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The Silence Of American Churches

I’ve complained recently in this spot about the relative — relative — silence of the American news media on the persecution of Christians around the world. That is understandable, if by no means excusable. What is both impossible to understand and impossible to excuse is the silence of American churches on the matter. Kirsten Powers […]

I’ve complained recently in this spot about the relative — relative — silence of the American news media on the persecution of Christians around the world. That is understandable, if by no means excusable. What is both impossible to understand and impossible to excuse is the silence of American churches on the matter. Kirsten Powers calls them out:

Lela Gilbert is the author of Saturday People, Sunday People, which details the expulsion of 850,000 Jews who fled or were forced to leave Muslim countries in the mid-20th century. The title of her book comes from an Islamist slogan, “First the Saturday People, then the Sunday People,” which means “first we kill the Jews, then we kill the Christians.” Gilbert wrote recently that her Jewish friends and neighbors in Israel “are shocked but not entirely surprised” by the attacks on Christians in the Middle East. “They are rather puzzled, however, by what appears to be a lack of anxiety, action, or advocacy on the part of Western Christians.”

As they should be. It is inexplicable. American Christians are quite able to organize around issues that concern them. Yet religious persecution appears not to have grabbed their attention, despite worldwide media coverage of the atrocities against Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East.

It’s no surprise that Jews seem to understand the gravity of the situation the best. In December 2011, Britain’s chief rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, addressed Parliament saying, “I have followed the fate of Christians in the Middle East for years, appalled at what is happening, surprised and distressed … that it is not more widely known.” “It was Martin Luther King who said, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.’ That is why I felt I could not be silent today.”

Yet so many Western Christians are silent. In January, Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA) penned a letter to 300 Catholic and Protestant leaders complaining about their lack of engagement. “Can you, as a leader in the church, help?” he wrote. “Are you pained by these accounts of persecution? Will you use your sphere of influence to raise the profile of this issue—be it through a sermon, writing or media interview?”

There have been far too few takers.

Why not? Introspective criticism is important and necessary, but not as important and as necessary as repentance.

Has the church you pastor, or the church you attend, pain any attention to anti-Christian persecution globally? If not, why not? What do you intend to do about it?

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