Tribulation Times
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May 8, 2014
(Joh
15:19-21) If you had been of the world, the world would love its own:
but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember my word that I said to
you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my word, they will
keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for my name's
sake: because they know not him that sent me.
Catholic,
Protestant and Orthodox leaders joined forces on Wednesday (May 7) to
call for an end to the silence over persecuted Christian communities in
Egypt, Iraq and Syria.
“What we are seeing here is ecumenical cleansing,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who called the region “the unsafest place in the world for Christians.”
“What we are seeing here is ecumenical cleansing,” said Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who called the region “the unsafest place in the world for Christians.”
“It’s an ecumenical cleansing that is forcing people who are Christians,
by whatever label, out of countries where their roots are from the
beginning.” Anderson and others were joined on Capitol Hill by the
co-chairs of the Religious Minorities in the Middle East Caucus, Reps.
Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., who have pushed for the
appointment of a special envoy focused on Middle East religious
minorities.
More than 180 clergy, seminary professors, authors and activists have signed a “pledge of solidarity and call to action” that advocates for the special envoy in addition to a regional review of U.S. foreign aid to ensure recipients uphold principles of pluralism and religious freedom. They also seek assurance that religious minorities receive fair access to U.S. refugee assistance.
“The current trajectory, marked by political violence and, in the cases of Iraq and Syria, full-blown war, risks a Middle East largely emptied of the millennia-old presence of Christians,” reads the statement, citing cases of executed Christians, demolished churches, kidnapped clergy and forced conversions.
More than 180 clergy, seminary professors, authors and activists have signed a “pledge of solidarity and call to action” that advocates for the special envoy in addition to a regional review of U.S. foreign aid to ensure recipients uphold principles of pluralism and religious freedom. They also seek assurance that religious minorities receive fair access to U.S. refugee assistance.
“The current trajectory, marked by political violence and, in the cases of Iraq and Syria, full-blown war, risks a Middle East largely emptied of the millennia-old presence of Christians,” reads the statement, citing cases of executed Christians, demolished churches, kidnapped clergy and forced conversions.
Washington
Cardinal Donald Wuerl said that if people wonder how atrocities like
this violence and persecution can be occurring, it is because others are
silent.
“If history has any lesson to teach us about silence, it’s not a good one,” he said, urging both the churches and lawmakers to take action to protect the religious freedom of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
“If history has any lesson to teach us about silence, it’s not a good one,” he said, urging both the churches and lawmakers to take action to protect the religious freedom of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.
MORE:
With the rise of Islamist extremists, this situation has become so
acute that, regarding the Christians, it is not only individuals who are
threatened. The presence of the entire Christian community in the
region of its birth is at stake. The pledge emphasizes:
"Since these communities account for most of the indigenous Christians in today's Middle East, the continued presence of Christians in the region where Christianity originated 2,000 years ago is threatened."
The pledge states that Egypt, Iraq and Syria have seen "scores of churches deliberately destroyed, many clergy and laypeople targeted for death, kidnapping, intimidation and forcible conversion, and hundreds of thousands of believers driven from their countries."
Specific patterns of attacks detailed in the pledge include:
"Since these communities account for most of the indigenous Christians in today's Middle East, the continued presence of Christians in the region where Christianity originated 2,000 years ago is threatened."
The pledge states that Egypt, Iraq and Syria have seen "scores of churches deliberately destroyed, many clergy and laypeople targeted for death, kidnapping, intimidation and forcible conversion, and hundreds of thousands of believers driven from their countries."
Specific patterns of attacks detailed in the pledge include:
- Christians, including some clergy, after being identified as such by their names, identity cards, or some other means, have been beheaded, shot execution-style or otherwise brutally murdered. Clergy have also been killed for their peace-making efforts or simply as personifications of the Christian faith.
- Untold numbers of Christians, including bishops, priests, pastors, and nuns, have been kidnapped and held for ransom.
- Young women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and marry their captors.
- In some instances, Christians have been told to convert to Islam or be killed; some have been forced to pay protection money.
- Muslim apostasy and blasphemy codes and standards for dress, occupation and social behavior are being enforced for Christians, as well as for Muslims, in some communities.
- The assaults continue despite rejection by the majority of Muslims and condemnation by prominent Muslim voices, such as Jordan's Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed and Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sistani, as the pledge is clear in emphasizing.
LATIN PATRIARCHATE OF JERUSALEM: Persecution of Christians in the Middle East: Communiqué of the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries in the Holy Land
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28. A hermit was asked by a brother why, when he stayed in his cell, he
suffered boredom. He answered, "You have not yet seen the resurrection
for which we hope, nor the torment of fire. If you had seen these, then
you would bear your cell without boredom even if it was filled with
worms and you were standing in them up to your neck.'
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