barnabasaid
barnabasfund.org MARCH/APRIL 2018
BARNABAS FOR THETHE PERSECUTED CHURCH - BRINGING HOPE TO SUFFERING CHRISTIANS BARNABASFUND FUND- AID - AIDAGENCY AGENCY FOR PERSECUTED CHURCH
PAKISTAN
Danger, discrimination and dhimmitude
FROM HUNGER TO HOPE
Transformational new projects in East Africa
OUR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM Reclaiming religious freedom
The story
of Pakistan’s Christians
What helps make Barnabas Fund distinctive from other Christian organisations that deal with persecution?
The Barnabas Fund Distinctive We work by:
●● directing our aid only to Christians, although its
benefits may not be exclusive to them (“As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” Galatians 6:10, emphasis added)
●● aiming the majority of our aid at Christians living in Muslim environments
●● channelling money from Christians through Christians to Christians
●● channelling money through existing structures in the countries where funds are sent (e.g. local churches or Christian organisations)
●● using the money to fund projects that have
been developed by local Christians in their own communities, countries or regions
●● considering any request, however small ●● acting as equal partners with the persecuted Church, whose leaders often help shape our overall direction
How to find us Australia PO BOX 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 Telephone (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365 799 Fax (07) 3806 4076 Email bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org Germany German supporters may send gifts for Barnabas Fund via Hilfe für Brüder who will provide you with a tax-deductible receipt. Please mention that the donation is for “SPC 20 Barnabas Fund”. If you would like your donation to go to a specific project of Barnabas Fund, please inform the Barnabas Fund office in Pewsey, UK. Account holder: Hilfe für Brüder International e.V. Account number: 415 600 Bank: Evang Kreditgenossenschaft Stuttgart IBAN: DE89520604100000415600 BIC: GENODEF1EK1
barnabasaid the magazine of Barnabas Fund Published by Barnabas Aid Inc. 6731 Curran St, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA Email info@barnabasfund.org
●● acting on behalf of the persecuted Church, to
be their voice – making their needs known to Christians around the world and the injustice of their persecution known to governments and international bodies
We seek to:
●● meet both practical and spiritual needs ●● encourage, strengthen and enable the existing local Church and Christian communities – so they can maintain their presence and witness rather than setting up our own structures or sending out missionaries
●● facilitate global intercession for
the persecuted Church by providing comprehensive prayer materials
We believe:
●●we are called to address both religious and secular ideologies that deny full religious liberty to Christian minorities – while continuing to show God’s love to all people
●● in the clear Biblical teaching that Christians
should treat all people of all faiths with love and compassion, even those who seek to persecute them
●● tackle persecution at its root by making
●● in the power of prayer to change people’s lives
●● inform and enable Christians in the West
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
known the aspects of the Islamic faith and other ideologies that result in injustice and oppression of non-believers to respond to the growing challenge of Islam to Church, society and mission in their own countries
and situations, either through grace to endure or through deliverance from suffering
(Matthew 25:40)
You may contact Barnabas Fund at the following addresses New Zealand PO Box 276018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland PO Box 354, Bangor, BT20 9EQ Telephone 028 91 455 246 or 07875 539003 Email ireland@barnabasfund.org USA 6731 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101 Telephone (703) 288-1681 or toll-free 1-866-936-2525 Fax (703) 288-1682 Email usa@barnabasaid.org
To guard the safety of Christians in hostile environments, names may have been changed or omitted. Thank you for your understanding. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission for stories and images used in this publication. Barnabas Fund apologises for any errors or omissions and will be grateful for any further information regarding copyright.
UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718 From outside the UK Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org Registered charity number 1092935 Company registered in England number 4029536 For a list of all trustees, please contact Barnabas Fund UK at the Coventry address above. International Headquarters The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK: Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version®. Front Cover: Sobia (pictured) and her family have been set free from bonded labour in Pakistan’s brick-kilns, thanks to Barnabas Fund supporters © Barnabas Aid Inc. 2018. For permission to reproduce articles from this magazine, please contact the International Headquarters address above.
Singapore Cheques in Singapore dollars payable to “Olive Aid Trust” may be sent to: Olives Aid Sdn Bhd, P.O. Box 03124 Subang Jaya, 47507 Selangor, MALAYSIA Singaporean supporters may send gifts for Barnabas Fund online via Olive Aid Trust: Beneficiary: OLIVE AID TRUST Bank Name: United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad Swift Code: UOVBMYKL Location: KUALA LUMPUR Account Number: 140-901-654-0
To donate by credit card please visit the website or phone BFA office on 1300 365 799 or (07) 3806 1076
Editorial
Contents
In the upper room
4 Pakistan
This was Jesus’ supreme act of love, the laying down of His life... we are commanded to love as He loved
Travelling together in times of trouble
On 24 April, Armenian Christians will mark the anniversary of the terrible genocide, which peaked in 1915. In a few short years, an estimated 3.5 million Christians of various ethnicities were killed or died of hardship deliberately inflicted on them by the Ottoman authorities. During this genocide the beleaguered Christians spoke often of saffar berlik, a Turkish phrase meaning “travelling together in times of trouble.” Saffar means going on a journey or pilgrimage together and berlik means a time of trouble, with the pressure coming from outside. These persecuted believers drew strength from understanding that they endured their suffering together and that the deadly long march across the Levant, forced on them by the Ottomans, was in some sense a pilgrimage, a journey to their heavenly home and Promised Land. Together this Easter time, as we remember our persecuted brothers and sisters, we are united in the love of Christ and together we journey to our Promised Land, heaven itself, where there will be no suffering and where we will be enveloped for ever with the perfect love of Christ in His glory.
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In Brief
Nine Christians killed in Egypt church attack
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W
arren Buffet, the famous investor, has ten rules for success in business. The tenth is: “Give unconditional love.” He says that love is the greatest power on earth. This may come as a surprise in the cut-throat world of moneymaking. Yet it probably does not surprise us when we think of our Christian faith. For Easter, the central point of our faith, has at its heart the self-giving and self-denying love of Christ. In the upper room, the new covenant was inaugurated. The old covenant, mediated by Moses, had been based on law – the ten commandments. The new covenant needed a new commandment as its basic law. This was a commandment of love; the new people of God were commanded to love one another as Jesus had loved them. “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. ” (John 13:34-35) The sacrificial offering the next day, Good Friday, would be Jesus Himself, the Lamb of God, and the blood offering would be His own blood that was to be shed. Central to His sacrificial offering, enacted in the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, is love. This was Jesus’ supreme act of love, the laying down of His life. This then is the model of His disciples’ love, for we are commanded to love as He loved. The new commandment, the law of love, was a law without end, a law that had no limits. It was based on agapetos, the sacrificial love of Christ. The disciples, as the first fruits of the new covenant, would embody this love. As Christ loved them, so they must now love each other. When this happened, the world would see and believe. A few weeks later, the risen and ascended Jesus, sent His Spirit to form the new covenant community, His Church. From the love that His followers showed each other, the world would know that they were His disciples. In His new covenant, Christ called together a people who were one in the Spirit, not one because of their Jewish descent as in the old covenant. This was to be the new People of God and their new law was to be the commandment to love as Christ loved them. The new covenant ushers in the Kingdom of God, begun by God Himself on earth, and to be further extended until it is brought to perfection by Him at the end of time. The command to love God and your neighbours – the greatest command – is fulfilled through the love of the disciples patterned on Jesus. If the disciples love God, from whom is derived all love, then they can love anyone. It they do not love their own, their brothers and sisters, how can they truly love their neighbours?
The story of Pakistan’s persecuted Christians
A History of Christian Persecution
part 5: When Christians became the persecutors
12
Barnabas Futures
Re-building lives after famine in East Africa
13 14
Compassion in Action
16
Our Religious Freedom
Delivering the “joy” of the Bible to refugees in South-East Asia
Barnabas Fund launches new campaign for religious liberty
18
In Touch
Fun run raises valuable funds for Barnabas
18
4 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid
Danger, discrimination and dhimmitude the story of Pakistan’s persecuted Christians
A Muslim mob torched 170 homes in Joseph Colony, a Christian community in Lahore, in 2013, after an unsubstantiated “blasphemy” allegation
Pakistan
“Pakistan is the second most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian," lamented a senior Pakistani Church leader last year, recalling the cover of an edition of Newsweek magazine which once named Pakistan the most dangerous nation in the world.
P
akistan’s Christians are a suffering, vulnerable minority. They face violence at the hands of Islamist terrorists, discrimination in work and at school, and live with the ever-present threat of “blasphemy” allegations, which have led to Christian communities being ransacked by Muslim mobs. Authorities often turn a blind eye and are sometimes even complicit in crimes against Christians, including the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls.
Targets of terror
On Sunday 17 December 2017, two Islamist terrorists attacked the morning service at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, killing nine Christians and injuring more than 50. Among those affected were some of the poor and needy families who receive monthly food parcels from Barnabas Fund. Many more of the congregation might have died had it not been for the courageous efforts of two men who managed to lock the church gates and delay the attackers; grandfather George Masih (63) and 36-year-old father of five Sultan Masih (not related) were both killed.
Nine Christians died and over 50 were injured when the jihadists, one of whom detonated a suicide vest, deliberately targeted a well attended pre-Christmas service in Quetta. Barnabas Fund is helping the injured and the families who have lost their breadwinner
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 5
The birth of Christianity in Pakistan According to tradition, Christianity reached the Indian sub-continent in the first century, and there is evidence for a Christian presence dating back to the third century in early Christian texts. But the early Christian presence in what is now Pakistan was obliterated following the invasion of Islam in the 11th century. Western missionaries brought Christianity back to the region and the first mass conversions, in the 1870s, were among the most despised members of Punjab society, the “untouchable” people who formed the lowest level of the caste system. The Chuhras were viewed not only as inferior but also as unclean. They carried out dirty and menial jobs such as sweeping and observed a religion that was a kind of Islamised Hinduism. By 1911, there were nearly 164,000 believers in the Punjab region, which today straddles north-west India and north-east Pakistan; by 1935, almost all the Chuhras were Christians and even today, most Pakistani Christians are of Punjabi origin. The term “Chuhra” – which is commonly taken to mean a latrine cleaner – is viewed as intrinsically insulting by many Pakistanis. In 1947, British India was partitioned into separate Hindu and Muslim states (India and Pakistan). Partition triggered violence and the mass movement of 14.5 million people, as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs relocated. When large numbers of Muslims arrived in Pakistan, many Christians working in agriculture lost their jobs to the new arrivals. Forced into towns to seek work, typically in low status jobs, many became impoverished. The Taxila Cross was unearthed in Punjab in 1935. Believed to date from the third century or earlier, it is of major significance to Pakistan’s Christian community, as it provides archaeological evidence of the existence of Christianity before the arrival of Islam The new state of Pakistan, which included what is now Bangladesh, was home to more than half a million Christians. The flag of the new country carried the traditional Islamic symbol of the crescent and star on a green background (representing the Muslim majority), with a vertical white stripe symbolising non-Muslim minorities. Pakistan was founded on ideals of equality between Muslims and nonMuslims, but the country’s constitution and laws have been gradually Islamised, eroding the position of religious minorities. Today, Christians in Pakistan account for around 3% of the population (as many as 3.5 million people).
Pakistan
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On Easter Day 2016, a suicide bomber attacked Christians celebrating in a park in Lahore – 74 people, mainly women and children, were killed and hundreds injured; pictured is one of the Christian victims in intensive care. Just before Easter 2017, Pakistani security services foiled a similar planned attack on a Lahore church Other terror attacks have caused significantly more casualties: the clock in All Saints Church, Peshawar, remains stopped at the time of the bomb blast which claimed the lives of 127 Christians and injured and maimed many more in September 2013. Pakistani Christians have endured years of violence from jihadists, but despite this they remain firm in the faith and courageously meet together Sunday after Sunday, knowing they might be targeted and killed.
he clock in All Saints Church, Peshawar, remains T stopped, marking the moment a suicide bomb killed 127 members of the congregation in 2013
Day-to-day violence
Christians are also the victims of day-today violence. Stella was the only Christian member of staff at the medical clinic where she worked in Lahore. One Muslim colleague falsely accused and repeatedly insulted her, but the management at the clinic held Stella in high regard and supported her. On 25 April 2017, Stella’s Muslim colleague attacked her with acid. Stella lost consciousness and required medical treatment. When her family reported the attack to police, the attacker’s relatives threatened them to try and make them drop their case. Seventeen-year-old Sharoon was beaten to death outside the school office after getting
into an argument with a Muslim classmate on 30 August 2017. Students and teachers stood and watched while one boy continued to hit Sharoon as he lay unconscious on the ground. Sharoon was the only Christian in his year group at the government high school in Punjab. Christian students in government schools face possible violence and daily discrimination: one examiner assessing a home economics class with Muslim and Christian students refused to touch what the Christian girls in the class had cooked and tipped it into the bin, saying it would make her unclean. The Christian girls failed the exam. In December 2017, a six-year-old Christian girl was shot and killed when a Muslim moneylender, accompanied by a mob, attacked the home of a Christian family. The family had taken out a loan of 40,000 Rupees ($458) and were struggling to meet the lender’s repayment charges. Police registered a case against the moneylender, but did not arrest him.
The threat of “blasphemy”
Because of the “blasphemy” laws, Pakistani Christians are only one false accusation away from imprisonment, potentially being forced to flee their homes, or even mob lynching. In November 2017, five Christian families were forced to flee their village and go into hiding after a Christian teenager was accused of “blasphemy” on a Facebook page designed to mimic a news outlet. The post called for local Muslims to “burn his church and give him the death penalty.” Shortly afterwards a Muslim mob gathered in the village after Friday prayers and the families
Pakistan fled, fearing for their lives. In 2013, hundreds of Christians in Joseph Colony, Lahore, were left homeless after a mob ransacked the community, torching 178 homes, as well as Christian-owned shops. Local Muslims were incited to attack the Christian community after a 65-year-old man was accused of insulting Muhammad; mosque loudspeakers broadcast calls to “kill the blasphemers.” Under Pakistani law, there are several criminal offences of “blasphemy.” The two most serious are “desecrating the Quran,” which carries a mandatory life sentence, and “defiling the name of Muhammad,” which is officially a capital offence. No executions
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 7
argument with fellow women field-labourers, which started when they refused to drink water that she had fetched because she was a Christian. She is being kept in solitary confinement because of fears for her safety.
Worse than second class citizens
Irfan Masih used to clean sewers in Lahore. When he collapsed at work on 1 June 2017, his colleagues rushed him to hospital, but the first Muslim doctor who saw him refused to treat him until his sewagecovered body had been cleaned. The doctor claimed touching Irfan would have made him “unclean” during Ramadan. Irfan died on the hospital floor, as his family desperately tried
The doctor claimed touching Irfan would have made him “unclean” during Ramadan. Irfan died on the hospital floor have yet been carried out, but a number of Christians and others are on death row. There is no penalty for false accusations and the laws have become a vehicle used to settle personal scores. Non-Muslims are particularly vulnerable to false accusation by Muslims. Proposals to amend the laws have been met with violent street demonstrations. Among those on death row for “blasphemy” is Aasia Bibi. Sentenced to death in 2010, she has spent nearly nine years in prison. The most recent attempt to appeal her conviction collapsed when one of the three judges recused himself. Barnabas Fund are supporting Aasia’s family with a monthly food parcel and have helped to purchase a house and fund the installation of a gas supply to the family’s new home; Aasia’s husband and children had to go into hiding after she was accused. Aasia was the first woman to be convicted under the “blasphemy” laws, after she was accused of insulting Muhammad during an
to wash him and give him oxygen. In classical Islam, Christians and Jews – “People of the Book” – living in a Muslim-majority state are dhimmis. While pagans face execution, dhimmis are spared, but become worse than second-class citizens. Dhimmis are required to pay a humiliating poll tax (called jizya) as a sign of subjugation, have reduced legal rights, and under some Muslim rulers were historically forced to wear distinctive clothing. Christians in Pakistan have never officially been given dhimmi status, but the gradual Islamisation of Pakistan’s laws and constitution has eroded their originally equal status. In lower courts, there is a tendency for the judiciary to believe the word of a Muslim over a non-Muslim, in line with sharia laws which rule that the testimony of a dhimmi is of lesser value. A tiny number of Christians have held positions of high office in Pakistan, but many more have found it impossible to advance
Aasia Bibi, on death row
Irfan on his way to hospital
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beyond a certain level in the civil service, armed forces, judiciary, or medical profession. One Christian who was appointed head teacher of a school in Punjab was beaten up by Muslim teachers in October 2015, who told him “You are a Christian and a Chuhra, so how can you be headmaster and our senior?” The majority of Pakistani Christians live in poverty, confined to menial jobs with few prospects. Much of the Muslim majority regard them as second-class citizens. Christians’ status as dhimmis is used as a religious pretext to justify discrimination. This negative view of Christians, stemming from Islamic doctrine, reinforces the discrimination of the ancient caste system, which saw the first Chuhra Christians relegated within society.
Saddique Azam was appointed head teacher at a state school in Punjab, but three Muslim teachers refused to work under him and beat him up when he declined to resign
The threat to women
Pakistani Christian women and girls are especially vulnerable to kidnap and sexual violence. Twelve-year-old Monica was kidnapped in August 2016. Four days after she disappeared, local police in Lahore informed her father she had converted and married a Muslim. They produced a marriage certificate, which stated her age as 18.
Refusing to be cowed by threats, her father pursued the case and secured a court hearing (a rarity), where the judge demanded a second hearing be held with Monica present. At the time of writing there has be no second hearing, Monica remains “married” to her kidnapper and her father has died of stress. An estimated 700 Christian women and girls are kidnapped and forced into Muslim marriages each year. Hindu women and girls are also targeted. Attempts to enshrine protections in law against forced conversions, specifically intended to safeguard Christian and Hindu girls, have been blocked by Islamists.
Bonded labourers
Sameera (16) was kidnapped for two days, drugged and sexually assaulted by a Muslim man known to her family. Police tried to pressure her family not pursue the case, but Sameera is bravely demanding justice
A recent survey of ten brick-kilns in Punjab found that more than 60% of the workers were Christians. Many Christians toil in brick-kilns across Pakistan, working out in the open in nearly all weathers, making bricks by hand. Frequently the debts hang over families for generations, meaning they lose a cut of their meagre pay. While the
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Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 9
Sobia had to work with her father at the kiln making bricks to support the family. She has never been to school. Now they are free
debt remains, they cannot leave their jobs. Effectively trapped, they are extremely vulnerable to discrimination from their employers – some brick-kiln workers have even been sold like slaves from one owner to another. Through a Barnabas Fund project, a total of 120 brick-kiln families have been freed from their debt in the last six months (see Barnabas Aid Jan/Feb 2018 magazine, p.16-17)
A people betrayed
Pakistani believers are a persecuted, vulnerable minority. Although they have a place on the nation’s flag, they are denied equal status in society and face daily discrimination, seemingly unrelenting violence, as well as the threat of false accusation. Pakistan’s Christians are a people betrayed: by successive governments increasingly in thrall to Islamists and by many in the international community – including in historically Christian countries – who ignore their plight.
When Pakistan was created in 1947 there were high hopes for this new nation. But a state formed with the intention of protecting religious minorities from persecution has seen the persecution of its own minorities gradually increase, to the point where the Christian community is under great pressure. Dr Patrick Sookhdeo’s 454-page book A People Betrayed vividly tells the story of the impact of Islamisation on the Christian community in Pakistan. Cost $5 + $8.50 P&H. For more information and to order a copy, please visit www.barnabasfund.org/au/shop/books
In Brief
10 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid
Islamic State preChristmas church attack leaves nine dead and over 50 injured PAKISTAN
Nine Christians died and over 50 were injured when IS terrorists attacked a church service in Quetta, Pakistan on 17th December 2017. George Masih (pictured), although elderly, stayed at his post on the gates to face the Islamic State terrorists, and gave his life to defend the congregation. He leaves behind a daughter and two grand-daughters Islamist State terrorists killed nine and injured over 50 Christians in a suicide attack on a church in Quetta on Sunday 17 December. The death toll could have been much higher had it not been for the courageous efforts of two men who managed to lock the church gates and delay the attackers. The two men, grandfather George Masih (63) and 36-year-old father of five Sultan Masih (not related), were both killed in the attack. The congregation had gathered for a pre-Christmas service at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, western Pakistan. Among those affected were some of the poor and needy families who receive monthly food parcels from Barnabas Fund. At least three of the families being supported by Barnabas Fund’s feeding programme sustained serious loss. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack. Barnabas sent emergency funds to help the survivors at Quetta and to assist with medical and other costs.
Christians arrested for celebrating Christmas; district official claims “Christianity is the religion of the Europeans and Americans” LAOS
“In general, Christians are still restricted in this district. They are not allowed to teach from the Bible or to spread their religion to others, because Christianity is the religion of the Europeans and Americans,” stated an official in Phin district, shortly after five Christians were arrested in mid-December. Authorities in the district in southern Laos arrested four Christians from the same village, along with a pastor from a neighbouring village who they had invited to help organise Christmas celebrations. By
inviting the pastor, they had breached regulations which permit believers to celebrate Christmas only within their own village. At the time of writing the five believers have not yet been released. Laos’ under-pressure Christian minority are not seen as citizens of their own country. Their faith is viewed as a foreign religion by the communist government, which gives Buddhists comparative religious freedom while Christians experience localised harassment and sometimes violence.
Nine Christians killed in church attack EGYPT
Egyptian Christians endured multiple, organised terror attacks in 2017 Nine Christians were gunned down in an Islamic State (IS) attack on a church in Helwan, south of Cairo on 29 December. The attackers were prevented by policemen from getting inside the church, where a service was taking place. One of the nine Christians murdered was a Nermin Sadik, who was walking her two daughters (aged 11 and 7) to Sunday School at the church. When she encountered one of the attackers, the 32-year-old nurse managed to shield her daughters from the gunfire, but was herself shot dead.
Police captured one attacker while the second, who was wearing a suicide vest, was killed in a shootout in which one policeman also died. A statement on IS media later claimed responsibility for the attack, stating one of its men had been “martyred.” The attack in Cairo took place a fortnight after IS reiterated previous calls for the targeting of Egyptian Christians, who endured multiple, organised terror attacks in 2017, including the Palm Sunday suicide bombings in which nearly 50 people died.
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A History of
Christian Persecution 5
When Christians became the persecutors
A
dramatic shift in the history of the church in the Roman Empire occurred during the fourth century. This century began with “The Great Persecution”1 of 303305, a significant name given how severely Christians had already been persecuted at certain periods under Roman rule. But when the century drew to its close, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire and non-Christians were being persecuted. Three key dates track this process of change.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 312 The first key date was 27 October 312, when Emperor Constantine I, preparing for battle the following day, looked up to the sky and saw a cross of light with Greek words meaning “In this sign, conquer.” He duly won a decisive and careerchanging victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and decided to embrace Christianity. This did not, as it turned out, mean laying aside his previous pagan religion, and he retained the title of Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) of the Roman state cult until his death in 337. But he did order that Sunday and Christian holy days be given the same legal status as the pagan festivals, he put the Christian cross on his coins (along with pagan symbols and figures), and he forbade Jews from stoning to death those of their number who became Christians.2 He banned the construction of new pagan temples and later in his reign began tearing down existing ones.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 313 The second key date was just a few months later, in 313, when Emperors Constantine and Licinian jointly issued what is known as the Edict of Milan, to establish religious liberty in the Roman Empire.
Christians were at this time still a minority, but probably quite a decent sized minority. Persecution had not prevented the faith from spreading, perhaps had even encouraged it. Tertullian, famous for the phrase usually misquoted as “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church”,3 also wrote: We are but of yesterday, and yet we have all the places that belong to you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the military camps themselves, tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, the forum – we have left you nothing but your temples.4 Tertullian died between 220 and 240, so the growing Christian presence in the Roman Empire that he describes was a century before religious liberty came. After 312 the church, having both legal toleration and imperial approval, grew rapidly – too rapidly, according to some contemporary leaders. The church historian Eusebius, who had been bishop of Caesarea Maritima in Palestine since about 313, wrote of “the hypocrisy of people who crept into the church” hoping for the emperor’s favour.5 Adopting the emperor’s religion could do wonders for one’s prospects in society, especially a society built on patronage as the Roman Empire was. As Robert Markus puts it: Eusebius put his finger on the radical novelty of the condition in which Christians now found themselves. There had been rich Christians before the time of Constantine, there had been educated or upper-class people to be found in Christian communities, and in growing numbers during the century before Constantine. But rarely can their Christianity have contributed to their standing in society, their wealth or power. But, from now on, their religion could itself become a source of prestige, and did so, to the dismay of bishops who, like Eusebius himself, were sometimes inclined to look for less worldly motives for conversion to Christianity.6
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A hundred years later, bishops were still lamenting the conversions of convenience. Augustine of Hippo wrote of the “feigned” Christians who were joining the churches of his diocese (in modern Algeria). Within a few years of Augustine’s death in 430, almost all educated Roman town-dwellers were Christians, and thus came to an end the “age of hypocrisy” which had begun in 313.
seen, with Constantine himself targeting pagan places of worship. Constantine’s son and successor, Emperor Constantius II, closed all pagan temples and introduced the death penalty for anyone caught performing a pagan sacrifice. During his reign (337361), ordinary Christians began to vandalise pagan temples and tombs. After 361 the harassment of pagans waxed and waned until 381 when Emperor Theodosius issued the first of a series of 15 edicts against pagans, steadily increasing the pressure until his death in 395.
CHRISTIANS PERSECUTE EACH OTHER Arianism
An ivory carving from 428 shows a consul from the Western Roman Empire. His clothes are remarkably similar to Christian liturgical vestments, showing how the Christian elite replicated the culture of the nonChristians around them (Source: McManners, The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, 2001, p.63) As it rose to dominance, Christianity had seamlessly absorbed Roman culture, and the lifestyle of these urban elite Christians was almost identical to that of their non-Christian peers except that the Christians went to church. The lack of a distinctive Christian identity troubled many thoughtful believers. Committed Christians began to embrace asceticism, building on the traditional esteem for virginity, voluntary poverty and self-denial. Thus monastic communities came into being.7
WHAT HAPPENED IN 380 The third key date was 27 February 380 when Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire by the so-called Edict of Thessalonica. More specifically, the Empire’s religion was to be Nicene Trinitarian Christianity. Sadly and shamefully, the next two decades were marked by violent Christian riots in various cities across the Empire, with the rioters set on destroying pagan temples and their idols. The pagans had already suffered legal pressure for a couple of generations, beginning, as we have
Theodosius targeted not only pagans but also those Christians whom he regarded as heretics. He defined heretics according to the findings of Council of Nicea (Iznik in modern Turkey), which had been convened by Constantine back in 325 to look at various issues of the day, including Christological questions. The Council affirmed that the three Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, were co-equal and co-eternal, and specifically that Jesus was “of the same substance”8 as the Father.9 They rejected the viewpoint of a priest called Arius who held that Jesus had been created by the Father and therefore was not eternal and was of lower status than the Father. Despite the council’s decision, Arianism continued to thrive throughout most of the fourth century, along with a variant called Semi-Arianism. Even Emperor Constantius was an Arian. Arian Christians and orthodox (i.e. Nicene, Trinitarian) Christians persecuted each other alternately, according to the views of the emperor at the time. By the end of the century, however, Arianism was declining within the Roman Empire, perhaps due to strenuous persecution by Emperor Theodosius especially after the Council of Constantinople (381) which strongly condemned Arianism.10 But Arianism remained popular amongst the tribes surrounding and sometimes invading the Empire. During the the fifth century it thrived amongst certain Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals, Lombards and Goths (with their subgroups, the Visigoths and Ostrogoths).11 The Vandals invaded Roman North Africa in 429 and occupied it until they were defeated by a Byzantine invasion force 534; they laboured for decades to convert the Nicene Christians there to Arianism. Arianism was also strong in southern Europe. The Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Emperor Justinian I (ruled 527–565) was very active in fighting Arianism by military force. He attacked both the Vandal kingdom in North Africa and the Ostrogoth kingdom in Italy. Justinian also organised and codified the mass of pre-existing laws issued by himself and previous emperors going back about 400 years, to produce what is called the Codex Justinianus, competed in 529. Numerous
... Pull-Out laws in this Codex dealt with religious matters; in fact, the very first law required everyone under Byzantine rule to be an orthodox (i.e. non-Arian) Christian. Other laws secured a dominant status for orthodox Christianity, forbade certain pagan practices, and harshly discriminated against Jews and Samaritans. By the eighth century, after many wars and laws, Arianism had been largely wiped out and all Christians were Trinitarian.
Other issues
The Arian/Nicene split was not the only internal division in Christianity that led to persecution and violence amongst Christians. In North Africa, a schism developed about clergy who had renounced their Christian faith during the dark days of persecution under Emperor Diocletian (284-305) while others had stood firm and been martyred. After the persecution had finished, the question arose about what to do with apostate clergy who now wanted to resume their ministries. When the Edict of Milan was passed, making it 100% safe to be a Christian, the question became even more marked. Donatus Magnus, bishop of Carthage from 315 to 355, led those who felt it would be offensive to the memory of the martyred faithful clergy to allow the apostates to officiate at church services again. This group became known as Donatists and were probably the numerical majority for a while. They were opposed by the pro-Roman group, who emphasised forgiveness and wanted to see the apostate clergy fully restored to their former roles in the church. The Donatists were persecuted by the Roman emperors in the fourth and fifth centuries, but they survived until Islam arrived and eliminated all forms of Christianity in the region. In a similar way, a group of Christians who have sometimes been called “Nestorians” were driven out of the Empire in the fifth century because of their Christological beliefs. They moved east to settle in Persia and beyond, where they became known as the “Church of the East”. In yet another Christological dispute, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 affirmed that Jesus had two natures (divine and human). But many Christians in North Africa and the Middle East believed He had only one nature (divine). These “monophysite” Christians suffered imperial persecution, and the same thing happened in the eighth and ninth centuries to Christians who venerated images.
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 iii
CHRISTIANS PERSECUTE NON-CHRISTIANS We have already seen how this began as soon as religious liberty was granted in the Roman Empire and accelerated when Christianity became the Empire’s official religion. It is greatly to the dishonour of Christians that this continued. Jewish people were a frequent target of unprovoked attacks by Christians. As far back as 613, the Visigoth king of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) ordered Jews to convert to Christianity or be expelled. Cruel persecution followed for those who remained. The Jews were expelled from France in 1182 and from England in 1290. Again, space does not permit further examples, although there are plenty.
CONCLUSION The shattering impact of Emperor Constantine’s public adoption of Christianity in 312 on church history, indeed on history in general, is ironic, given that his new “faith” appears to have had relatively little effect on him personally. It set in train a destructive struggle between orthodox Christians and heretics, and eventually created the new realities of sword-bearing believers and wars of theology. It was Constantine’s decision to say he was a Christian, even more than his introduction of religious liberty, that was the turning point which changed the church from poor to rich, from despised to respectable, from shame to honour, from the cross to the sword, from weakness to earthly power, from Jesus in His humility to Christ triumphant, perceived as an emperor whose dominion is the earth and whose servants ruled as governors.
After the Reformation
Doctrinal differences continued to fuel Christianon-Christian persecution and violence through the centuries. Sadly, the examples are simply too many to list, but readers may be familiar with Protestants and Roman Catholics burning each other at the stake in sixteenth century England, and the many wars of religion in various countries of northern Europe after the Reformation.
This sixth century ivory panel shows Jesus enthroned like a Roman emperor or god. The cross in His left hand replaces the sword or globe carried by earthly rulers as a symbol of their power (Source: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, exhibition catalogue, Imagining the Divine, 2017, p.41)
Pull-Out
iv March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid
Accepting without demur the traditions and trappings of Roman culture, the church seemed to have little trouble adapting to her new place in society. It was soon reflected in art and culture. Philippa Adrych and Dominic Dalglish point out that: “Zeus on his throne was replaced by the new ruler of heaven and earth, and the emperor, long associated with a variety of divinities, now imparted his image onto the figure of Christ.”12 In this way the church and Christianity were transformed, reversing the New Testament principle of land as the commonwealth of Israel, people as the ekklesia of God, and the Temple as the inner shrine of our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead the church embraced the Old Testament doctrine of physical land to be seized or kept by military force, of her people as a nation characterised by nationalism of the worst kind, and the construction of majestic buildings for earthly places of worship. Thus Christianity created Christendom, an empire where every citizen must be subservient to a sovereign lord crowned as a Christian emperor, and where new laws were created to ostracise, torment or even kill all those who disagreed with the state orthodoxy, whether heretic, Jew or pagan. The stage was set for internal schism and fragmentation. With this fragmentation came a new era of armed conflict, in which the church, having been persecuted, now became in her turn a persecutor. The victims were pagans, heretics and all those whom the Christians in power conceived to be foreign or demonic; the idea of viewing the other Christians as brethren with whom they disagreed on some theological points seems to have been rare. As we have seen, centuries of warfare between Christians followed, particularly in North Africa and southern Europe, where the Vandals, Visigoths and Ostrogoths, who had embraced a Christianity based on Arianism, now found themselves in conflict with the Trinitarian Christians. It was a fight to the death, and finally Arianism was eliminated. The AngloSaxons and Franks were spared this, never having been Arians. Christianity became firmly embedded in empire, nation and city-state, in the process becoming unrecognisable. What did it now have in common
with those early believers, who had met in simplicity and faith, filled with the Holy Spirit of God and worshipping their crucified Lord? (Acts 2:42) The internecine conflicts within the church from the fourth century onwards, leaving Christians weak, self-absorbed and divided, paved the way for the rapid Islamic military conquest of the region in the seventh century.
1 See “A History of Christian Persecution: Part 2 AD 33-312 Hated by the World” in Barnabas Aid (July-August 2017) especially p. iv. 2 Although Constantine’s Christianity was probably not a genuine personal faith, his powerful mother Helena does appear to have been a committed Christian. 3 Tertullian wrote: “Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.” A plain translation of his Latin is: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.” It comes from the final chapter (chapter 50) of his most famous book, Apologeticus pro Christianis [Apology on behalf of Christians], which was a defence of Christians against the defamation and persecution they were suffering at the hands of the Roman authorities. 4 Tertullian, Apology, chapter 37. 5 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 54. 6 Robert Markus, “From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms (330700)” in John McManners, The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, New York, Oxford University Press Inc., 1990, pp.62-3. 7 Markus, “From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms (330-700)”, p.67 8 μοούσιος (homoousios) in Greek 9 The Nicene Creed, produced at the Council of Nicea and used in many churches today, emphasises this in the passage: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.” 10 The Council of Constantinople made some amendments to the Nicene Creed, creating the version used today. 11 Other Germanic tribes such as the Franks and AngloSaxons (who migrated to what are modern France and England respectively) were never Arians, but converted from paganism straight to a Trinitarian form of Christianity. 12 Philippa Adrych and Dominic Dalglish, “Religions in the Roman World” in Jaś Elsner and Stefanie Lenk, Imagining Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 2017, p.41.
BARNABAS FUND HOPE AND AID FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH International Headquarters The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org Published by Barnabas Aid Inc. 6731 Curran St, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA © Barnabas Aid Inc. 2018
Australia PO Box 3527 Loganholme QLD 4129 Telephone (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365799 Fax (07) 3806 4076 Email bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org New Zealand PO Box 276018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz
Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland PO Box 354, Bangor, BT20 9EQ Telephone 028 91 455 246 or 07875 539003 Email ireland@barnabasfund.org UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718
Registered Charity Number 1092935 Company Registered in England Number 4029536
From outside the UK Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org USA 6731 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101 Telephone (703) 288-1681 or toll-free 1-866-936-2525 Fax (703) 288-1682 Email usa@barnabasaid.org
In Brief
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 11
President attends Christmas service and tells Christians “you are our family”
Christian girl from Chibok abducted and “married” to Muslim NIGERIA
Officials demolish two church buildings in Shaanxi province CHINA
EGYPT
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended a Christmas service at a new cathedral outside of Cairo and affirmed his support for Christians. The President told the congregation: “Destruction, ruin and killing will never be able to defeat goodness, construction, love and peace … you are our family. You are part of us. We are one and no one will ever drive a wedge between us.” Egypt’s president has frequently and publicly condemned attacks on Christians, who make up more than 10% of the country’s population.
Christians fear another wave of persecution IRAQ
Christians in Iraq fear “another wave of persecution that will be [their] end,” despite the Iraqi government’s recent declaration of victory against Islamic State, according to a senior church leader from the southern city of Basra. Speaking at a meeting in December 2017 on intercultural dialogue sponsored by the European Parliament, the leader requested Western politicians to lobby the Iraqi government to protect the country’s Christian minority, who are under threat from “robberies, gang rapes, torture and murder.” Describing the situation in Basra, he said that Christian experience with the Muslim community was mixed. He stated that the majority of Muslims were “moderate and … don’t care for religious fanaticism … [treating] Christians equally with dignity and respect.” He added however: “There are fanatics who say loudly in the mosques that we are blasphemers … the sons of pigs and monkeys.”
17-year-old Linda Maina Linda Maina, a 17-year-old Christian from Chibok, was abducted and forcibly married to a Muslim, after she travelled to attend a family member’s wedding just before Christmas. Her abductor then used a sharia court hearing to stall the family’s attempts to secure her release. Linda went missing shortly after setting off to travel to another town to be a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding. On 28 December 2017, her father received a summons to attend a sharia court in Maiduguri, around 70 miles north of Chibok. At the hearing, Linda’s father and his lawyer were not given an opportunity to state their case. Linda, who was present, was not allowed to speak in court and lawyers for her abductor claimed Linda had “always wanted to marry a Muslim man.” Linda’s father asserted that his daughter “had never said she wanted to get married to anyone, not to me or to anyone in the family. All she wanted was to go to a University … She just finished her secondary school in June.” At the time of writing, Linda has not been returned to her family. A church pastor who is helping the family to try and secure Linda’s release stated, “Christian families continue to suffer this kind of issue. This is about the fifth case this year alone ... There is a deliberate, calculated plan by Muslims to destroy as many Christian girls as possible.” The town of Chibok is in the heartland of Muslim-majority northern Nigeria and was the location of Boko Haram’s infamous kidnapping of 274 school girls in 2014, most of them Christians. Global Christian News
Christians in China have faced increasing pressure since Xi Jinping became president in 2013. Several church buildings have been demolished Officials in Shaanxi province demolished two church buildings within two weeks over the New Year. Local authorities in Zhifang village in Lauyu district, demolished a church on 27 December 2017, after claiming that it was built on illegally occupied land. Almost 100 local Christians protested the action, some chanting “Freedom of belief,” while official documents proving that the church – built in 1999 – had approval to use the land were posted on social media. Authorities subsequently sent officials to apologise and discuss compensation. Less than two weeks later, on 9 January (after officials had apologised for destroying the church in Zhifang), authorities used dynamite to demolish a large church in the city of Linfen, also in Shaanxi province. They had previously claimed the church violated building codes. Officials initially denied that the demolition had taken place, while police present during the event pressured witnesses to remain silent. Since Xi Jinping became president of China in 2013, there has been an increase in persecution of Christians. Churches have been demolished in areas and Communist Party officials have been “encouraging” Christians to replace Christian posters in their homes with portraits of the president. To view our most current news scan this with your device
Invest in Hope
12 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid
From hunger to hope Barnabas Fund’s transformational new projects in East Africa
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
A
fter helping East African Christians to survive the worst drought in living memory, in 2018, Barnabas Fund is moving from feeding to rebuilding lives for the refugee community in Uganda. The aim is to enable the refugees to become selfsufficient economically, well educated, and strong in the Lord.
Re-building lives
Barnabas Fund, in discussion with East African church leaders, has developed a three-fold approach to re-build the lives of these brothers and sisters in 2018. This will mean “investing” in three areas: spiritual needs, education and economic uplift.
Saved from starvation SUDAN
East African Christians have fled famine and conflict. Now Barnabas Fund is working to re-build lives for the future
The United Nations officially declared a famine in South Sudan SOUTH ETHIOPIA in February 2017, but SUDAN parts of Kenya and Uganda were also severely affected. At UGANDA KENYA SOMALIA one point in 2017, over 2,000 refugees were crossing into Uganda from South Emergency Stressed Sudan every day Famine Crisis
Invest in Hope Spiritual needs There are 158 South Sudanese pastors amongst the refugees in one camp. Like the men, women and children in their congregations, they have suffered great hardship and witnessed the collapse of communities and the tragedy of families becoming separated. Through local Christians, Barnabas Fund will provide short courses to help the church pastors receive healing from their own trauma and teach them how to minister to other traumatised people. A small stipend will enable each pastor to establish a congregation within the camp and pastor and teach the people. Barnabas Fund will also provide Bibles in the local Bari language – many of the Christian refugees have lost everything they owned.
$12 $43
could buy a Bible in a local language
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 13
Education Thousands of children in the camps need an education. Even though their immediate needs are being met, without learning the skills they will need to prosper when they reach adulthood they are at risk of becoming trapped in dependency and poverty. In Uganda, Barnabas Fund aims to build ten Christian schools and support 30 teachers to work in them. In Kenya, Barnabas Fund will enable children to get an education by covering the cost of school fees, uniforms and books.
$160
could pay a teacher for one month
$21,000
Economic uplift For many of the Christian refugees, receiving food aid is a new experience. They used to provide for themselves, until the drought and famine came. They have had to leave land that is now barren, or no longer safe to return to, and even those that have the skills to grow their own food do not have the tools and basic inputs, such as seeds, they need. Barnabas Fund is stepping in to provide small grants or loans to enable Christian families to begin growing their own crops, or start up their own businesses, so they can once again provide for themselves.
$64
could provide seeds and farming tools for one family
could build a three-classroom school
could provide three days trauma counselling and training for a South Sudanese refugee pastor
Barnabas Fund will supply seeds of beans and maize, tubers of sweet potatoes and cassava, plus hoes and machetes
Barnabas Fund will provide short courses to train pastors to minister to the many believers who have experienced great trauma; pictured is the choir at a church service for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda
Thousands of Christian refugee children need an education. Barnabas Fund will build ten schools in Uganda, to equip and inspire a new generation of believers who would otherwise be unlikely to have any opportunity to go to school
East Africa was struck by the worst drought in living memory in 2016. The drought led to famine. Plains turned to arid desert and crops and cattle died, leaving hundreds of thousands of starving people with no choice but to flee on foot in the hope of finding food. International intervention proved insufficient for those on the brink of starvation, but Barnabas Fund, responding to the pleas of church leaders in Kenya and Uganda, was able to feed more than 170,000 Christians, saving countless lives. Through Project Joseph, Barnabas Fund provided 18.6 million meals (about 3,585 tonnes of food) for hungry Christians in East Africa, especially refugees from war-torn South Sudan living in northern Uganda. Barnabas Fund supplied 18.6 million meals to starving Christians in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda through Project Joseph
From hunger to hope, from facing a famine to imagining a future, Barnabas Fund’s new work in East Africa will bring life-giving transformation to Christian refugees left destitute by drought.
how barnabas is helping Warm homes for Christians in Turkey Barnabas Fund supported over 430 Christian families taking refuge in twelve cities across Turkey by helping with gas and electricity bills over the winter months, averaging $39 per family per month. The families had fled genocide in Iraq, and intense persecution in Afghanistan and Iran. Zia lost everything when jihadists repeatedly destroyed his shop in Iraq; eventually he and his family fled. Most of the families have similar experiences of persecution and loss. Few of the refugees are able to find work to provide for their families. With little or no income, they are at the mercy of the unforgiving Turkish winters, where freezing temperatures can drop to -40⁰C, and snow can remain on the ground for up to four months. Barnabas project partners made 28 trips (typically covering 500 km) to deliver the aid to the refugee families. Barnabas also provided Christmas presents to 1,500 Christian refugee children.
Displaced Christian children return to school in Nigeria Her father’s body “was left for dogs and pigs to eat up,” said a Barnabas project partner. Jihadists murdered 14 year-old Mary’s father, and then prevented her family from burying his body. Mary is one of 40 Christian children in northern Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps that Barnabas cares for. They have fled from attacks by Islamist militants like Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herders. Life in the camps can be hard, with often inadequate accommodation, food, health, and education facilities. Tuition and other education costs, food, school uniforms, stationery, mattresses, bedding, and mosquito nets average out at $31 per child per month. The project also provided $14,489 to fund improvements at two camp schools, supplying computers, basic science lab equipment, books and medicines for the school clinic. “We want to appreciate God and you for your lovely kindness to us to see that we go to school,” said a thankful Joseph, another of the sponsored IDP children.
Zia (pictured left) and his family. They needed help from Barnabas Fund with the cost of their fuel bills in the long cold winter
Jihadists murdered Mary’s father, and burned her school and home. But with Barnabas’ help, she is now getting an education again
$66,876 for gas and electricity for needy Christian refugee families during winter
$32,198 for ccommodation, feeding, and education costs for displaced Christian children
Project reference 54-1324 (Winter needs for refugees in Turkey) and 54-1367 (Christmas presents for children)
Project reference 39-772 (Victims of Violence in Nigeria)
Helping the Egyptian church through micro-loans Christians in Egypt often find it hard to get work because of discrimination. A micro-loan project, funded by Barnabas, has enabled nine Christians to set up small businesses so they can support their families. The focus is on helping the widowed, disabled or others with particular needs. Amira realised that her village lacked shoe shops. She used her micro-loan to open a shoe shop on the ground floor of her house. She and her husband can now afford to send their five children to school . They and other Christians helped are now out of poverty and have “an income and self-confidence,” says Barnabas’ project partner. As beneficiaries pay back their loans, the money is re-used to help more Christians benefit from the programme. “It is always seen as a positive if the church can do good things for its people,” said a Barnabas project partner
Moneer has repaired his tuktuk with funds from Barnabas, and can once again carry passengers to earn his living
$24,377 for a micro-loan programme for poor rural Christians Project reference 11-424 (Development Projects for Christians in Egypt)
Strengthened and encouraged. This is what we often hear from Christians who have received support from Barnabas Fund. Thank you for making this possible. Here are just a few examples of the many ways we have recently helped persecuted and pressurised Christians.
Motorcycles help Pakistan’s church leaders safely reach their flock Barnabas Fund provided motorcycles for 15 church leaders in Multan District. The pastors minister across a wide, mainly rural, area in southern Punjab province, where some of the scattered Christians live more than 50km from their nearest church. The pastors previously endured long, perilous journeys to visit them. Pastor Waheed regularly visited up to 30 families across five villages, which was time-consuming and exhausting by public transport. Every journey he made in the evening or at night brought a risk of being attacked by Islamists, and his family constantly feared for his safety. After the provision of motorcycles costing $640 each, pastoral journeys are safer, quicker, and cheaper. “My family is also very happy that I can come back home during the daytime,” says Pastor Waheed.
Pastor Waheed and 14 other church leaders in Multan can now visit their congregations more regularly and safely
$9,588 to purchase motorcycles for 15 pastors Project reference 41-033
Enabling displaced Christians in South-East Asia to access Bibles “Our family had one copy of the Bible, but we had to run for our lives when the war came to our village … We haven’t seen [a] Bible since 2011, but now God has shown us His miracle,” said a grateful believer, receiving a Bible in their language. Many thousands of Christians from conflict-ravaged areas of a SouthEast Asian country are living in camps, after being forced by violent persecution to flee their homes, often with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. These Christians have had little to no access to the spiritual guidance and strength provided by the Word of God, often for decades. Barnabas has covered the transportation and distribution costs for 20,000 Bibles to Christians in the camps. The ultimate goal is to ensure that every displaced Christian family has a Bible. The presence of the Word of God has “changed the life of [displaced] camp people from sorrow to joy,” a Christian in one of the camps testified.
Barnabas Fund has delivered 20,000 Bibles to Christians displaced in camps where access to Bibles has been difficult. Some have gone years without even seeing a Bible
$26,071 – towards the cost of the transporting 20,000 Bibles to displaced Christians Project reference XX-1042
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 15
A kitchen for converts! “Usually our Christian gatherings are during a meal,” says a pastor in a strongly restricted country of Central Asia. The pastor’s family home serves the underground Christian community here – all converts from Islam – as a place to gather and worship. Many are unemployed due to discrimination, and others among them remain secret believers for fear of persecution from the authorities, their employers, and friends. Up to twelve Christians gather about four times a week at the home. Eating together is an important part of their fellowship and practical care. Unfortunately, the original kitchen was located away from the house and extremely dilapidated, with no floor, poor plumbing, and a leaking roof. It was very difficult to provide food for the church meetings – especially in the winter – and the pastor’s family were constantly falling ill. But on his small income it was impossible to do anything to improve the situation. For a long time church members prayed for a solution. Then Barnabas provided funds to build, insulate, and equip a kitchen that connects to the meeting room of the main house.
A kitchen from Barnabas helped persecuted Christians from a Muslim background gather to worship and give each other emotional and spiritual support over a meal
$2,040 to build an adjoining kitchen to a house used for Christian gatherings Project reference 00-637 (Church Buildings Fund)
Our Religious Freedom
16 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid
Fair Go Australia on Religious Freedom
Barnabas Fund is launching a new campaign to reclaim the heritage of freedom of religion which previous generations of Christians endured hardship, persecution and even death to achieve.
B
arnabas Fund is seeking a new Act of Parliament to guarantee seven fundamental aspects of freedom of religion. These freedoms were developed by various mechanisms over the last five centuries including English common law, the federal constitution and international treaties, but are now under threat. An Australian domestic law to protect and guarantee them is urgently needed. In Canberra’s Parliament House sits the only copy of Magna Carta in the southern hemisphere. Magna Carta’s ringing call 800 years ago that “the English Church shall be free” is an affirmation that was foundational to the development of freedom in Australia. The gradual development of full freedom of religion in the following centuries eventually led in 1901 to the Australian federal constitution specifically stating that: “The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.” However, this only applies to the Federal government, and the courts have over the years significantly limited the extent to which it protects freedom of religion even then. So, it’s high time we revisited the historic freedoms our forefathers achieved. That’s why Barnabas Fund is producing a new booklet, Turn the Tide, on religious freedom in Australia.
Our Religious Freedom
Even before we became an independent nation, Magna Carta’s affirmation that “the English Church shall be free” had over the centuries been worked out into seven specific aspects of religious liberty: ●● Freedom to read Scriptures in public (achieved 1537) ●● Freedom to interpret Scriptures without government interference (achieved 1559) ●● Freedom of worship (achieved 1689) ●● Freedom to choose, or change your faith or belief (achieved 1689) ●● Freedom to preach and try to convince others of the truth of your beliefs (achieved 1812) ●● Freedom to establish churches, synagogues, mosques, etc. (achieved 1812) ●● Freedom from being required to affirm a particular worldview or set of beliefs in order to hold a public sector job, stand for election, work in professions such as teaching and law, or study at university (achieved by the repeal of various “Test Acts” between 1719 and 1888). However, most of these freedoms, which we inherited when Australia was born as nation in 1901, have never been specifically incorporated into law. They are therefore vulnerable to being eroded by those who are either intent on imposing a particular ideological agenda, or by politicians who are simply ignorant of the enormous importance previous generations played in developing freedom of religion. That’s why we shall be calling on Christians to claim the freedoms our forefathers endured hardship, persecution and even death to achieve.
Why Barnabas Fund is doing this
For many years Barnabas Fund has worked to support the persecuted Church, particularly in Muslim-majority contexts. However, as we have done so, we have become increasingly aware of how much freedom of religion is under threat in the West.
A new “Test Act” is being brought in by the backdoor
In the last year we have seen people working in both the public and private sectors fired because of their Christian beliefs. These include a Melbourne IT specialist engaged to work on the “safe schools programme” sacked after privately expressing concerns during a staff meeting; an 18-year-old children’s
Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 17
party organiser sacked after putting up an ‘It’s OK to vote no’ filter on her Facebook page during the SSM postal survey; and a high profile campaign targeting accountants Price Waterhouse Coopers forcing one of its senior executives to step down from the board of ACLlinked Lachlan Macquarie Institute. Meanwhile, in what looks like a form of reintroduction of the University Test Acts that existed in colonial era Britain, a Christian student was suspended from university for a semester after respectfully answering a question at a party about whether he agreed with gay sex.
Get involved PRAY FOR THE CAMPAIGN! Sign the petition online at www.OurReligiousFreedom.org.au Tweet/post on Facebook/social media that you’ve signed the petition Email the link to sign the petition to your friends Request additional copies of Turn the Tide booklet, to send to your local high school, library etc. Send a copy of the booklet to a) your local MP b) local councillor asking them to support the campaign and a new law on religious liberty – and let Barnabas Fund know how they respond Request more resources for your churches – petition forms, booklets etc. Form an Our Religious Freedom prayer group to intercede on religious liberty issues Invite a Barnabas Representative to speak in your church.
www.OurReligiousFreedom.org.au | #FoRB
18 March/Apr il 2018 Barnab as Aid
In Touch
Have you got your copy of Praying for the Persecuted Church 2018?
Barnabas Fund’s Praying for the Persecuted Church is an invaluable source of inf ormation and inspiration to help you, your small group , or your church to pray for our persecuted brothers an d sisters around the globe. It includes details about 39 countries and seven areas of particular need, along wit h suggested prayers which can be used to prompt you r own, as the Lord leads you . Free copies are available fro m our Queensland office (contact details inside front cover of this ma gazine). A schedule inside the back cov er shows how the booklet can be use d for daily devotions during Lent, if des ired.
School students get involved with Suffering Church Action Week The students of Regents Park Christian School in Sydney participated in Suffering Church Action Week last November with great enthusiasm. As part of their Biblical studies, years 7, 8, 9 and 10 all learnt about persecution in different parts of the world. Jared, a student, had this to say of the experience: “We as teens only worry about how we can charge our phones but it was only after we studied about persecution did we realise that this isn’t a minor problem that happened long ago, but it was a major problem and it still happens.” Rose added: ”This year, we need to be truly interceding before our God for our fellow Christians in places such as the Middle East, Northern Africa, Central Asian countries and Pakistan … Our aim is to give our love and support to those in need and continuously pray for the suffering church.”
Students from Regents Park Christian School wearing their “I am not ashamed” Suffering Church Action Week wristbands
e Could your church tak for up an Easter offering Barnabas Fund? gs
rin ember Christ’s own suffe This Easter – as we rem church ur yo ld s resurrection – cou and celebrate His joyou ng bri to , ng for Barnabas Fund take up an Easter offeri midst the in s who are celebrating hope and aid to believer t? of their faith in Chris of persecution because urch, inded the Corinthian Ch As the Apostle Paul rem ry eve dy of Christ suffers, when one part of the Bo ffering rinthians 12:26). For su part suffers with it (1 Co und aro ns that fellow Christia believers, the knowledge and m the th them, standing wi the world are praying for at encouragement. supporting them is a gre
“Be A Barnabas ” fundraiser a great success
With the help of Drouin Presbyte rian Church, Danielle Smith and Jackie McN abb organised “Be A Barnabas ,” a fun run, wal k and ride to ra money for Barn ise abas Fund. The ro ute covered 17 km along a pictures que trail in Gipps land and the ev raised $2,566. “W ent e were consciou s as we ran that while we may ha ve been feeling some discomfort from sore muscl es and the heat of the day, it was nothing compa red to what our Christian brothe and sisters suffe rs r,” reflected Dan ielle and Jackie who have plans , to do another fu n run this year.
en them Many of the participants of “Be A Barnabas” who betwe Jackie and lle Danie isers Organ raised $2,566 for Barnabas Fund. vests hi-vis are pictured in their
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MAR / APR 2018 - BOOK SPECIAL $ 15.00 + $ 8.50 P&H each or All 3 Books for $40 ( incl. Postage )
Islam in our midst
Pray & Protect
Freedom to Believe
$15.00 RRP
$15.00 RRP
$16.95 RRP
The challenge of Islam to America's Christian identity and the stark differences between Muslim and Western worldviews are exposed in this penetrating study by Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo, a renowned expert on Islam. By exposing the plans of certain Muslim groups to Islamise the United States, he invites you to consider how deep their influence runs in contemporary American society. As Muslims become increasingly assertive and Islamism grows, the call is for Christian and secular leaders to respond.
Practical ways to keep your churches and ministries safe, Pray & Protect aims to build on good common practice of churches and ministries around the world in contexts of hostility and persecution. It focuses on a number of threats and risks, and suggests ways to make the ministry more secure and safer for staff and those you serve.
“Islam is a one-way street. NonMuslims can convert to Islam, but freedom to convert from Islam is denied to Muslims. All schools of Islamic Law specify the death penalty for an adult male Muslim who chooses to leave Islam. The law can also impose other penalties on apostates. Change is only possible if the apostasy law is repealed. This book focuses on: • the Muslim teaching on apostasy from Islamic sources • the debate amongst Muslims about the apostasy law • the treatment of converts from Islam
For the next two months you can purchase copies of Islam in our Midst or Pray & Protect or Freedom to Believe for $15 each plus $8.50 P&H or all 3 books for the total price of $40.00 including postage and handling.
This offer is only available by contacting the Australian Barnabas Office on 1300 365 799 or (07) 3806 1076 or by emailing bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org . This offer is not available via the website
barnabasfund.org