A study from the Europe-based Center
for Studies on New Religions recently confirmed that “Christians continue to be
the most persecuted believers in the world, with over 90,000 followers of
Christ being killed in the last year [2016],” which computes to 1-death every 6-minutes.
The study also found that as many as 600-million
Christians around the world were prevented from practicing their faith.
Which group is most prone to persecute
Christians around the world? The answer
to this was made clear by another recent study; it found that, of the 10-nations
around the world where Christians suffer the worst forms of persecution, nine are
Islamic, though the absolute worst — North Korea — is not. [read my blog posting of May 8, 2017 – “North Korea’s Leader Orders Execution of
33-Christians”]
What is it about Christians that
brings the worst out of some people – Muslims in the majority? Three main reasons come to mind, though there
are more:
1. Christianity
is the largest religion in the world. There
are Christians practically everywhere around the globe, including in much of
the Muslim world. Moreover, because much
of the territory that Islam conquered throughout the centuries was originally Christian
— including all of the Middle East, Turkey, and North Africa — Muslims are
still confronted with vestiges of Christianity. In Egypt alone, which was the intellectual
center of early Christendom before the Islamic invasions, at least 10-million
Christians remain. [read my blog posting of May 5, 2017 – “Copts – A Long-Persecuted Christian Minority With Ancient Roots”] In short, because of their sheer numbers alone,
Christians in the Muslim world are much more likely to suffer under Islam than
other “infidels.”
2. Christianity
is devoted to “proclaiming the Gospel” (literally, “the good news). No other major religion — not Buddhism,
Hinduism, Judaism — has this missionary aspect. These faiths tend to be co-extensive with certain
ethnicities and homegrown to certain locales.
The only other religion that has what can be described as a missionary
element is Islam itself. Thus, because
Christianity is the only religion that actively challenges Muslims with the
truths of its own message, so too is it the primary religion to be accused of
proselytizing, which is banned under Islamic law. And by publicly uttering teachings that contradict
Muhammad’s — including Christianity’s core message — Christians fall afoul of
Islam’s blasphemy law as well. This is
why most Muslims who apostatize to other religions — and get punished for it, sometimes
with death — apostatize to Christianity.
3. Christianity
is the quintessential religion of martyrdom.
From its inception — beginning with Jesus, and followed by His disciples
and countless others in the early church — many Christians have been willing to
accept death rather than to stop spreading the Gospel — or, worse, renounce the
faith. This was evident in ancient times
at the hands of the pagan Roman Empire and in medieval (and modern) times at
the hands of Muslims and other persecutors.
Practically no other religion encourages its adherents to embrace death
rather than abjure the faith. Thus, whereas
Christ says “But whoever denies Me before
men, I will deny him before My Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:33; see also
Luke 14:33), Islam teaches Muslims to conceal and even publicly renounce Muhammad,
rather than die. Moreover, other
religions and sects approve of dissimulation to preserve their adherents’
lives. Christianity demands public
profession. Of course, many outspoken
Muslim apostates in the West who never converted to Christianity must fear
execution should they ever fall into the hands of their former Islamic
extremists.
It is (in fact) Christianity’s strong
inclination to refuse to toe the line that, from its beginnings till now, has
caused fascists and supremacists of all stripes — from the ancient Roman Empire
(whence the word fascist is derived) to modern day North Korea — to persecute Christians.
The latter have a long history of
refusing to be silent and paying the sort of lip service that everyone else is
willing to offer to get by. Just as
Jesus peeved Pilate by refusing to utter some words to save his life — “Don’t
you realize I have the power either to set you free or crucify you?” asked the
bewildered procurator (John 19:10) — Jesus’ disciples and countless other
ancient Christians defied the Roman Empire, prompting several emperors to launch
what, at least until now, were deemed history’s worst persecutions of
Christians; and today, countless modern day Christians continue grieving and
thus being punished by their totalitarian and supremacist overlords — from
North Korea to every corner of the Muslim world — for the very same reasons.
Rev.
Dr. Kenneth L. Beale, Jr.
Chaplain
(Colonel-Ret), U.S. Army
Pastor,
Ft. Snelling Memorial Chapel
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