Persecution Now

 Third Friday of Lent

Lectionary Texts:

OT: Exodus 20:15-16

NT: John 4:5-26

These lectionary texts are correct for today. I mistakenly gave them yesterday. If you have been reading them, you've noticed that we are going slowly through the Ten Commandments in the OT readings. Each one is worthy of a little of our contemplative prayer.

Let me also note my ongoing email changes. The email address that is working now (I think) is jchristianwilson401@gmail.com  Please send personal emails and prayer requests to that email address.

Pope Francis (Papa Francisco is his actual papal name) is going to northern Iraq today to visit and encourage Syrian Orthodox Christians there, a small minority there who have had there homes and churches destroyed by ISIS. Many were killed. The Pope will also advocate for peace and religious freedom among all religions. 

Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been going on for centuries. In the early centuries of the Christian era Syrian Orthodox Christianity spread rapidly throughout the middle east, even making inroads into India. Ethnically most Syrian Orthodox were Arabs. By the beginning of the fifth century there were more Syrian Orthodox Christians than Roman Catholic Christians.  The Advent of Islam and the Islamic conquests of the seventh century changed all that. Within a century Muslim rulers took over most of the Middle East and North Africa. All of the Holy Land was taken in 632 A.D. It would be several more centuries before the Seljuk Turk Muslims took over what was left of the Byzantine Empire (Orthodox Christian), the territory that is now Turkey.  Constantinople fell in 1453. Hagia Sophia, the greatest church in all of Christendom, was trashed and turned into a mosque. 

The Turks have been getting rid of Christians ever since. Remember that what is now Turkey was the center of Christianity in the early centuries. The churches we have been reading about in our Acts Bible Study, churches that Paul founded or fostered were all in Turkey--Antioch, Lystra, Derbe, Ephesus, Antioch of Pisidia, Tarsus, et al. Over a million Greek Orthodox Christians who lived in the eastern coastal areas of Turkey on the Aegean Coast, were killed or deported to Greece in the early 1890's. All their property was stolen; their churches, destroyed. In the eastern part of Turkey massacres of Armenian Christians began in the 1890's. These persecutions culminated in the genocide of 1915, when Turks murdered one million eight hundred thousand Armenian Christians, leaving only four hundred thousand Armenians alive, homeless and starving. It was the first genocide. The United States has strongly supported all successive Turkish governments since the end of World War I. 

American Evangelicals have shown little to no interest in helping any of the Arab Christians in the Middle East. Evangelicals are keen on supporting and funding Israel, the country that receives more foreign aid from the United States than any other. Israel has managed quietly but consistently to rid itself and the Palestinian territories it occupies of Christian Arabs. Forty years ago the city of Bethlehem was heavily majority Christian. Now its Christian population is down about 15%. Most have migrated to the U.S. or Europe. Christian Arabs will tell you that it is not Muslim Arabs they fear; it is Israelis.

Fifty years ago Egypt was one-third Coptic Christian. That number is now down to 10%. These are all Christian Arabs. Muslim Arabs regularly initiate pograms against the Coptic Christians, burning churches and killing. The United States supports the current Muslim military junta that rules Egypt. 

Enough for now. There is persecution of Christians going on in sub-Sahara Africa, particularly northern Nigeria. The new government of India is trying to turn it into an all Hindu nation. Their main persecution target is Muslims, but Christians are also persecuted. I suspect that Christians in China, about 125 million of them, will soon suffer government persecution, as the Uigher Muslims in China are suffering today. 

United States governments, both Republican and Democratic, have supported most of the persecuting nations and rarely, hardly ever, rebuked or condemned these governments for persecuting Christians. 

Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air in the midst of it all. He is the only worldwide peacemaker. Pray for his visit to Iraq to sow seeds of peace and freedom. 

Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace,

We pray for our Christian brothers and sisters who are suffering persecution, especially in the Middle East. Raise us for us more leaders who will preach peace and bring peace. Amen.

Faithfully,

 Christian