WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG
SEPTEMBER 2016
PERSECU ION Off With Their
Heads The Orlando shooting released a river of hatred directed at Christians by a coalition of haters. Unpacking this insanity gives shocking insight into the persecution we see growing in American culture.
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INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Table of Contents
In This Issue: FEATURE
14 | American Christianity Under Siege
Current events are causing a conflict of perception in the US. FEATURE
20 | The Bridge 2016
The inaugural conference seeking to be a unifying movement in the Church. INTERVIEW
26 | Remembering Garissa
An attack on Christian university students causes unimaginable pain. INTERVIEW
28 | The Gospel Unhindered
ICC interviews Sudanese pastors who faced the death penalty for their faith. FEATURE
30 | Bangladesh on the Brink
Christian families in Bangladesh are facing more violence than ever before.
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INTERVIEW
32 | #BringBackOurGirls, Bring Back Hope
ICC travels to northeast Nigeria to meet the parents of kidnapped Chibok girls. FEATURE
34 | The Journey from Chaos to Christ The migrant crisis unfolding in the Middle East is opening doors. Regular Features
3 Letter from the President A few words from ICC’s president, Jeff King, on the cultural currents in the US and the impact on our faith. 4 World News A snapshot of the persecution that impacts our brothers and sisters daily, in every corner of the world. 8 Your Dollars at Work Learn how your gifts are providing comfort, relief, Bibles, education and vocational training to the persecuted. 12 Volunteers Learn how members of ICC’s volunteer teams are making an impact in their communities for the persecuted. 2
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President’s Letter
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable. ~Louis D. Brandeis Former Associate of the US Supreme Court Laws are only words written on paper, words that change on society’s whim and are interpreted differently daily by politicians, lawyers, judges, and policemen. Anyone who believes that all laws should always be obeyed would have made a fine slave catcher. Anyone who believes that all laws are applied equally, despite race, religion, or economic status, is a fool. ~Author John J. Miller, from “And Hope to Die” Over time, political parties are likely to become potent engines (that will) usurp the reins of government, destroying the very engines which have lifted them to (their) unjust Dominion. ~George Washington
Jeff King, President International Christian Concern
After the Orlando Pulse shooting there was a river of vitriol directed at Christians blaming them for the attack. This may seem strange since the shooter said many times he was doing the attack because he had been inspired by ISIS. For years, as one who has his finger on the pulse of religious freedom in this country, I’ve watched these types of attacks on Christians but this one was a new low and led to the article American Christianity Under Siege (pg. 14). The heinous acts of ISIS and Boko Haram woke many in this country to the real nature of Islam. The party line that “Islam is a religion of peace” could not stand up to the enormity of horrors all committed in the name of Allah with cited chapter and verse from the Quran (for those that were listening). The disconnect between the words of the Orlando shooter and the hatred spewed on Christians afterwards is a bridge too far and should serve as a wake up call for you. All of the hatred directed at Christians, all of the judicial attacks that deny us the freedoms granted by the founders, all of the wrongful firings of Christians, can now more easily be put into context. George Washington said it best (above) when he warned that over time, politicians and political parties would use their power to settle cultural grievances and oppress their fellow citizens. His somber warning that in doing this they would destroy the freedoms built into our system is coming true today. These attacks, cultural, civil, and judicial, are acts of persecution from a cultural minority that has cultural influence beyond their numbers. A sleeping Church needs to wake up and come to terms with the fact that although Jesus was meek, he was also forceful with little appetite for hypocrisy and wickedness in high places. It remains to be seen what it will take for the proverbial frog to jump out of the pot. Until then, read the article. Wrestle with your response to its purposefully cross cultural message but understand what is happening. Then gather a bit of righteous anger and spread the word.
Jeff King President, International Christian Concern www.persecution.org
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1 | BANGLADESH In an eight-hour standoff with authorities, ISIS militants killed 22 people in a restaurant in Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka. Reports indicate that the attackers let the Muslims who were present leave unharmed while non-Muslims and foreigners faced a violent end. Relatives of hostages explained that those who were unable to recite from the Quran upon command were tortured. In addition to the 22 who were brutally murdered, six of the attackers were also fatally shot. This attack, which is just one of many, is part of a recent escalation of violence in Bangladesh. There have been numerous accounts of attacks on religious minorities, liberal bloggers, and LGBT activists. ISIS continues to wage war against anyone whose ideology contrasts its own, leaving Christians and other religious minorities in its path of destruction. Islamic extremism has gained significant ground in Bangladesh with both the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda claiming responsibility for attacks of this nature in recent months. Christians are rightly beginning to question their security in this South Asian country.
2 | RUSSIA Vladimir Putin, recently signed a new law which will have significant repercussions for the Christian community of Russia. The law’s main purpose is to combat terrorism and punish those who are found to be supporting terrorism, whether financially or otherwise. However, the new law also includes concerning restrictions on one’s freedom to share the Gospel openly with others. One of the more significant restrictions deems preaching that takes place outside of a house of worship as missionary activity which requires government permission through a registered organization. While this may seem innocuous at a glance, this would restrict a Christian from sharing his or her faith with a non-Christian friend without first obtaining permission from government officials. Not only are the restrictions severe, but so are the consequences. Individuals found guilty would face fines costing them hundreds of dollars, while organizations found guilty would pay upwards of $15,000. Those who work as international missionaries could potentially be expelled from the country if convicted under these new limitations. Russia, as well as many Eurasian countries, rarely makes the headlines for violence against religious minorities. However, we must pay careful attention or else mounting restrictions on religious freedom could slowly choke Christianity out of the region.
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22 Killed in ISIS Attack on a Bangladesh Cafe
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Elderly Pastor Beaten Unconscious by Hindu Radicals 3 | INDIA In Uttar Pradesh, a state of northern India, four Hindu radicals recently stormed a church service and beat the 66-year-old pastor to the point of unconsciousness. In addition to losing consciousness, the pastor also suffered a major cut and severe bleeding. The attackers accused the pastor of forcibly converting Hindus. Such accusations are often used as justification for assaulting Christians and closing down churches in India. The same church was also temporarily closed in February when police officers took two of the pastors into custody following more accusations of forced conversion. Thankfully, nearly 200 Christians showed up at the police station testifying on the pastors’ behalf and they were released without charge. Although the attack on the 66-yearold pastor took place in May, many of the church members have been too afraid to return, fearing another attack. SEPTEMBER 2016
ISIS Kills 41 People in Attack on a Turkish Airport 4 | TURKEY On June 28, three suicide bombers allegedly affiliated with the Islamic State carried out an attack on Turkey’s Ataturk Airport which led to the deaths of 41 people and wounded 239 others. This group has been responsible for countless acts of violence against religious minorities throughout the Middle East, causing a mass exodus of Christians from the region. This attack served as the deadliest of 2016 in a number of recent bombings in Turkey.
Chinese Church Raided Seven Times in Muslim Mob Two Months Burns Down 5 | CHINA It is widely acknowledged that many Chinese Homes of Four Christians face harassment at the hands of the govern- Christians ment. However, one church in particular, Zhongfu Wanmin Church, has fallen victim to seven separate church raids in less than two months. Accusations during the raids included taking part in illegal gatherings and illegally obtaining income through tithes, which were also stolen from the church because they were being used for “unregistered” activities, according to China Aid. During one of the raids, authorities intimidated some of the church members to the point of tears. The Chinese government, led by President Xi Jinping (pictured), has been actively persecuting Christians through church demolitions and cross removals since 2013.
6 | EGYPT On June 30, a mob of Muslim radicals burned the homes of four Christians in Egypt. The attack took place in response to rumors that one of the men was constructing a church due to the relatively large Christian population in the area without a local church. After it was discovered that he was simply rebuilding his home, three individuals were arrested in connection to the attack as authorities investigate the incident.
Suicide Bombers Strike Christian Village in Lebanon 7 | LEBANON In the early morning hours of June 27, four suicide bombers struck the Christian village of Qaa in Lebanon, along the Syrian border. A villager confronted a suspicious group of men when a fight broke out, leading the first suicide bomber to detonate his explosives. At least five people were reported dead with many more injured as well. This incident occurred as the civil war in Syria continues to cross borders into Lebanon, causing destruction for everyone in its path, including the Christian community. While Christian persecution has been most heavily concentrated in Iraq and Syria, recent incidents such as this are causes of great concern for Christian communities in neighboring countries.
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Sudan is ranked the eighth worst persecutor of Christians Refugees Denied the Right to Seek Asylum in Sudan
1 | PAKISTAN In late June, two Christians and one Muslim were sentenced to death on blasphemy charges in Pakistan. The case involved two of them allegedly being involved with blackmail while the other was reportedly recorded having a blasphemous conversation. Following 11 testimonies, an anti-terrorism court delivered the guilty verdict and sentenced the three to the death penalty. They have the opportunity to file an appeal regarding the verdict. Although a Muslim was also convicted in this case, religious minorities are naturally more affected by Pakistan’s biased blasphemy laws than Muslims. That is because, according to the BBC, in 1986 the blasphemy laws were edited to specifically condemn blasphemy against Muhammad with the recommended penalty of a death sentence or a life sentence in prison. Blasphemy laws in Pakistan are greatly misused and manipulated in order to persecute Christians and other
religious minorities, who are often falsely accused. Christians often fall victim to blasphemy accusations from those wishing to settle personal matters and those who want to further discriminate against an already vulnerable minority community. Even for those who are not officially convicted of blasphemy by a court of law, those who are simply accused by others can face a matter of life or death. For example, Christian couple Shahzad and his pregnant wife Shama were accused of allegedly burning pages of the Quran – accusations which were never confirmed. Shortly after the accusations arose, the couple was confronted by a Muslim mob who beat them and subsequently threw them into a brick kiln. Pakistan’s blasphemy laws must be repealed before more religious minorities lose their lives unjustly.
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SEPTEMBER 2016
Two Christians Sentenced to Death on Blasphemy Charges
INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
2 | SUDAN According to a report from Human Rights Watch, 442 Eritreans were deported from Sudan, including six of whom were registered refugees. This violates international law which requires that asylum seekers must have their applications reviewed prior to deportation. Furthermore, it also bans countries from deporting asylum seekers to places where they would be met with the imminent threat of violence, whether religiously motivated or not. Eritrea, commonly referred to as the “North Korea of Africa,” certainly poses that kind of threat. Those who flee Eritrea and are forced to return could face forced labor and, in some cases, torture and imprisonment. In addition, the refugee branch of the United Nations (UNHCR) has been denied access to the groups of refugees facing deportation on numerous occasions. Those seeking to flee Eritrea often face persecution that is equally severe in Sudan. Open Doors, a persecution watchdog group, ranked Sudan as the eighth worst persecutor of Christians on its annual World Watch List. Led by President Omar al-Bashir (pictured), the Sudanese government holds a tight grip on religious rights and the freedom of expression. Within the past few years, numerous Christian leaders in Sudan have been arbitrarily imprisoned solely because they profess Christ as their Savior.
Life-Threatening Conditions for Those Displaced by Boko Haram 3 | NIGERIA Within one month, 200 people died as a result of disease and malnutrition in a single Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp in Nigeria according to Doctors Without Borders. Many of those living in the IDP camps were people who were displaced because of the Islamic radical group Boko Haram, one of the worst persecutors of Christians worldwide. The medical organization described the situation in the camps as a “catastrophic humanitarian emergency.”
Pastor Beaten by Police Officer During Service
4 | PAKISTAN In June, a pastor living in Lahore, Pakistan was beaten by a police officer following a noise complaint from a Muslim neighbor about the church’s worship service. The officer began verbally abusing the church members, demanding that the service cease, when the pastor asked the officer to stop disturbing the service. The officer then began to violently beat the pastor in front of the congregation. This is yet another example of Christians being treated as secondclass citizens in Pakistan.
Concerns over Proposal to Expand Sharia Law
5 | MALAYSIA For many years, Malaysia has been respected for being a primarily Muslim country that is tolerant of minority religions, including Christianity. However, recent developments including the growth of Islam and expansion of Sharia law have many Christians worried. Most notably, the Malaysian Islamic Party is seeking to enact a policy that would implement Sharia punishments for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. These restrictions would pose unjust consequences to the approximate 40% of non-Muslims in Malaysia.
Disproportionate Number of Christian Refugees Accepted into the US
6 | USA According to a recent report from the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), the United States accepted a significantly disproportionate number of Christian refugees from the Middle East in spite of the ongoing terror they face. Between mid-June and the beginning of 2016, only 28 Christians were accepted into the US from Syria. The report also indicated that although approximately ten percent of the Syrian population professes Christianity, less than two percent of those welcomed into the US in 2015 were Christians. This disproportionate acceptance of Christian refugees counters logic as Christians in the region have faced some of the worst persecution in years, prompting many governing bodies around the world to declare the actions of ISIS as “genocide.” The American government must do more to offer protection to this shrinking community.
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Your Dollar$ at Work Food Packages to Al-Shabaab Victims’ Families
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Community Rebuild
magine what it’s like to live every day grieving for your lost son or daughter, traumatized with the knowledge that his or her life was cut short brutally at the hands of murderous persecutors. That’s what 148 parents continue to suffer through each day after five gunmen from the militant Islamist terror group al-Shabaab stormed Garissa University in northeast Kenya in April 2015, murdering nearly 150 people. Most of the dead are Christian students, killed execution style because they stood for Christ or failed to recite verses from the Quran at gunpoint. This has become al-Shabaab’s calling card: separate Christians from Muslims, slaughter believers, and let Muslims go free. Garissa represents Kenya’s worst persecution attack to date and broken families still carry the burden brought on by persecution and grief they will bear for the rest of their lives. ICC has stepped in to offer solidarity with these suffering brothers and sisters. In June, we visited four of the families, including an attack survivor. We listened to their gutwrenching stories, prayed with them and offered encouragement. In the end, we can’t relieve their pain but we provided each one of these four families with food packages for one month so that they may know and feel the love of Christ as we are all in the same Body. Unfortunately, the victims’ families are scattered all over Kenya. We continue to identify and locate the families affected by this tragedy to reach out with emotional, spiritual, and practical help as Jesus calls us to “remember those who are mistreated since you are also in the Body” (Hebrews 13:3 ESV). Please continue to pray for these bereaved families as they seek comfort from above to mend the unending wounds that persecution leaves behind. Please join with us as one Church united globally to weep with those who are weeping in Kenya.
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SEPTEMBER 2016
Clean Drinking Trauma Water Counseling
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Hand of Hope
fter a Christian young man in Pakistan faced blasphemy accusations during the summer of 2015, 20 local families were forced to flee their homes. The conflict arose when local Muslims tried to coerce Christians to convert to Islam in order to obtain water from the mosque water tap. Unfortunately, the water from this tap at the mosque was the only source of clean drinking water in the village. In order to assist the families in need and avoid future disputes, ICC paid for a water tank and filtration unit for the man accused of blasphemy. With the help of donors, ICC also purchased water coolers for each of the 20 families in need. This will hopefully be a blessing so that this Christian community can finally gain access to clean water without the threat of persecution.
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Suffering Wives and Children
ortheastern Nigeria is home to countless Christians displaced by the continuing violence from the bloody insurgency that Boko Haram continues to wage since 2009. The militant Islamist terrorists have largely targeted Christians, and thousands of affected believers are attempting to pick up the pieces of their lives after witnessing horrendous atrocities. Youth are particularly vulnerable. On our June 2016 trip to Yola, Nigeria, ICC hosted a trauma counseling seminar for 180 youth who have been directly traumatized as a result of these unforgettable experiences. The program lasted two days as the youth heard from experts about trauma coping techniques, shared their testimonies, learned from God’s Word about his goodness through suffering, and thought about their hopes and dreams for the future. Please pray that God would heal the wounds that still deeply affect these hundreds of Christian youth.
Farming Assistance
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Community Rebuild
he hamlets that surround Jol village in Plateau State, central Nigeria have faced destruction three times in the past 15 years. The Christian residents there live in such fear of repeated attacks that they congregate in the central village away from their farms and their homes to sleep at night, before returning to the fields during the day. Radical Islamist Fulani militants continue to ravage central Nigeria with devastating attacks, murdering, pillaging, and wiping whole towns off the map in a continuing crisis that’s burned hot since 2001. Christian communities maintain little defense against these crazed bands of militants armed with assault rifles, machetes, and gasoline, bent towards blood and destruction. Since the government stationed a handful of armed police officers in Jol, the residents are trying to rebuild their lives and they need help. ICC provided 89 families there with fertilizer to help them begin to replant and restart.
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Your Dollar$ at Work
Bibles in Their Language
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Bibles
uring a trip to India in 2014, ICC staff met with and established a partnership with a local ministry. This ministry has been vital in the process of carrying out many of the logistics of on-the-ground assistance projects in India. Due to their involvement with the training and equipping of rural pastors, one of their primary needs is Bibles in the local language. In order to bless this ministry and say thank you for all that they do to help the persecuted Church in India, ICC purchased and donated 260 Bibles in the language of Telugu. Many of these Bibles will go toward those who face discrimination for their faith, including some who cannot afford to purchase a Bible of their own. A representative from this ministry reported that the donation “represents the hope that they can cling on through the Word of God in the form of Bible.”
ISIS Victims Community Rebuild
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herkos is one of the most impoverished slums in Ethiopia’s capital city Addis Ababa. Making a living is so difficult that some of its residents have risked their lives, traversing territory in Libya infested by ISIS fighters, carrying hopes of reaching Europe so that they can find better jobs to support their families. Thirty-three Ethiopian and Eritrean Christian brothers aspired to these greener pastures, but sadly they never reached Europe. In April 2015, ISIS released a grisly video depicting the execution of these Christians, killed because they would not deny their Christian faith. This persecution event has left their families not only suffering the grief of the terrible loss of their sons, husbands, and fathers, but also lacking the income upon which they relied to survive. ICC continues to try and locate and provide basic needs for these families. During a June trip to Ethiopia, ICC provided food packages for two families still grieving their sons.
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SEPTEMBER 2016
Your Dollar$ at Work
Ice Cream Vendor Gets a New Start
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Hand of Hope
n May of 2016, an ice cream vendor from Pakistan named Khaleel was brutally attacked by a mob of approximately 20 people after attempting to sell his products to Muslim women and children. In addition to causing Khaleel injuries to his jaw, the mob damaged his products as well as his bicycle which served
as the means of transportation for his business. In response to this attack, with the help of generous donors, ICC was able to compensate Khaleel for both the physical and monetary damage that he faced. Furthermore, ICC is helping Khaleel to start up a new small business in order to replace his ice cream business and help this family support themselves financially.
Hand of Hope
n March 15, 2015, suicide bombers from the Pakistani Taliban attacked Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in the primarily Christian community of Youhanabad. One year later, during March of 2016, an anniversary ceremony was held to honor the 22 who lost their lives and the many others who were injured during this vicious attack. In commemoration of these twin attacks, ICC provided financial support to each of the two churches who hosted anniversary ceremonies. This support helped provide the basics for the ceremonies, including chairs and tents. One of the ceremonies was attended by more than 6,000 people, including families of the victims, friends, religious leaders and community members. Events like this prove that the impact of an attack of this nature affects a community much larger than just those who were present at the scene of the crime. This simple gesture of solidarity helped to provide comfort to this devastated Christian community by showing them that their brothers and sisters around the world are grieving with them.
Medical Expenses
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n the beginning of 2016, a mob of Hindu radicals attacked a Christian prayer meeting in India. Several Christians were severely injured during the attack, including a 4-yearold girl named Anika (name changed for security). Due to the rush of people in the mob, Anika was trampled and broke her left leg. Due to the family’s already inconsistent income as laborers without a daily income, this
injury also posed a large financial problem. In order to ease their burden, ICC stepped in to cover the medical expenses of Anika’s injury, which would have cost the family several months’ wages. Not only did this help ease their financial burden, but it also provided the family with encouragement. They said, “The assistance also instills the confidence in us to endure through the difficult times as believers.”
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Volunteers
Becoming the Bridge to the Persecuted Church
Spreading the Word
SPECIAL PROJECTS TEAM
AWARENESS TEAM
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n July of 2016, International Christian Concern hosted its first annual conference on the persecuted Church: “The Bridge.” As this was the first event of its kind, ICC was relying on the providence of God in order to pull off this event successfully. Many of these prayers for provision were fulfilled through ICC’s wonderful team of volunteers. In planning a conference of this nature, there are a lot of logistics and daily operations that require many hands willing to help out. Members of ICC’s volunteer program, college students, and pastors from around the country volunteered their time and effort in order to make this event a success. ICC’s Director of Church Relations stated, “It was such a blessing to see so many of our wonderful volunteers helping out at the Bridge. We honestly couldn’t have done it without their hard work and dedication to the persecuted Church.” From helping with set-up to easing the process of registration to assisting with a literature drop on Capitol Hill, these volunteers were always willing to lend a hand to help with whatever was needed. Not only did they help during the conference itself, they came early and stayed late in order to ensure that set-up went smoothly
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and everything was organized at the end of the night. ICC’s Volunteer Coordinator said, “This event would not have been possible without the support of all those who lent their time to help. Seeing so many people working together to bring awareness to Christian persecution was such an encouragement.” One of the greatest blessings about this event was seeing so many people come together for the common cause of helping the persecuted. Volunteers were able to meet face to face and, by doing so, were able to provide one another with encouragement, exchange helpful tips, and make new friends. To those who were involved with making the Bridge a success, we cannot express our gratitude to you enough. Thank you for everything.
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for Me.” – MATTHEW 25:40 (NIV)
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n order to effectively assist the persecuted Church, it is vitally important to make the public aware of the grave situation facing its Christian brothers and sisters. This is the main purpose of ICC’s Awareness volunteer team. By going out into the community and spreading the news about persecution, these volunteers are able to further the ministry of ICC and, most importantly, bring encouragement to those facing persecution with the fact that their stories are being told. Members of ICC’s Awareness team put their talents to good use in a variety of ways. Just a handful of activities that these volunteers are involved in include speaking in churches, distributing promotional materials (pictured), spreading awareness through social media, getting involved with radio ministries, leading Sunday school classes, and translating informational materials. Those who are a part of ICC’s volunteer program are able to serve according to their own schedules and through methods that cater to their own strengths and interests. These types of activities open many doors to conversation that can help raise awareness about persecution and other obstacles facing religious minorities around the world. SEPTEMBER 2016
Looking for a Way to Make a Difference in the World? Join Our Team of Volunteers! For those hoping to make difference on behalf of the persecuted Church, many are not sure how to get started. However, volunteers all over the world are making a difference within their own communities as members of ICC’s five volunteer teams: Advocacy, Awareness, Office, Prayer, and Special Projects. By standing up for the persecuted in countless different ways, ICC’s volunteers have played a crucial role in connecting the global Church by bridging the gap between the persecuted and the Western Church. It only takes one person to make a difference – are you willing to take the call?
United for Justice
Serving Those in Need
One of the most important, yet often unseen, ways to combat persecution is through advocacy. ICC’s advocacy department works with partners in Congress, the White House, and the State Department in order to effect change in favor of religious freedom worldwide. ICC’s Advocacy volunteer team helps support these efforts in a number of ways including promoting petitions, making calls to their government representatives, and reaching out to international embassies. This work that takes place behind the scenes leaves a lasting impact that affects communities of persecuted Christians around the world.
A powerful way for ICC volunteers to get their whole church involved in the persecution ministry is through fundraisers. Numerous ICC volunteers have contributed their time and talents to raise funds that are then given back to the global persecuted Church. This is a tangible way of connecting the Western Church to its persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Volunteers have planned events ranging from benefit concerts to book sales to walking campaigns. This is a great option for volunteers wishing to engage their community as a whole and the options are endless.
Volunteer Teams 1 Advocacy: Fight for justice for the persecuted through petitions, Congress calls, and more.
2 Awareness: Raise your voice through speaking in churches, writing, and social media.
3 Office: Lighten the load of ICC’s staff by helping with administrative assignments. 4 Prayer: Intercede for our brothers and sisters in Christ both individually and as a Church.
5 Special Projects: Volunteer on your own schedule through one-time projects.
Interested in Serving? Apply online at: http://www.persecution.org/how-youcan-help/volunteer/ Or contact: volunteer@persecution.org Or call for more information: (301) 585-5915
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American Christianity
Under Siege Anti-Christian Headlines Seen After the Orlando Pulse Attack Expose the Hatred Toward Christianity and Help to Define the Church’s Predicament.
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By Jeff King, ICC President, and Chad Higgenbottom
une 11, 2016—a night the Orlando emergency response service will never forget. 911 operators were barraged with seemingly endless calls coming from victims of yet another mass shooting. On one line a caller had been shot in the stomach, another was hit in the chest, yet another dropped the phone after connecting, leaving the dispatcher to listen to their dying moans. “Please help…” came the repeated pleas of dying victims at Pulse Night Club. Innocent men and women were targeted because of their sexual orientation. At 2:35 a.m., one 911 dispatcher spoke with a voice far more ominous than the rest. “I wanna let you know, I’m in Orlando and I did the shootings. My name is ‘I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State,’” said Omar Mateen. The next morning, Sunday, the horrors of the previous night’s mass shooting in Orlando were unveiled to the world. Many Christian leaders publicly expressed sympathy and Christian organizations and businesses such as Chick-fil-A immediately set up stands to offer free food to volunteers waiting to donate blood. Trained
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chaplains from the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team also arrived in Orlando the next day to comfort victims of the attack. The killer plainly avowed his allegiance to ISIS and said he carried out the attack in obedience to their call, their vision, and their hatred of homosexuals. Nevertheless, the headlines the next few days were filled with expressions of hatred towards Christians, as they were repeatedly blamed for the hateful attack (see the various headlines we’ve captured in pictures throughout this article).
A Steady Diet of Hate
Who in their right mind would give ISIS a pass and pin the blame for this attack on Christians? Unpacking this question will expose the source of anti-Christian hate in our culture and help place these attacks into a broader context and give Christians a framework to understand and respond to them. This is far from the first time the Church has been falsely charged with guilt for some terrible event or major ill in our society or in history. The early church apologist Tertullian even remarked on this dynamic in the 2nd century, touching on how Christians were blamed for everything in Roman society. “If the Tiber has overflowed its banks, if the Nile
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“I consider the government of the US as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.” – THOMAS JEFFERSON
Anti-Christian Post Attack Quotes “We don’t want your hypocritical prayers. You led the fight against LGBT people. You promote this every day.” – Lesbian author Victoria Brownworth, responding to Mike Huckabee who expressed sympathy for the Orlando victims “The Christian right has introduced 200 Anti-LGBT bills in the last six months and people (are) blaming Islam for this. No.” – ACLU post Orlando shooting
has remained in its bed…your cry immediately is, ‘This is the fault of the Christians!’” These cultural attacks leave most Christians perplexed and confused. They are unable to place them into any larger context. Each new attack is absorbed as a distinct event rather than seen as part of a long-term, growing, antiChristian trend in our society, or as part and parcel of being Christian in a non-Christian culture. Our culture has been fed a steady diet of anti-Christian hate for 30 years from a coalition made up of Hollywood, cultural elites, the press, the LGBTQ community, and the extreme left (see August 2010 and February 2015 editions of Persecution magazine). In a hyper politically correct society, we are seemingly the last culturally acceptable group to spew hate on.
The Straw Man The press regularly creates a Christian straw man when they repeatedly quote fake “Christian” leaders like the notorious Westboro Baptist Church who said, “God sent the shooter (to Orlando)” or Roger Jimenez of Sacramento: “The tragedy is that more of them (homosexuals in Orlando) didn’t die.” These people have nothing to do with any Christianity that you are familiar with or that you have been exposed to. They are beyond fringe and have no connection with biblical Christianity. Yet, since their comments are incendiary and match the worldview of a hostile press, they are frequently quoted. Repeated studies and polls of the press show them to be overwhelmingly secular, leftist, and hostile towards Christianity. Is it any wonder then that the press uses the Westboro group on a regular basis as the voice of Christianity? As a result of this and other anti-Christian
“Hey right wing Christians desperately trying to point out that right wing Muslims are more anti-gay than you are: your guilt is showing!” – CNN anchor and lesbian activist “Always fascinating to watch conservatives who won’t support basic non-discrimination laws bash Islamic fundamentalists for being anti-gay.” – MSNBC’s Sally Kohn “How many people have been driven to hate and act violently towards the LGBT community by ‘conservative Christian’ ideology?” – Wisconsin State Representative Mandela Barnes
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Feature Article
propaganda in the media, much of the culture has been slowly trained to view Christianity through the lens of Westboro and their ilk.
Christianity: Responsible for All of Society’s Ills? It turns out that Christianity is responsible for far more than just the Orlando shooting. Did you know that the Church is also responsible for racism, sexism, crime, climate change, a weak US economy, the strife in the Middle East, and a host of other societal evils?! For example, Elicka Peterson Sparks, a confused criminology professor and author at Appalachian State, has discovered that Christians are to blame for America’s high crime rates! She writes in “The Devil You Know, the Surprising Link Between Conservative Christianity and Crime” that Christians are to blame for America’s high crime rates because, as she claims, the Bible gives God’s “blessing” to violence. She may have been biased by her sexual orientation or perhaps she just missed the stunning connection between homosexuality and violence that has been seen in studies for decades. This isn’t violence perpetrated on them by straights, but gay-on-gay violence acted out within relationships. Gay couples are two to three times more likely to perpetrate violence on one another compared to straight couples and a stunning 23% of males report being raped or stalked by partners while 83% of all homosexuals report suffering emotional abuse from their partners. The New York Times, in writing about the suppression of this information in an article in 2000, quoted a gay clinic coordinator. “People feel, ‘Why should we air our dirty laundry? People feel so negatively about us already, the last thing we should do is contribute to negative stereotypes of us.” At the most recent White Privilege Conference held annually in Philadelphia, Christianity was blamed for nearly everything wrong in the world by Paul Kivel in his keynote address. Sexism, racism, climate change, a weak economy, the strife in the Middle East, and other evils are indeed the sinister plots of “Christian hegemony.” His viewpoint, while ridiculous, is held by many on the extreme left. He and they are not alone in holding these extreme and hateful views.
Hatred Studied, Dissected Two sociology professors, David Williamson and George Yancey, did exten-
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Sociologists George Yancey (above) and David Williamson, in an extensive, national, and ground-breaking study, dissected the hatred of Christians within 1/3 of American society. The study led to their book, “So Many Christians, So Few Lions, Is There Christianophobia in the United States?”
Quotes from George Yancey and “So Many Christians, So Few Lions” 2 Quotes from Those Surveyed
“(Christians) pollute good air…. Their only purpose is to damage and inflict their fundamentalist virus onto everyone they come in contact with,” said a man with a Masters. “They should be eradicated without hesitation or remorse. I want them all to die in a fire,” said a young man with a Ph.D.
Quotes from George Yancey
“Because religion is vital to a free and well-ordered society, our goal is to expose and document this growing hostility to help Americans confront and reverse it. The hostility is growing in the public arena, government, workplace, schoolhouse from K-12 to higher academia. It is growing in churches & ministries where one might expect it to be safest and it is growing in the military. The growth of hostility is undeniable and it is dangerous.” “My research suggests a certain willingness of Americans to dehumanize conservative Christians. Yet many of these individuals also espouse a desire for religious neutrality.” “(Anti-Christian bigots were) white, male, wealthy, highly educated, politically ‘progressive’ and nonreligious.” “(Some) of those with anti-Christian animosity, clearly supported laws to regulate the actions, especially the political actions of Christians.” “Usually those who don’t like blacks or Muslims admit that they are intolerant but simply try to justify their intolerance. Those with Christianophobia tend to deny that they are intolerant but rather that they are fairly interpreting social reality. Envisioning themselves as fair and free of intolerance allows them to blame those they detest.”
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sive research on the topic of Christianophobia that led to their book, “So Many Christians, So Few Lions: Is There Christianophobia in the United States?” Their findings after an extensive national polling of 3500+ respondents, while disturbing, won’t be surprising to most Christians. • Religious groups experience more hatred than racial groups. • Nearly a third of the country hates, mistrusts, and/or fears conservative Christians to an extensive degree. • This hatred is directed at conservative Christians. • Those that hate Christians (Christianity) are highly educated, white, wealthy, and not highly religious. • They identify as progressives (liberals) who believe that morality is determined by what the individual decides is best for themselves. They despise Christians for intolerance and homophobia. • They show a personal mistrust of conservative Christians and consider them evil. • They fear Christians will take over society and think of them as mindless sheep led by manipulative leaders. • They see Christians as ignorant, intolerant and stupid individuals who are unable to think for themselves. • They see Christians as backward, non-critical thinking, childlike people who dislike science and want to interfere with the lives of everyone else.
• They think Christians are trying to set up a theocracy to force everybody to accept their Christian beliefs. • They see Christians as a powerful, evil force that blocks society from achieving its progressive paradise. • The haters rely on stereotypes every bit as potent as those based on race, ethnicity, sex, or sexual preference. • Their dehumanization of Christians spreads hate and they push societal rules (controls) on conservative Christians. • Those that hate Christians have a disproportionate level of social power.
Oh, the Irony!
The potent irony for a Christian who has experienced this bigotry is that this extreme hate comes from people who define themselves by their tolerance yet are guilty of the worst bigotry. I personally have been told that Christians are dangerous and should be controlled. This is the thinking of Nazis and yet is a core belief of these Christian-haters. Hatred of Christians has led many (the extreme left, Hollywood, radical atheists, and the LGBTQ community) to consider us as persona-non-grata and a threat that must be silenced. These haters have spread their hate into the culture. They have fed the culture a diet of anti-Christian propaganda via movies, newspapers, and books for decades and their hatred has metastasized through the culture. As a result, in spite of living in the birthplace of religious freedom, we are continually
ICC’s Five Stages of Persecution
#1 Religious group (usually a minority religion) is identified as possessing various “evil” characteristics, is viewed as an undesirable foreign intrusion, or portrayed as “backwards.” Group is gradually defamed, typically over a long period of time, until negative stereotypes become deeply entrenched in society.
#2 Negative stereotypes, if left unchecked, lead to acts of discrimination and social ostracizing. Political or religious leaders may use targeted group as a scapegoat for social and economic issues.
#3 Hate speech towards the minority religious group becomes routine and socially acceptable. Individuals may be directly or indirectly encouraged to target symbols or members of the religious group. Blatant acts of persecution begin to take place.
#4 Persecution becomes institutionalized. The State overlooks illegal acts of persecution, fails to prosecute perpetrators, and eventually begins to adopt discriminatory policies and laws.
#5 All-out efforts to suppress or eradicate the religious group begin. In the most extreme cases, such as the Islamic State or North Korea, members of the religious group are stripped of practically all rights, imprisoned, or executed.
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told by those that hate us to get out of the public square and get into the public corner. We are told over and over again to sit down and shut up and most Christians are too willing to comply and dutifully accept the blame for whatever is pinned on us. We line up to go through the public paddle wheel with an appropriately obsequious public face. In 2007, responding to a letter entitled “A Common Word” from Muslim clerics, numerous high-profile Christian leaders signed onto an apology letter to the Muslim community for such “transgressions” as the Crusades. The Crusades are certainly not something Christians should be proud of, but most people have no idea that they were a military response to hundreds of years of Muslim jihad that ultimately left millions dead and is still killing thousands today. A more recent example is the “I’m Sorry” campaign by the Marin Foundation, which, despite its praiseworthy motive to promote greater understanding between the Church and the LGBTQ community, apologizes profusely for the Christian Church’s missteps towards the community without offering any truth (the Gospel) for ultimate healing.
Christianity: The Cultural Speed Limit Sign This hatred shouldn’t really be a surprise since a core standard of American culture is, “If it feels good, do it,” and this is in direct conflict with Christianity. Religious freedom, and more specifically, freedom of speech are eroding in the West. This is a clear trend that cannot be ignored, but most Christians fail to see the trend or understand the probable future trajectory. We seem to be the proverbial frog in the kettle. Our culture has gone down the slide of moral decay in the last thirty years at a dizzying pace. Some call this progress, but most Christians would see it as moral
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“There is a heady sense of manhood that comes from advancing from apathy to commitment, from timidity to courage, from passivity to aggressiveness. There is an intoxication that comes from standing up at last.” David T. Dellinger, From Yale to Jail: The Life Story of a Moral Dissenter
“It is hard to talk about a middle ground for something that’s a fundamental right.” Teri Reynolds
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decay. Christianity and the Bible act as a cultural speed limit sign that is in conflict with this cultural juggernaut. That alone sets up Christianity as a target for much of the culture. This is a major part of the reason that Jesus said if we love Him, the world would hate us. Understanding this allows Christians to put attacks on the Church into context and helps us know how to respond to attacks and communicate the message that is the ultimate answer to our cultural ills (the Gospel). Bigots! Jesus told us that there will always be hatred of Christianity and, therefore, Christians. The only thing that will make us palatable to the world is to become like it and no longer lift up the truth. Unfortunately, that’s not an option. Those who resent Christianity and seek to stifle it via the use of political power in our country, whether the layperson, school administrator, judge, or President, are outrageously out of line. Many are attempting to limit our religious freedom into some small, delineated square carved out of the public square. In other words, they have turned religious freedom into freedom to worship. We are free to express ourselves and exercise our freedoms in church, but outside of this we can be harassed and are even starting to be prosecuted. Anyone with this thinking is a despot and should be called out as the worst enemy of democracy. Intolerance of Christians and their rights is intolerable and bigotry defined, even if those espousing anti-Christian hate can’t recognize their own bigotry and intolerance!
Fight!
As Christians, we must stand up to the Christianhaters who erroneously fault us with all the plagues of society and seek to take away our rights and freedoms given to us by the Constitution. We must stand up for the faith when it is attacked righteously and we must seek positions of leadership in society (education, the press) and government. We must also take to the streets and vigorously protest and confront unrighteous laws and judgements so that our rights don’t vanish. George Washington said, “If freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
A Tricky Balance
As we engage in this fight that we can’t escape, we must remember to love others, even if they are our enemies. We need to love a broken world (that means we love broken people) as opposed to just shouting back at them. A false and hidden message in Christian culture is that as Christians our only job is to be meek and gentle. In a word, we need to be nice above all else! This has left us conflicted and impotent in responding to the Christian-haters and we have become the only culturally accepted whipping boy for all of society’s ills because we won’t call out the haters. SEPTEMBER 2016
More Quotes
“Political parties are likely to become potent engines (that will) usurp the reins of government, Destroying the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” George Washington “Dare to do things worthy of imprisonment if you mean to be a consequence.” Juvenal “You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.” Malcolm X Meekness is one of the wonderful qualities of our Savior, but He was also the one who formed a whip and overturned the tables of the money lenders from the temple. He also aggressively confronted the hypocritical and corrupt cultural leaders of society. He called them out and shamed them. He’s also the one coming back to make war on a broken and captured world! Yes, as Christians we should be nice. We should also be bold in proclaiming the truth and vocal in confronting hatred! Holding these qualities in tension is too tricky a balance for most Christians. In the face of continual attacks, we are conflicted and paralyzed and always ready for a public beating or a turn in the stocks in the cultural town square.
Counter Cultural
Christians need to come to terms with the core of our faith. Christianity is a countercultural force by design. The core message of God and Christianity is that the world and all people are hopelessly broken and on a road to personal and eternal destruction. The Bible shows us that humanity is desperately lost and in need of rescue. Most don’t want to be rescued and that is fine. That
means though that even though we love them, we cannot stop declaring the truth that they need to be rescued and that Jesus is here to rescue them. We cannot compromise biblical standards or truths to seek acceptance from the world. Christians who follow the Bible stand as a speed limit sign to part of the culture that is insanely careening down the cultural, moral slide towards an extremely painful national spanking from God. Those who wish to live without restraint will hate anything that threatens this desired life.
Warning!
Religious liberty in our country was NEVER to be confined to private worship or to only be exercised within the walls of a church building. It includes the right to speech, thought, assembly, and conscience and these rights were always designed to be exercised in the public square. If we fail to fight and protect our right to speak in the public square, our opportunity to glorify God through the practice of our faith and ministry may be decimated by leaders that hate Christianity and sadly, we may live out Washington’s warning and be led like sheep to the slaughter.
“The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.” – Thomas Jefferson “[Political parties] are likely to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” – George Washington “The Founding Fathers passed the First Amendment to protect churches from government interference-they never intended to construct a wall of hostility between government and the concept of religious belief itself.” – Ronald Reagan “In this land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the laws.” – George Washington “Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one.” ~Chinese Proverb “Ordinarily, a person leaving a courtroom with a conviction would wear a somber face. But I left with a smile. I knew that I was a convicted criminal, but I was proud of my crime.” – Martin Luther King, Jr., “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” – Martin Luther King Jr. “If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.” – Louis D. Brandeis “We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
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The Bridge 2016
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Feature Article
Revive-Build-Connect
The Bridge The Annual Conference on the Persecuted Church By Jeff King, ICC President
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The Bridge attendees gather in the main lobby between keynote addresses. In its inaugural year, 300+ people attended The Bridge.
his summer, an Arab who used to be a terrorist linked arms with an American pastor, a three-star US general, a Middle Eastern evangelist, a Muslim surgeon, and a Jewish politician to cross a bridge together. This sounds like an impossibility in this time of racial dissension, religious animosity, and radical terrorism…but it is exactly what happened on July 7, 8, and 9 at ICC’s “The Bridge”
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conference. We brought together politicians, government leaders, pastors, laypeople, and numerous organizations that serve the persecuted to revive, build, and connect the worldwide Church.
To Build A Bridge
We brought them all together to build a bridge to cross the massive gulf dividing the Western Church from the persecuted Church. Separated from the persecuted by time, powerful governments, distance, money, church apathy, and spiritual authorities, we feel it is vital to wake the Western Church to properly serve the persecuted. In light of the historic threat facing Christians in the SEPTEMBER 2016
THE BRIDGE
THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
Congressmen, analysts, and nongovernmental organization leaders prepare to present to a room full of government officials and staff members in the US Capitol Building during The Bridge’s advocacy day.
“It was extremely powerful, I will ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH never be the same. I CONNECTING PASTORS WITH THE PERSECUTED CHURCH was aware of many of the issues, but this drove them home for me.” Middle East and here in North America, we must take down the organizational and societal barriers that separate the Body and work together to fight the historic threat facing the Church in the Middle East and the growing threat within the West.
Not The Smartest?
Brother Rachid, the world’s leading evangelist to Muslims presents a keynote address.
Amnesty International, Hudson Institute, Georgetown’s Religious Freedom Project and ICC at The Bridge’s Capitol Hill day.
In normal times, the strategy of spending a lot of money to gather new and existing donors and expose them to other organizations would seem unorthodox at best. What Christians are facing though in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, and Kenya, is deadly. We are also under a lesser siege at home. Desperate times call for desperate measures so we as an organization will not operate normally. We will take down the barriers that keep different organizations, churches, and political operatives, and government leaders separate. We will do our part to come before the Lord in unity and give our resources to the Body to further the cause of relieving persecution. I have found that when we operate in unity and give away rather than guard and hoard, that the Lord commands a blessing: “Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to” (Deuteronomy 15:10 NIV). For years, I served under the leadership of Paul Eshelman in The JESUS Film. I consistently saw this principle lived out as he gave away resources to serve the cause of advancing Christ around the world. His example moved the whole ship of Campus Crusade for Christ into this same role.
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THE BRIDGE
THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
CONNECTING PASTORS WITH THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
Three Star General Boykin (ret.) spoke to The Bridge with an amazing call to wake up the Church in the US.
Interested in Bridge 2017? Go to www.thepersecutionconference.org to get on the list for more information! This impulse to give away either personally or as an organization is counterintuitive as we are all wired to advance our own cause and steward our resources first. Giving away our resources to help other organizations involved in persecution is the same principle you operate on when you tithe. It is an act of faith and trust, but when you practice it you see the Lord bless you in many unexpected ways. I discussed this principle and Paul Eshelman’s personal example to me with Erick Schenkel, the current leader of The JESUS Film, at The Bridge and he simply
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stated, “You cannot out-give God.”
Life Changing
The result of our work was something truly special. I’ve done persecution work for a long time, especially overseas where the presence of God is a present and palpable reality. Our whole staff felt the same thing as the Body (organizations, politicians, and churches of every stripe) came together in unity to serve the persecuted. His presence was deeply felt. Those attending felt the same and were deeply touched. Many of those attending used
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“It made me realize that no one can ever change without love.” the phrase “life-changing.” One woman whose brothers were killed in the attack on the World Trade Center came to me with tears in her eyes. She told me that she came to The Bridge hating Muslims but the conference deeply changed her - it brought her to a place of forgiveness and gave her a heart to reach Muslims for Christ. We asked other attendees what would keep them away from the conference next year and their response is a fitting ending. “The rapture or my death!”
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THE BRIDGE
THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
CONNECTING PASTORS WITH THE PERSECUTED CHURCH
The Bridge’s Social Media campaign
Jason Upton and band led worship all three days of the conference.
“Deeply affected me to pray even more. Gave me a burden to evangelize to Muslims.” Congressman Gus Bilirakis
Attendees wrote messages of prayer and praise between sessions.
Dr. Ghafouri, a Kurdish doctor who works with ISIS victims, is interviewed.
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Remembering Garissa through Parents’
Eyes
During the funeral of Risper
Risper’s grave marker
Parents of slain Christian students share their pain, suffering and ultimate hope.
A
By Troy Augustine and James Kake
parent’s worst nightmare is to lose their child. No parent can be prepared for this most catastrophic emotional trauma. Tragically, 148 Kenyan families today are still grieving the death of their children, most of them college students cut down in the prime of their lives on April 2, 2015. That’s when five gunmen from Somalibased radical Muslim terror group al-Shabaab stormed Garissa University in northeast Kenya murdering 148 college kids, most of them Christians.
Gut-wrenching Grief
Militants ruthlessly separated followers of Christ from Muslim students. They slaughtered Christians, execution style, when they boldly stood for Christ, or were unable to recite verses from the Quran. “[It was] a shock that will linger around for a long time,” Munoyoki told International Christian Concern (ICC) as he recalled the murder of his daughter, Philomena Kasyoka. “I received a call from my wife in Kenya about the terror attack, [and] that Philomena’s number [was] going unanswered,” he explained. “Grief covered our family and our hopes of finding Philomena alive when we were called to go to Chiromo mortuary.”
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Mary, Risper’s Mother
There, Munoyoki had to identify his daughter’s body. “The emotional turmoil was not helped by how disfigured the body had become,” Philomena’s mother, Beatrice, told ICC. “Philomena was shot at a close range, lying face-down on the ground. She had been shot multiple times in the head and her eyes gouged out. I fainted at the sight of her body.” Munoyoki’s and Beatrice’s heart-rending experience is sadly shared with the other 147 families in Garissa. Mary Mutua lost her daughter, Risper, in the attack. “[It is] a memory that lives forever. [She was] an obedient, hardworking child who loved God and people. Risper was the pride of our family, full of life and with a promising future.”
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“It’s one year after we buried Risper here in this tomb, but she will live in our hearts forever.” – MARY, RISPER’S MOTHER
Philomena’s grave marker
Mwendwa ‘s grave
Risper was killed when an assailant stormed her dorm room. She was one of six students murdered there. “We were woken up by relatives who got the news early enough,” Mary recalled to ICC. “Risper’s number was not going through. Parents were not allowed to travel to the university and so we waited for confirmation from the school. The whole day we were crying to the Lord to keep her safe. Little did we know that she was killed.” Like Munoyoki and Beatrice, Mary relives her worst nightmare as she remembers her lost daughter. Mwendwa Mwandikwa was another of the slain students. His mother still suffers from the trauma so deeply that she could not even speak to ICC when we visited her home in June 2016. Instead, Mwendwa’s twin brother, Julius, spoke for the family. “We grew together as brothers and life has since changed. Tears were flowing down my cheeks while I was carrying his picture, right ahead of his coffin, towards the grave,” Julius said. Tragically, these parents suffer each day as they remember their sons and daughters. It is impossible to make sense of the murder of innocent lives. This is the difficult reality of persecution.
Beatrice, Philomena’s mother
Hope in the Midst of Despair One year after the attack, Philomena’s family struggles to understand why their daughter was killed in such cold blood. “Losing a child, it’s a heavy thing,” Beatrice told ICC. “But glory is to God for His sufficient grace. It has happened and we cannot change it.” Somehow, in God’s sovereignty, he allows such suffering to occur. God is glorified when his people look to him in their most vulnerable weakness, through darkened days, with faith and hope in Christ. As Beatrice alluded, God promises: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV). While grieving parents relive the trauma of their child’s murder every day, they also carry fond memories of those they lost. ICC visited Risper’s grave with her mother, Mary. “It’s one year after we buried Risper here in this tomb,” she said, “but she will live in our hearts forever.” Even though these martyrs’ lives were sadly cut too short, they will ever be remembered and honored for their ultimate sacrifice for the name of Christ.
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The Gospel Unhindered by Human Chains ICC interviews Sudanese pastors who faced the death penalty for their faith in Christ.
P By Troy Augustine
astors Peter Yein Reith and Yat Michael Ruot intimately know the sufferings of Christ. They were threatened with a death sentence in Sudan for bearing His Name and were locked up in a Khartoum prison for nine months on trumped-up charges coming from one of Africa’s most notorious persecutors, the Sudanese government. “Nine months in jail for preaching the Word of God was not only humiliating to us, but also to our families and the church. Imagine sleeping ten people in a small room meant for four people,” Peter told ICC. In February 2014, the same Sudanese government arrested and detained Meriam Ibrahim, a 27-year-old pregnant Christian mother, with her 20-month-old son. She was sentenced to death for apostasy and adultery for marrying a Christian man. Sudan released Meriam in June 2014. Since the 2011 secession of South Sudan, the Sharia-governed north has ramped up pressure on Christians, churches, and pastors in their systematic crusade to fully Islamize Sudan. Security officials regularly arrest pastors arbitrarily, holding them incommunicado, with limited access to family and legal counsel before trying them for capital offenses. Since December 2014, ICC counts at least four pastors, including Peter and Michael, whom the state has persecuted in this way.
Isolated and Alone
Intelligence officials held Peter and Michael for four months before charging them in
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March 2015 with a number of crimes including conspiracy, espionage, and various crimes against the state that could have resulted in their execution. For the first two months, Peter and Michael were not allowed to see their families. “My heart was extremely heavy because my daughter was very sick and I could not take her to the hospital,” Peter said. After their initial two months in captivity, they were blocked from the outside world, except for a couple of brief visits with family. To add to their isolation, they were separated from each other in prison. The only time they could meet was during the designated shower time. Their families were only permitted to see them for fifteen minutes during the night. “Our wives, who always showed up during our case hearings, would cry whenever the judge confirmed that our fate would be the death penalty,” Peter said, “We even distributed our clothes to fellow prisoners because
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we knew we were going to be executed.” “I wondered how we could be released by a Sharia court, but we…prayed to God to change the heart of the judge so that we could be released to go back home and reunite with our families and other Christians,” Michael added. In the end, the two pastors gave up any hope of release.
Redeeming the Time
However, just as the book of Acts tells us that persecution grew the first-century Church, so it does in present-day Sudan. Just like Jesus’ apostles, Peter and Michael remained joyful for being counted worthy to suffer for Christ. Their joy was evident to wardens and prisoners alike. “Some wardens were also abusive and they asked us to deny Jesus Christ so that we could be released. We confidently affirmed that we cannot deny Christ or Christianity,” Peter said. “Fellow prisoners asked me why I was happy and peaceful [when] I was facing a death sentence. I told them that I have a second home in heaven where I will dwell eternally,” Michael told ICC. “We agreed to spend most of our time [praying] for the prisoners facing death sentences and sharing with them the hope we have in Christ Jesus,” Peter said. Peter and Michael prayed fervently and obeyed Jesus’ Great Commission, empowered by the hope that was set before them. “While in jail, we did not stop sharing the Gospel with fellow prisoners, although this was not allowed,” Peter and Michael told ICC. “We could read our Bibles during the day and then share the Gospel at night while the wardens were asleep.” SEPTEMBER 2016
Pastors Peter Yein Reith and Yat Michael Ruot
Incredibly, even while these ministers sat in shackles, the Gospel went forth unchained as it bore fruit inside the prison. “I led one person to Christ who was a Muslim [facing] charges of theft. Samani became a follower of Jesus Christ in jail, but after two weeks, he was executed,” Peter said. “He went to appear for his hearing and never returned. I was shocked, but thanked God that he had accepted Christ in his heart.” Peter and Michael thought themselves on the same path but they used their time in jail to introduce others to Jesus who sets captives free from their chains of sin.
Unexpected Joyful News
Peter and Michael’s court case became the focus of international furor during the summer of 2015. Thanks to global public outcry for justice, Sudan responded to the immense international pressure from religious freedom
advocacy groups like ICC and on August 5, 2015, a Sudanese high court released them from prison after nine months of jail time. Peter and Michael could hardly believe the news. “We were like people who were dreaming. I remember Michael asking me, ‘Peter, are we released, are we really released?’” Peter exclaimed. “It was a joyful experience when we were released in August 2015, after going through an extremely hard time for nine months and appearing 11 times in court,” Michael said. “Tears of joy covered our eyes when we reunited with our families once again.” “God had answered the prayers that we made and the prayers of the Christian Body all over the world,” Peter added.
Power of Prayer
Peter and Michael’s release speaks loudly to the power of prayer and how God uses
Christ’s Body around the world effectively to accomplish His purposes of justice for the sake of the persecuted Church. However, the need for prayer for Sudan is urgent. Christians around the globe continue to rejoice with Peter and Michael for being set free. As long as God’s faithful ministers continue to preach His Word, they will continue to face opposition. Jesus commands us as Christians to rejoice with those who are rejoicing, but we must also remember to weep with those who weep. As Christ promised, His followers will be hated as He was. Peter and Michael’s story reminds us that the problem with persecution is not mostly from Sudan’s government, or from radical Islam, but from forces of evil who hate Jesus and despise the Gospel. We have confidence, however, that in the end, Christ will make all things new and His Word will not fail.
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Feature Article
Bangladesh on the Brink
A pastor stands outside of his rural church. Christians in communities like this are targets of the widespread religious violence in the region.
The Christian community in Bangladesh has responded to these murders in an attitude of grace and supplication.
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riday, July 1, 2016, the world watched in horror as seven Islamic extremists stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery and held the staff and customers hostage at gunpoint. After a standoff that lasted approximately eight hours, the police finally rushed the militants. When the dust settled, over 20 of
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the hostages were found dead, having been hacked and stabbed to death. Bangladeshi citizens are reeling from the bakery attack, which is the worst Islamist attack in Bangladesh’s history. However, it’s not an isolated event and is the culmination of three years of ongoing terrorist attacks. Incredibly, since 2013, Bangladesh has seen 49 attacks, all of which seem to follow a consistent, yet horrifying pattern. Assailants operating in small groups use social media to
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find potential targets and learn their routines. They then drive up on a motorcycle, attack the victim with knives and machetes, and quickly drive away, melting into busy streets. Often, large terrorist organizations, such as ISIS and al-Qaeda claim responsibility for the attacks. Since Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan in 1971, there has been underlying tension between those who want Bangladesh to remain a secular state and those who want it to fall under Islamic rule. Tensions between these two sides re-escalated after the government sentenced a leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, an Islamic political party responsible for carrying out genocide during Bangladesh’s revolution, to life in prison on February 5, 2013. Later that day, a group of secular bloggers led a protest against this verdict, calling for SEPTEMBER 2016
Feature Article
Christians Warned to Take Precautions
Statue of one of the founders of modern Bangladesh – a country of 166 million and less than 1% Christian.
A street in a smaller city in Bangladesh. the death penalty instead. Thousands of people attended the protest, hoping to see justice done. The rally upset Islamic extremists, and they retaliated by murdering Ahmed Rajib Haider, one of the secular bloggers who led the protest, ten days after the rally. Unfortunately, Haider’s murder was only the beginning of the extremists’ reign of terror. For two years following Haider’s death, the terrorists targeted secular bloggers almost exclusively. However, since the end of 2015, the terrorists have broadened their attacks to include gay rights activists, academics, and religious minorities.
Attacks on Christians
On June 5, Sunil Gomes, a 65-year-old Christian shopkeeper, was found inside his grocery shop, hacked to death. This is the
latest murder of a Christian in Bangladesh and is particularly unsettling for the Christian community. According to media reports, a senior police official said, “Family members rushed to the shop when they heard him screaming and found him in a pool of blood. He was taken to a local hospital where the doctors declared him dead.” Gomes’ family was baffled by the attack, stating that the elderly shopkeeper was an innocent man and had no enemies. Jacob (name changed for security), a local Bangladeshi pastor, told International Christian Concern that he believes the attack on Gomes shows that the extremists are now targeting anyone who does not conform to Islam. He stated, “The latest victim of these murders was not in any leadership position – he was just the owner of a small business. Now that the attackers are no longer targeting just Christian leaders, all Christians live in fear of these silent killings.”
The government began conducting mass arrests on June 10 in an effort to put a stop to the killings; by the end of the week, they had captured over 11,000 suspects. Additionally, in order to help keep Christians safe, government officials have given churches some precautionary measures to follow. “We were told to stay inside except for emergencies,” Pastor Jacob told ICC. “The police suggested that we install a closedcircuit camera system in our churches and offices. We have been instructed to immediately call the police if we see any suspicious persons loitering in front of our churches, offices, or houses. We were also told to call if we receive any threats.” They have also been advised to vary their schedules to avoid being targeted, to keep track of all expected visitors, and to not open the door for strangers. Although the recent murders have caused fear among the Christian community, Pastor Jacob told ICC that Christians have lived in an atmosphere of social persecution for years. He stated, “Christians are often insulted, robbed, or abducted for forced marriages – the men as well as the women. Unfortunately, these instances often go unreported because Christians are afraid of incurring further harassment.” Pastor Jonas, who also works in Bangladesh, believes that Islamic extremists are behind the attacks and that the violence may get worse as they try to establish Sharia law in the country. “My personal opinion is that Bangladesh will fall under the control of Muslim extremists soon. The government has shown that it cannot control the extremists, so the situation here is growing worse daily.”
Christians Pray for Peace in Bangladesh In June, over 2,000 Bangladeshi Christians from a wide range of denominations gathered together to pray for their country. During the prayers, Archbishop of Dhaka Patrick D’Roazario implored, “Let us pray that Bangladesh will become a country of unity, peace, and harmony. Let us pray that dormant humanity [will] become aware of the violence… committed in secret.... May Almighty God bless [the terrorists] so that they change their minds.” As we join in prayer with those suffering in Bangladesh, the world is watching to see if Bangladesh will fall to the hands of Islamic extremists or if it will stand up to protect the freedoms that it fought so hard to gain at independence.
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Feature Article
#BringBackOurGirls, Brin
Parents of the one of the Chibok girls taken by Boko Haram in 2014.
ICC travels to northeastern Nigeria to meet with parents of the kidnapped Chibok girls. By Troy Augustine
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H
ow far would you go to rescue your daughter from Islamist kidnappers bent on marrying her off to a jihadi, effectively turning her into a lifelong sex slave? This question haunts Lawan Zana and 208 other families who lost their daughters when militant Islamists from Boko Haram invaded Chibok, Nigeria, on April 14, 2014. The persecutors carried off 276 teenage schoolgirls into captivity and abuses the world cannot begin to imagine. “For the past two years we have been suffering,” Zana told ICC. “The moment we think of the girls, we get totally confused.” Zana serves as secretary for the Chibok parents’ organization. His own daughter remains missing.
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“The whole Chibok people… they are in trauma,” a source close to the parents told ICC. Since the night of the abduction, 57 girls have escaped and one has been rescued. Most of the parents, though, live each day with the torturous uncertainty of the horrors their daughters face daily and they wonder if they will ever be reunited. “I would rather know that she was dead than to live with this uncertainty and to imagine what she is going through,” a Chibok father, Yaga Lawan, told ICC. “I pray every day that God will bring back my daughter. I pray that God Himself will mourn for me and bring back my daughter.” Zana told ICC that 18 parents have died since the kidnapping, mostly due to stressrelated illnesses.
Rescue Attempts
Desperate times call for desperate measures. In the hours that followed the Boko SEPTEMBER 2016
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ng Back Hope Haram attack, livid parents decided to take matters into their own hands, seeking to rescue their daughters before terrorists could carry them away forever. The scene appeared like a dramatic chase scene from the movies. Dozens of parents jumped on motorbikes with homemade firearms and little more than farming tools as weapons, desperately pursuing the men who stole their daughters. The girls dropped hair ties in the woods so that their loved ones could track them. Where soldiers refused to go, loving parents risked everything for their girls, even following Boko Haram fighters into the rugged Sambisa Forest where Boko Haram maintains its hideouts, armed with sophisticated assault rifles and explosives. Eventually, despite their dogged willingness to fight and die for their girls, the parents realized their rescue was impossible. “Your daughters are not more than one kilometer from here,” Sambisa-area villagers told the parents, “But, we advise you – you will not get too far before they kill you.”
Supporting a Community in Need Although Boko Haram’s bloody insurgency displaced all of the families from their homes, they desire to return to Chibok to start clearing vegetation and planting again. ICC is partnering with local contacts in Nigeria to help these parents get back to their farms. We are providing fertilizer and agricultural supplements to each of the surviving families affected. In order to help all of these families we need to raise $20,000. Here’s how you can help:
Hope Renewed
Two years later, hope ebbs and flows with news and rumors. On May 17, 2016, vigilantes rescued Amina Ali Nkeki, the first Chibok girl returned since April 2014, revitalizing the parents’ hope. “We didn’t even expect that we would even find one,” Zana told ICC. He also said Amina reported that all but six of the girls remain alive. “All the parents are joyful! They thank God that their daughters are still alive.” Amina’s rescue has brought about renewed calls for the Nigerian government to redouble the rescue effort. An ICC source close to the parents said, “If God could surprise us by bringing back Amina, he can surprise us by bringing back the rest. We still have hope.”
Top: ICC meets with some of the parents of the
Chibok girls. Above: Amina Ali, left, who is one of the schoolgirls, was found more than two years after her abduction.
Desolation of Chibok Chibok itself remains a chaotic mess. Local contacts told ICC that churches, schools, and government buildings in the region remain closed or demolished. Relative peace has returned to the area, but it’s been uninhabited so long that the land is overgrown with bush. The ghosts of the girls seem to wander in the deserted space and the echoes of their laughter is all that remains.
• $10 provides two jars of herbicide for one family, or corn seedlings for four families. • $100 sponsors the entire farming package for one family. • $250 provides corn seedlings for 50 families, or fertilizer and herbicide for three families. • $500 sponsors an entire farming package for five families. • $1000 sponsors an entire farming package for 10 families. Please prayerfully consider supporting these brothers and sisters in their deepest time of need. Please mark your gifts as intended for “Nigeria Girls.”
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The Journey from Chaos to Christ In the wake of radical Islamic terror, hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees have escaped westward. If ever in history there was a time to reach Muslim people with the Gospel, it is now.
A group of people gather at a church in Erbil, Iraq. Many have been displaced by ISIS in this region and have fled to other cities, across borders and into more Christian areas.
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Feature Article
ICC Note: This article is not an endorsement of immigration policies in any way. Our call and our point is to reach Muslims who have come out of the Middle East with the Gospel.
I
By Sandra Elliot
once read that Mao Zedong was the greatest evangelist in the history of China. Tricky though it may be, this makes perfect sense once you think about it. Confucius’ teachings led the Chinese people to be a historically atheistic society. However, when Mao Zedong, the great dictator of China, took control, he taught this nation of unbelievers to worship him. Mao was god. On September 9, 1976, ‘god’ died in China from heart failure. This left an entire nation of worshippers without a being to worship. The Chinese Church and missionaries saw this as a great opportunity to reach the people of China. Now, 40 years later, China is home to one of the greatest underground church movements in Christian history. But what about today? As the Christian Church and the Body of Christ, what is the next great evangelical opportunity in which we should take part? I would argue that the greatest opportunities are usually found in the places of greatest need. Consider the Muslim world, a place where the harvest is plenty but the workers are truly few. The Middle East is ravaged by jihad and soaked in blood. Parts of it are almost impenetrable in terms of the Great Commission… or so we think. In the wake of radical Islamic terror, hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees have escaped westward. If ever in history there was a time to reach Muslim people with the Gospel, it is now.
An Unprecedented Opportunity
“When they arrive from Syria, they are overwhelmed, they are traumatized…they’re very appreciative of any help we can give them… it’s really all about building a relationship.”
While the world argues about immigration laws and national security, we must remember that God is at work in a great way. Reports are coming out of Europe of mass baptisms and compelling revival. “I have to say that this is an opportunity that the Lord is giving us,” Anne, an American missionary living in Dresden, Germany, told ICC. When I first spoke with her, 37 refugees had just been baptized at her church. Working with the German social services,
Anne helps assimilate refugees into life in Europe. She began this work after responding to an ad in the paper for someone to host immigrant families. She is now actively involved with refugees from Somalia, Iran, Iraq and Syria. “When they arrive from Syria, they are overwhelmed, they are traumatized,” Anne told ICC, “…they’re very appreciative of any help we can give them…it’s really all about building a relationship.”
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One of her “clients” is Shayma (name changed for security), a single mother who immigrated from Aleppo, Syria, with five of her nine children. If you know anything of Aleppo, it won’t surprise you that Shamya’s youngest son is recovering from shrapnel wounds because of the civil war that has torn through Syria. Shayma first escaped war by moving eastward to neighboring Muslim countries. She assumed refuge would be easily found SEPTEMBER 2016
“When I started to pray to Jesus, I finally found peace...” Top Left:
Muslims prepare to break their fast during Ramadan at the Great Mosque of Damascus (Umayyad Mosque) in Syria.
Top Right: A
church in Turkey readies their neon crosses to shine throughout the night.
Bottom Left: A
tent proclaims the name of Jesus in English and Arabic in the city of Erbil, in northern Iraq.
Bottom Right:
A cross hangs from the mirror of a taxi in Erbil, Iraq.
found Christ because of their own disillusionment with Islam. “They’re seeing bit by bit that their laws and culture are broken,” Anne told ICC. She recalled an evening with two Syrian families who were living in one house. They were incessantly fighting over the lack of space and the set guidelines. “This is why my country is falling apart,” the eldest son told her, “We fight each other too much.” It is crucial for us to remember that these refugees have often suffered the first-hand terrors of ISIS. When asked about disillusionment among refugees, Markus told ICC, “Some are for sure [disillusioned] and they don’t want to have anything to do with Islam as they have seen the fruit of that religion.” Though this may not be the widespread opinion amongst most refugees, it is a growing one. As Islam is a very pious religion, its followers generally believe it is superior to other beliefs. When seeds of doubt are planted in their hearts, the Gospel has its greatest opportunity. “Yes God is against Islam,” Anne explained, “But God is not against Muslim people.”
A Call to Love
amongst her own. The unfortunate reality for Shayma, as it is for many, was total rejection and desertion. Muslim countries operate under Muslim principles, whereas European countries are historically based in Christian law. Refugees notice the distinctions when seeking a place of asylum. Shayma found more respect and hospitality in the foreign West than she did in her familiar East. She found this in friends like Anne. “I have never met an Arab like you,” Shayma once told her, “you are humble and your heart is white.”
The Search for Inner Peace
According to Markus Alajoi, a pastor in Finland, “Muslim refugees just need a
Christian who would help them and answer their questions.” Markus has been approached by refugees who use Google translate to ask him about the Gospel. One such woman from Iran was recently baptized with her son. “When I started to pray to Jesus, I finally found peace,” she later explained, “In my heart, my troubles were not gone but I was peaceful.” In many conversion cases reported in Europe, Muslim background believers have come to know Christ through the personal relationship and guidance of a fellow Christian. Christians like Anne and Markus. In some cases, dreams have been the driving force, others have found Christ through their search for inner peace, and still others have
The Great Commission shows us that God is going to reach every man in every nation. We have an unprecedented opportunity to reach the Syrians, the Iranians, the Iraqis, the Afghanis, and the Pakistanis who are coming to us in droves with the love of Christ. This article isn’t about the politics of immigration or meant to be a pro-immigration piece. We simply believe that we should share the Gospel with those who have reached the West. So, if Mao Zedong was the greatest evangelist in China, think on this: what if ISIS is the greatest evangelist of the Muslim world as one major Middle Eastern Church leader told ICC’s president. Never before have Muslims been so dissatisfied with their own religion, never have they been on our doorstep to hear the truth of Jesus. We must dedicate ourselves like the missionaries in China did. Let’s reach out in love and be bold in our faith so that every tribe and nation may one day worship the Lord of lords and the King of kings.
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I N T E R N AT I O N A L
DAY OF PRAYER for the Persecuted
IDOP 2016 IS COMING!
November 6th (Some will observe Nov. 13th)
ICC’S IDOP 2016 KIT WHAT IS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER (IDOP)? IDOP is a specific time for us to collectively remember our Christian brothers and sisters around the world who suffer persecution, simply for believing in Jesus Christ as Lord. ICC’s IDOP kit has been specifically tailored to meet the needs of pastors, spiritual leaders, and prayer warriors committed to praying for the persecuted Church. The kit includes persecution facts, frequently asked questions about persecution, Scripture about suffering for the name of Christ, practical steps on how the Church in the West can help, and ICC’s latest petition.
Pre-register today to receive ICC’s International Day of Prayer Resource Kit! Our kit will include tools and resources for your church and faith community: • • • • • • • •
Resource Guide Prayer Bulletin Insert Worship and Prayer Powerpoints Sermons Sunday School Lesson Social Media Tools Petition Video
SCHEDULE A SPEAKER Interested in having one of ICC’s experts on Christian persecution speak at your church? Contact us today through the web address below.
Pre-register and Request a Speaker at: info.persecution.org/idop2016 38
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FACTS ON CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION WHAT PERSECUTION IS:
Religious persecution is the mistreatment of an individual or group because of their faith. The levels of persecution can range from acts of hatred, second-class citizenship, job discrimination, and forced conversion, to imprisonment, torture, rape and death.
HOW CHRISTIANS ARE PERSECUTED:
Believers are persecuted by both society and the government, meaning that sometimes persecution is policy (such as detention and prison) and other times it is the cultural norm (such as harassment). Other common practices are property damages, displacement from homes, physical assault, and death.
HARASSMENT
WHERE DOES PERSECUTION OCCUR?
All over the world. From 2006-2009, Christians were persecuted in 130 countries (according to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life). The more extreme cases are found in the 10/40 window.*
*Defined by Christian missionary Luis Bush in the 1990s, referring to countries located between 10 and 40 degrees north of the equator in the eastern hemisphere. These countries deal with the highest level of socioeconomic challenges and least access to the Gospel.
PROPERTY DAMAGE
DISPLACED FROM HOME
PHYSICAL ASSAULT
DETENTION & PRISON
DEATH
1.5 Million Christians lived in Iraq in 2003; today it’s less than 250,000. We are in the middle of a Christian exodus out of the Middle East. TWO MAJOR SOURCES OF MODERN-DAY PERSECUTION: STATE: All across the world, governments are persecuting Christians. Through blasphemy laws, apostasy laws and church crackdowns, governments have effectively outlawed the Gospel. SOCIETY: In many countries (even some that have a Christian majority), there are communities that attack churches, murder pastors, excommunicate converts and abuse Christian women.
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You Can Help Today!
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SEND DONATIONS TO: ICC PO BOX 8056 SILVER SPRING, MD 20907 OR ONLINE AT WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG OR BY PHONE 800-ICC-5441
GIVING TO ICC VIA YOUR WILL Provide now for a future gift to ICC by including a bequest provision in your will or revocable trust. If you would like more information on giving to ICC in this way, please give us a call at 1-800-ICC-5441.
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