Global Persecution

1
Global Persecution
On September 17, 2001, in Pasuruan, Indonesia,
radical Muslims torched 23 Christian homes and 2
churches, including this one. Today 58 Christian
families are homeless.

• Tara Toms, Megan Elmore, Lauren Dally, Molly
  Hoffman

2
Global persecution is on the rise. In the last
10 years, it has soared tremendously. In the past
2 years, 10,000 Christians have been killed in
Indonesia (2).

• Christianity is the worlds largest religion.
  Christians are the most persecuted group (3).
  Why? Everyday people come to know Christ and
  everyday more people profess their faith. The
  more Christians there are professing their faith,
  the more people get persecuted.

3
Why Are Christians Persecuted?

• Human rights are being denied
• Countries want their own identity.
• Difference between Wests view of reality and
  developing countries view of reality.
• Religion is at the center of the world. There
  are many religions and most disagree with each
  other (3).
• Government encourages Christian persecution (6).

4
Denying Human Rights

• More than 200 million people in over 60 nations
  are denied basic human rights.
• Human rights are a countrys internal affair (3).
• Denied property rights, employment rights and
  education rights.
• Restriction on freedom of speech and opinion (6).

• We should work together to help guarantee human
  rights to other Christians.
• Religious rights are a principle building block
  of human rights (3).
• In 1997, the first official report on global
  anti-Christian persecution was issued (p. 2,
  source 1).

5
Denying Human Rights Contd

• Press influences citizens, informs to what is
  going on.
• We need zero-tolerance policies toward the
  persecutors (p.8).
• Most people claim to have a religious identity
  (p. 9).
• Need to stop believers persecution believers
  (p.10-11).
• People starving because of their faith (p. 5).

• Media says Christians bring persecution on
  themselves (p.7).
• Neglecting persecution.
• Different countries have different limits on
  freedom (p. 14).
• Religion shapes culture, culture is different
  within boundaries, cultures have different views.
  Many countries oppose each other (p.11).

6
Countries Want Own Identity

• Countries do not want missionaries to come and
  change their country. Government likes to rule,
  not missionaries to rule.
• Countries that are already strong in religion are
  not about to change-ends in persecution (3).

7
Wests View Different From Other Countries

• View of culture and values are different from
  developing countries.
• West is used to being world-wide as other
  countries do not interfere with others.
• West needs to listen to hear what other countries
  are saying. Need to know what they need and
  desire and their culture (3).

8
Religion Center of World

• 6 billion in the world, only 151 million are
  atheists.
• Religion is relevant to the world.
• Religions disagree with other religions.
  Persecution starts with the conflict in religion
  and in the church (3).

9
Government Encourages Christian Persecution

• Communism govt system
• The radical Islamism govt system
• Islamic Belt (East of Morocco to southern
  Philippines on west) endorse persecution (6).

• Government trains officials to watch for hints,
  then they persecute

10
How Are Christians Persecuted ?
11
Ways in Which Christians Are Persecuted

• Death
• Beaten
• Unemployment
• Rape
• Bombing (6)
• Churches burned
• Prison (7)
• Thrown in a fire
• arrested (8)
• Slavery
• Threatened
• Discrimination
• Robbed (3)

• The recent number of arrests in Saudi Arabia is
  almost like the Nazi time when they tried to
  eliminate all Jews (5).
• In Sudans 17-year-old conflict, 2 million people
  (mostly African Christians and traditional
  believers) perished due to the manipulation of
  foreign food aid (calculated starvation)
  according to the U.S. Agency for International
  Development. (5)

12
Most Persecuted Areas

• Sudan
• Vietnam
• Saudi Arabia
• Afghanistan (also the least reached country)
• China
• Russia
• Comoro Islands

• Yemen
• Iran
• Morocco
• Egypt
• Pakistan
• North Korea
• Maldives
• Libya (2)

13
What We Can Do to Help

• Pray
• Stick together
• Stand up for each other
• Speak for those who cannot speak for themselves
• Encourage other Christians (5)

• Media-radio, tv, magazines, newspapers
• Stop neglecting (8)
• Stop the denial of our brothers and sisters being
  persecuted

14
We need to have faith. Trust the Lord. He will
prevail. Prayer is what the Christians and the
persecutors need. The persecutors are people
that God loves and wants to see come to him.
They are never beyond the reach of Gods grace (6)

• They will persecute us. John 1520 says that we
  persecuted Jesus and that will persecute us also.

15
What are YOU Going to do to About it?

• President Clinton never raised his voice publicly
  to decry the genocide in Sudan and failed to
  rally over allies to press the regime. He ignored
  the strong appeals for U.S. Non-Military
  leadership by the Congressional Black Caucus and
  Congressmen Frank Wolf, Chris Smith, Don Payne,
  Tom Tanciedo, and Senators Sam Brownback, Bill
  Frist and Jesse Helms.

Clinton deferred the request of Nobel Laurate and
Holocaust poet Elie Weasel to meet over U.S.
policies on Sudan,Site of the worlds mosst
long-lasting religious persecution and
genocide.(5)
16
Sources

• 1. Marshall, Paul. Religious Freedom In the
  World A Global Report on Freedom and
  Persecution. Nashville, Tennessee Broadman and
  Holman Publishers, 2000.
• 2. Http//www.opendoorsusa.org/tour.asp
• 3. Http//www.worldevangencal.org/persecanalysis.
  htlm
• 4. Http//www.persecution.com/news/index.ctm/acti
  on-articlenews
• 5. Http//www.persecution.org/news/press2001-09-0
  5.htlm
• 6. Http//www.persecutedchruch.org/know/situation
  /countries/ctm.htlm
• 7. Http//www.teenmania.org/etv/content.ctm/progr
  am-backbonesection-statistics
• 8. Http//www.persecution.net/php.htlm