My friend Terry Pruitt links to an article by Open Doors USA on the top 10 countries that persecute Christians. Terry’s post is here and the Open Doors article is here. This is good information to have especially in recent days when the saga of Abdul Rahmann has put a human face on the sufferings of believers around the world.
Stacy Harp’s Persecution Blog is the place to go to read about the Abdul Rahmann story and about persecution around the world in general.
A few miscellaneous thoughts occur to me in thinking about the persecution of Christians around the world.
1. I sometimes speak of suffering as if I have suffered and know what I am talking about. Then I read the stories of others around the world who have suffered for their faith and realize I have never suffered.
2. We here in America often complain about the way Christians are being mocked, ridiculed, and in some cases persecuted here. Then I read and hear stories from around the world and realize we don’t yet know what it means to be persecuted for our faith.
3. In many cases the church thrives under great persecution. It is an overly romanticized view to think that the church always grows in numbers and health under persecution, yet it is true that in many cases the church thrives under persecution. Just think of the early church where the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. Think of China where the church didn’t explode until after Mao tried to eradicate it.
4. Suffering should be considered a means of grace. I’m not saying I want to make use of that means of grace but the fact is that suffering is the lot of the Christian in this world.
5. The same goes for persecution. Thus, American Christians ought not to think it a strange thing that the tide now seems to be swinging against us in many ways. I’m not saying we have to like it, nor that we have to be passive in the face of it, but it shouldn’t surprise us.
6. If suffering and persecution are means of grace then I, and we, need to make better use of our sufferings and persecutions. In Hebrews 11 great faith is often linked to perseverance in the midst of great suffering.
7. Yet, here in America there are few occasions when we have to endure big suffering or big persecution. So, I think this means we need to make better use of our little sufferings. I fear that many professing Christians have large swaths of our lives that are Christianity free zones, and this especially in relation to little sufferings. While we may be prepared to give an answer with gentleness and respect to persecutors who ask us a reason for the hope that is within us, we’re not so willing to answer our spouses with gentleness and respect when they do something that irritates us. We may be willing to lay down our lives for Christ but God forbid that we should ever give up that good parking space to the other guy.
8. Maybe it’s just as well that we don’t have any big sufferings here in America. If we have a meltdown over slow service at a restaurant why would God want to entrust us with persecution for the cause of Christ?
9. Churches throughout history have learned how to live under persecution when they were denied access to the halls of power. The Bible gives alot of guidance on how to respond in such situations with love, sacrifice, service and faith. The Bible tells us how to endure persecution and suffering and how to love, bless and pray for our tormentors, but I haven’t found much that tells us how to fight back against those who persecute us. Here in America, Christians do have access to the halls of power, at least for a little while longer. So, as the tide has turned more and more against Christians we have concentrated on fighting back and I am wondering if “fighting” is the proper mode for Christians to engage their persecutors.
10. That being said, God will judge severely those who persecute His people and the church has a prophetic role to speak out against their injustices. I am just concerned that we haven’t given as much emphasis to the Bible’s teachings on absorbing persecution gracefully. Can we speak prophetically while doing a better job of absorbing attacks gracefully?
- David Wayne
