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AMERICAN CHRISTIANS PLEDGE SOLIDARITY WITH PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT, IRAQ AND SYRIA
Assyrian International News Agency AINA
May 7 2014
By Nina Shea
Fox News
Posted 2014-05-07 18:05 GMT
Orthodox Christian worshippers hold crosses as they take part in the
Eastern and Orthodox Church's Good Friday procession along the Via
Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City (photo: Reuters).On Wednesday, May 7,
history is being made. On behalf of the suffering churches of Egypt,
Iraq and Syria, a broad array of American Christians, with a degree
of unity rarely seen since the Council of Nicaea in 325, have joined
together in a "pledge of solidarity and call to action."
In the "We the People" tradition, the pledge is a grass roots
effort, with input from many sources. It is being released publicly
on Wednesday morning by Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Anna Eshoo
(D-Calif.), but it does not have any particular institutional sponsor
nor a political leader spearheading it.
Over 100 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox leaders have signed on --
from Catholic Cardinal Wuerl, to National Association of Evangelicals'
chair Leith Anderson, to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of
the Episcopal Church, to Secretary General Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe
of the United Methodists, to Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Oshagan
Cholayan.
They include many lay civic society leaders, including Robert George
of Princeton University, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, George Weigel
of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, journalist Kirsten Powers,
George Marlin, chair of Aid to the Church in Need-USA, and Lynne
Hybels of Global Engagement of the Willow Creek Church.
These Christian leaders have come together across faith traditions and
political affiliations in response to the increasingly dire appeals
from Middle Eastern Christians. As Baghdad's Catholic Chaldean
Patriarch Louis Sako recently cried out: "We feel forgotten and
isolated. We sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be
the reaction of Christians in the West? Would they do something then?"
As the pledge recounts:
"While Christians have been leaving the Middle East for many years,
and, in these three countries, members of all communities--including
smaller religious communities and Muslims--suffer from violence
and political turmoil, the Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian Christian
communities, under the additional scourge of intensifying religious
extremism, are experiencing a sudden, massive exodus of their members
from the region."
With the rise of Islamist extremists, this situation has become so
acute that, regarding the Christians, it is not only individuals who
are threatened. The presence of the entire Christian community in
the region of its birth is at stake. The pledge emphasizes:
"Since these communities account for most of the indigenous Christians
in today's Middle East, the continued presence of Christians in the
region where Christianity originated 2,000 years ago is threatened."
The pledge states that Egypt, Iraq and Syria have seen "scores of
churches deliberately destroyed, many clergy and laypeople targeted
for death, kidnapping, intimidation and forcible conversion, and
hundreds of thousands of believers driven from their countries."
Specific patterns of attacks detailed in the pledge include:
Christians, including some clergy, after being identified as such by
their names, identity cards, or some other means, have been beheaded,
shot execution-style or otherwise brutally murdered. Clergy have
also been killed for their peace-making efforts or simply as
personifications of the Christian faith.
Untold numbers of Christians, including bishops, priests, pastors,
and nuns, have been kidnapped and held for ransom.
Young women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and
marry their captors.
In some instances, Christians have been told to convert to Islam or
be killed; some have been forced to pay protection money.
Muslim apostasy and blasphemy codes and standards for dress,
occupation and social behavior are being enforced for Christians,
as well as for Muslims, in some communities.
The assaults continue despite rejection by the majority of Muslims
and condemnation by prominent Muslim voices, such as Jordan's Prince
Ghazi bin Mohammed and Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sistani, as the pledge
is clear in emphasizing.
The American Christian leaders who signed the pledge commit to work
within their congregations and communities to pray, educate and engage
in foreign policy on behalf of these endangered fellow Christians
and the other small religious groups who are similarly vulnerable.
Asking "all people of good will" to join this effort, they also call
on America's elected leaders to act to adopt three specific diplomatic
and foreign and humanitarian aid steps.
While promoting religious freedom is already a key objective of U.S.
foreign policy, as the pledge concludes, "now, new action is
desperately needed by our churches, our government and our civil
society institutions here in the United States, and by all people of
good will to make that objective a reality."
Nina Shea is director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious
Freedom. She is co-author of "Persecuted: The Global Assault on
Christians" (Thomas Nelson 2013).
http://www.aina.org/news/20140507130545.htm
From: Baghdasarian
Assyrian International News Agency AINA
May 7 2014
By Nina Shea
Fox News
Posted 2014-05-07 18:05 GMT
Orthodox Christian worshippers hold crosses as they take part in the
Eastern and Orthodox Church's Good Friday procession along the Via
Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City (photo: Reuters).On Wednesday, May 7,
history is being made. On behalf of the suffering churches of Egypt,
Iraq and Syria, a broad array of American Christians, with a degree
of unity rarely seen since the Council of Nicaea in 325, have joined
together in a "pledge of solidarity and call to action."
In the "We the People" tradition, the pledge is a grass roots
effort, with input from many sources. It is being released publicly
on Wednesday morning by Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and Anna Eshoo
(D-Calif.), but it does not have any particular institutional sponsor
nor a political leader spearheading it.
Over 100 Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox leaders have signed on --
from Catholic Cardinal Wuerl, to National Association of Evangelicals'
chair Leith Anderson, to Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of
the Episcopal Church, to Secretary General Rev. Dr. Susan Henry-Crowe
of the United Methodists, to Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Oshagan
Cholayan.
They include many lay civic society leaders, including Robert George
of Princeton University, Jim Wallis of Sojourners, George Weigel
of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, journalist Kirsten Powers,
George Marlin, chair of Aid to the Church in Need-USA, and Lynne
Hybels of Global Engagement of the Willow Creek Church.
These Christian leaders have come together across faith traditions and
political affiliations in response to the increasingly dire appeals
from Middle Eastern Christians. As Baghdad's Catholic Chaldean
Patriarch Louis Sako recently cried out: "We feel forgotten and
isolated. We sometimes wonder, if they kill us all, what would be
the reaction of Christians in the West? Would they do something then?"
As the pledge recounts:
"While Christians have been leaving the Middle East for many years,
and, in these three countries, members of all communities--including
smaller religious communities and Muslims--suffer from violence
and political turmoil, the Egyptian, Iraqi and Syrian Christian
communities, under the additional scourge of intensifying religious
extremism, are experiencing a sudden, massive exodus of their members
from the region."
With the rise of Islamist extremists, this situation has become so
acute that, regarding the Christians, it is not only individuals who
are threatened. The presence of the entire Christian community in
the region of its birth is at stake. The pledge emphasizes:
"Since these communities account for most of the indigenous Christians
in today's Middle East, the continued presence of Christians in the
region where Christianity originated 2,000 years ago is threatened."
The pledge states that Egypt, Iraq and Syria have seen "scores of
churches deliberately destroyed, many clergy and laypeople targeted
for death, kidnapping, intimidation and forcible conversion, and
hundreds of thousands of believers driven from their countries."
Specific patterns of attacks detailed in the pledge include:
Christians, including some clergy, after being identified as such by
their names, identity cards, or some other means, have been beheaded,
shot execution-style or otherwise brutally murdered. Clergy have
also been killed for their peace-making efforts or simply as
personifications of the Christian faith.
Untold numbers of Christians, including bishops, priests, pastors,
and nuns, have been kidnapped and held for ransom.
Young women have been abducted and forced to convert to Islam and
marry their captors.
In some instances, Christians have been told to convert to Islam or
be killed; some have been forced to pay protection money.
Muslim apostasy and blasphemy codes and standards for dress,
occupation and social behavior are being enforced for Christians,
as well as for Muslims, in some communities.
The assaults continue despite rejection by the majority of Muslims
and condemnation by prominent Muslim voices, such as Jordan's Prince
Ghazi bin Mohammed and Iraq's Grand Ayatollah Sistani, as the pledge
is clear in emphasizing.
The American Christian leaders who signed the pledge commit to work
within their congregations and communities to pray, educate and engage
in foreign policy on behalf of these endangered fellow Christians
and the other small religious groups who are similarly vulnerable.
Asking "all people of good will" to join this effort, they also call
on America's elected leaders to act to adopt three specific diplomatic
and foreign and humanitarian aid steps.
While promoting religious freedom is already a key objective of U.S.
foreign policy, as the pledge concludes, "now, new action is
desperately needed by our churches, our government and our civil
society institutions here in the United States, and by all people of
good will to make that objective a reality."
Nina Shea is director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious
Freedom. She is co-author of "Persecuted: The Global Assault on
Christians" (Thomas Nelson 2013).
http://www.aina.org/news/20140507130545.htm
From: Baghdasarian