We're All Humans, Aren't We?

It’s Not Just You and Me in America

Last week, my attention was brought to a sobering news story about Christians in Iraq, a country that has already been ravaged by sectarian violence and religion disagreements taken to the extreme. Allow me to quote some of the article:

“Archbishop Louis Sako … called on the U.S. military to do more to protect Christians and other minorities in the face of a rash of deadly attacks that has prompted growing numbers to flee the country. ‘We are the target of a campaign of liquidation, a campaign of violence…’ Sako said.

He said that since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, more than 200 Christians had been killed and a string of churches attacked, and added that the violence had intensified in recent weeks… There were around 800,000 Christians in Iraq at the time of the US-led invasion, a number that has now shrunk by a third as the faithful have fled the country, the archbishop said. Christians are entirely dependent on the government and its U.S. backers for protection as, unlike the Shiite majority, the Sunni Arab former elite or the Kurds, they have no powerful tribes or militias to defend them.

Lord George Carey, who stepped down as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002, had warned that the ethnic cleansing of Christians from mainly Muslim Iraq had intensified since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s Christian community includes various denominations.

[Sako] called on Christians not to lose faith with Iraq. ‘The government does not belong to one religion… we are not religious extremists,’ he said. ‘Christians are true sons of Iraq.'”

In this country of ours, it’s so easy to forget that we’re blessed with the freedoms of speech and religion, and rarely ever encounter religious persecution to the point where our lives are put on the line. It is EASY to be a Christian in this country. How would you react, what would you do, if you were an Iraqi Christian or resided in a place where believing in Christ would result in your execution? This is a tough question that we all should be asking ourselves daily. Will we put our faith on the line when it truly counts, even when it might result in our earthly life being cut short?

We also need to remember that we have brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world whose faith are continually being tested in mortal and fatal ways. Let us not forget them and their plight, but instead uplift them in prayer and whatever else we can do.

For more information, you can read the entire article quoted above online here. I also recommend checking out dc Talk’s book Jesus Freaks and its sequel as they both detail real life “Jesus Freaks,” martyrs who gave their life for their faith, knowing that this earthly life is just the beginning of the story.

See you next week and may God bless you this week!

– Matt