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Brit MPs debate persecution of Christians

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

LONDON, ENGLAND (Worthy News)-- The worldwide persecution of Christians was recently debated in the British House of Commons.

The debate was chaired by Jim Shannon, Democratic Unionist Party MP for Strangford while BarnabasAid -- an NGO that supports Christians suffering discrimination and oppression because of their faith -- provided the MPs with materials to inform their debate.

Shannon opened the discussion by stating for the record that somewhere in the world, a Christian is killed every 11 minutes for their faith; he then called on his government to do more to defend and support them.

Sir Tony Baldry, Conservative MP for Banbury, said there is no country where Christians can freely practice their religion.

Rehman Chishti, Conservative MP for Gillingham and Rainham, denounced the persecution of Christians in 130 of the world’s 190 countries; Chishti focused his remarks on his birthplace, Pakistan, notably that nation's notorious blasphemy laws.

Speaking for the government, Mark Simmonds, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, replied that not only Christians, but members of other religions are also suffering while Labor Minister Kerry McCarthy argued for human rights in general instead of focusing on the persecution of Christians in particular.

"I do not think that we should start carving up human rights by saying that some abuses are worse than others," said McCarthy. "There are countries in which people of other faiths are being persecuted and killed".

But Baldry said it wasn't "sufficient to say that because some other people are being persecuted, we should not be concerned about the persecution of Christians".