished. Meanwhile, one Hindu group announced plans to spread a "message of saffron brotherhood" in 500,000 villages throughout India. The campaign has been described as the biggest mass contact exercise in the country to spread the message of 'Hindutva' (Hinduness). Rulers persecute me without cause, but my heart trembles at your word. Ps 119:161.) Surprisingly, Greece was singled out for comment. "The Greek government again attacks Evangelical churches in Thessaloniki," said the report. "In 1997 local police filed a suit against 11 pastors of the Evangelical community of Thessaloniki accusing them that they are operating their churches without the required official 'House of Prayer' license. A court hearing is set for December 12, 2000. Among the Thessaloniki churches charged is the Greek Evangelical Church, a large historical Evangelical church in Thessaloniki; the Apostolic Pentecostal Church, with a history of many decades in the city; and the Biblical Church pastored by Rev. Timothy Antoniadis, a member of the executive committee of Greek Evangelical Alliance (a member of WEF). "Similar accusations have been brought against 14 other evangelical churches and religious minorities since 1997." According to the report, Greece has been condemned for the law numerous times in the courts of Europe. Cases before the European Court of Human Rights confirm the need for the Greek government to grant freedoms to religious minorities. DECLINE IN RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BODES ILL FOR OTHER RIGHTS WEF says that if religious freedom in the world is on the decline, as a new report suggests, other basic human freedoms and hopes for extending democracy globally could suffer, according to the study's author. In a story in Newsroom, principle freedoms tend to be interlocked, explained Paul Marshall, general editor of a survey conducted by Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom. "Without such things as freedom of the press or freedom of speech, for instance, you can't have religious freedom. Definitions overlap." The survey, "Religious Freedom in the World: a Global Report on Freedom and Persecution," ranks 75 countries containing some 90 percent of the world's population on a comparative scale. It concludes that conditions necessary for religious freedom have been deteriorating since the mid-1990s, particularly in populous countries such as India, where Christians are suffering increased persecution at the hands of Hindu nationalists; China, in the wake of its 1999 crackdown on the religious group, Falun Gong; Indonesia, where communal strife between Muslims and Christians has become infused by the more structured presence of "jihad warriors" in some areas; Nigeria, beset by increased rioting and Muslim-Christian conflict over state-level implementation of Islamic law; and Pakistan, where a blasphemy law sentences violators to prison and, in the case of blaspheming the Muslim prophet Muhammad, to death. Yet, according to Marshall, who is a member of the WEF Religious Liberty Commission, it is too soon to tell whether a decline in religious freedom presages the decline of other freedoms in these countries. In fact, even as religious freedom abuses and religious conflicts have escalated, democracy in some cases has been on the upswing. Indonesia held elections last year, for example; Nigeria is in the midst of a democratic transition; and India is a well-established democracy. These countries may have democratic governments, but all else is in tension, said Marshall. "... If religious freedom stays down... (democracy) will come down. Or, put it this way: the measures on religious freedom and democracy will come together -- they will either go up or go down," he said. Countries of Islamic background proved the least free overall, according to the survey, with Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkmenistan receiving the lowest possible score. "Religious Freedom in the World" uses a grading scale to organize countries along a continuum. A ranking of 1 to 3 qualifies a country as "free"; a 4 or 5 signifies a country is 'partly free'; and a 6 or 7 gains the recipient an "unfree" status. The WEF Defender then turned to the troubled situation in Israel. "An article in the Jerusalem Post reports that Arab Palestinian Christians-who have had a continual presence in Palestine since the first century-have felt an increased threat from their ethnic Muslim compatriots and are fleeing," said the WEF Defender "The Christian Palestinians traditionally have supported the Palestinian position." Sudan then was featured. "Under intense lobbying from the United States and numerous human rights and religious groups, the United Nations General Assembly on October 10, rejected Sudan's bid to win a seat on the Security Council. Sudan's loss is a victory for activists who have lobbied to make the treatment of Christians and non-Muslims in Sudan's 17-year civil war a higher priority. Sudan has been denounced for condoning the enslavement of non-Muslims in the south, bombing of schools, hospitals and humanitarian relief workers, and the forced conversion of Christians and animists to Islam," said the WEF Defender. The WEF Defender reported then on China, saying, "The Chinese government is continuing its crackdown on house-churches. In this latest incidence, reported on Sept 18 in the New York Times, 60 security troops were sent to re-arrest 81 year-old Bishop Zeng Jingmu of Jiangxi Province. In early 1998, as President Clinton prepared to visit China, American officials sought Bishop Zeng's early release from a labor camp, where he had been sent in 1995 for holding unauthorized religious services. As Jesus prayed for those who nailed him to the tree, we pray for the captors and jailers of persecuted believers. May they hear and believer. "China's Three Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM)-- the organization controlling the Protestant church on behalf of the Communist Party --celebrated its 50th anniversary in September in belligerent tones. TSPM Chairman Luo Guanzong stated, 'Since 1840 right up until 1949, imperialism had made use of Christianity and the missionaries to serve its aggression, and it has never stopped. In the 1950s, Chinese Christians through the TSPM for the first time stood up and with their new political standpoint, unmasked the connection between the Western missionary movement and imperialist aggression in China.' The TSPM is regarded by an increasing number of Chinese Christians as corrupt and spiritually bankrupt. Guide our speech Father so that we may always speak your truth in love, so that all the nations will hear of your love." As we come to the end of the year 2000, remember the families of the 165,000 who will die for their faith and don't forget to pray "without ceasing" for those in the Persecuted. |