Thursday, May 03, 2007

The other nine

One in ten Christians live with persecution. What is the responsibility of the other nine?

You live in daily fear of violence, kidnap, rape or even death: up to 350,000 Iraqi Christians have fled their homes since 2003. Al-Qaeda says << We will destroy the cross... then all that will be accepted will be conversion or the sword>>

Talking to a non-Christian friend about Jesus could land you in jail: a possibility in countries like Malaysia, Morocco and Uzbekistan.

You live in utter poverty, trapped in a system which limits your opportunity to break free: Christians in Pakistan and India are often forced to live as bonded laborers unable to pay off the loan which desperation made them take from their employers. Bonded labor is often a euphemism for slavery.

You carry a social stigma that affects what job you can get or how your children are treated in school: in as many as 60 countries some Christian children are discriminated against within the education system because of their faith. This can mean they fail their exams or are forced to change their name to one that sounds Islamic.

The police are not interested in protecting you, and may even arrest you even though you are the victim: although there are places where the police will protect minority groups, too often calls for help are ignored if they come from Christians.

Under Shari'a your testimony is worth less than that of a Muslim: thus victim's are not believed and opressors escape blame.

What can we privileged Christians do? Find out here.

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