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CHRISTIANS ARE SUFFERING AND DYING FOR CHRIST. WE MUST STAND WITNESS.
Patheos
Sept 24 2014
September 24, 2014 by Rebecca Hamilton
The first genocide of the 20th Century, the "forgotten genocide,"
was the genocide of Armenian Christians.
We must not "forget" again.
Nobody knows.
Nobody sees.
Nobody knows but me.
That is the lament of victims of discrimination and violence throughout
time.
They are trapped in the unimaginable alone experienced by people who
fall into the hands of human monsters. It is impossible to describe
the depth of terror, horror, pain and absolute total and complete
isolation that is part of the shock of being helpless in the hands
of satan's disciples on this earth.
The survivors can't tell of it, not really. Because if they try,
there are no words. Because if they try, they find that they are
speaking to blank walls of incomprehension and denial.
The rest of us don't want to hear these stories because they remind
us of our own deep helplessness. People who have never looked into
the pitiless eyes of satan in another person's face and known that
they were his to do with as he chose, do not want to consider that the
only thing separating them from a similar fate is geography or chance.
There is nothing special about American Christians that we have not
been subjected to the violence that attacks other Christians around
the world. We are not more faithful. We are not more holy. Quite
the opposite. The difference between them and us is a matter of
government. It is not innate in ourselves. The tightening noose of
social discrimination that Christians face here either is a harbinger
of worse to come or not, and that, whether we want to accept it or not,
does depend on us.
We can chose to fight back and not go there. We can boycott the
products of media outlets that defame us. We can speak out about our
faith and defend ourselves.
They can't.
Christians who live in places where killing Christians is always
a question and not an anathema, live their lives under a genocidal
Sword of Damocles.
We can not turn our backs on them and their stories of great suffering
because it upsets us to be reminded that satan walks the earth in
human form. We must not avoid them for fear that satan will come
at us through the rage we feel over their suffering, that standing
witness for them can open a doorway to satan in our own hearts.
People are suffering and dying for Christ, and it is our vocation in
these times to stand witness.
Christians in the Middle East and in much of Africa are suffering
their own Shoah. They are being annihilated and driven from their
homes. They are being kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery.
The satanic barbarity of ISIS, Boko Haram, the Islamic Brotherhood
and al-Qaeda are a testament to what giving your heart to satan and
following him can turn people into. These men who do these things
are fallen, fallen, fallen. They are satan's disciples.
They are fallen, but the Christians they murder are lifted up. They
are martyrs to Our Lord in the same way that Christians have been
martyred for Jesus throughout our history. They are His saints. Every
Christian that ISIS and Boko Haram murders goes to heaven. And each
one of their murderers -- unless they face the horrible reality of
what they have done and repent from the heart -- is destined for
the flames of eternal hell. They will burn there alongside Hitler,
Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Stalin, Osama bin Laden and all their followers.
No matter how they lie to themselves, these things they do are not
of God. They are from the pit.
Our job, dear brothers and sisters, is to stand witness to our fallen
brothers and sisters in Christ. We must tell their stories. We must
lift them and their sacrifice up because they are being lifted up in
the exact way that Our Lord was and for the same reason, so that the
world can see them and be healed by turning to Him.
We need healing desperately in this world, and that healing we need
can only come from one place: The Cross.
When we witness the violent persecution of Christians, we are seeing
a re-enactment of Calvary in our world right in front of our eyes,
today. Every Christian who suffers and dies at the hands of these
satanic human monsters is Christ crucified again in real time in
front of our eyes.
Can you wait with me one hour? Jesus asked Peter, James and John.
Will you run away from me again? He asks us. Will you shout crucify
Him! as they did? Or, will you just walk away and hide your faces
because bearing witness hurts too much?
We must stand witness to these our brothers and sisters in Christ who
are suffering and dying for Him. We must. It is our charge, our call
and duty. It is our vocation before God.
We must write about them and develop a literature for them as the
Jews did for those who died in the Holocaust. Because this is another
holocaust. It is the holocaust of Christians in an entire region of
the world.
Satan's lessor disciples; the ones who make fun of Christian
persecution and who try to bully into silence those of us who must
bear witness, are our small cross. Their carping bits of nastiness
should be meaningless to us. Offer whatever pangs you feel for those
who have died and pray for those who do this, then keep on keeping
on bearing witness to the truth of this martyrdom of a whole people
for their faith in Christ.
It is painful and exhausting to stand witness to atrocity. But we
must do it, and we must do it in the Lord.
Any lessor action would be running away from Him all over again.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2014/09/christians-are-suffering-and-dying-for-christ-we-must-stand-witness/
Patheos
Sept 24 2014
September 24, 2014 by Rebecca Hamilton
The first genocide of the 20th Century, the "forgotten genocide,"
was the genocide of Armenian Christians.
We must not "forget" again.
Nobody knows.
Nobody sees.
Nobody knows but me.
That is the lament of victims of discrimination and violence throughout
time.
They are trapped in the unimaginable alone experienced by people who
fall into the hands of human monsters. It is impossible to describe
the depth of terror, horror, pain and absolute total and complete
isolation that is part of the shock of being helpless in the hands
of satan's disciples on this earth.
The survivors can't tell of it, not really. Because if they try,
there are no words. Because if they try, they find that they are
speaking to blank walls of incomprehension and denial.
The rest of us don't want to hear these stories because they remind
us of our own deep helplessness. People who have never looked into
the pitiless eyes of satan in another person's face and known that
they were his to do with as he chose, do not want to consider that the
only thing separating them from a similar fate is geography or chance.
There is nothing special about American Christians that we have not
been subjected to the violence that attacks other Christians around
the world. We are not more faithful. We are not more holy. Quite
the opposite. The difference between them and us is a matter of
government. It is not innate in ourselves. The tightening noose of
social discrimination that Christians face here either is a harbinger
of worse to come or not, and that, whether we want to accept it or not,
does depend on us.
We can chose to fight back and not go there. We can boycott the
products of media outlets that defame us. We can speak out about our
faith and defend ourselves.
They can't.
Christians who live in places where killing Christians is always
a question and not an anathema, live their lives under a genocidal
Sword of Damocles.
We can not turn our backs on them and their stories of great suffering
because it upsets us to be reminded that satan walks the earth in
human form. We must not avoid them for fear that satan will come
at us through the rage we feel over their suffering, that standing
witness for them can open a doorway to satan in our own hearts.
People are suffering and dying for Christ, and it is our vocation in
these times to stand witness.
Christians in the Middle East and in much of Africa are suffering
their own Shoah. They are being annihilated and driven from their
homes. They are being kidnapped, raped and sold into slavery.
The satanic barbarity of ISIS, Boko Haram, the Islamic Brotherhood
and al-Qaeda are a testament to what giving your heart to satan and
following him can turn people into. These men who do these things
are fallen, fallen, fallen. They are satan's disciples.
They are fallen, but the Christians they murder are lifted up. They
are martyrs to Our Lord in the same way that Christians have been
martyred for Jesus throughout our history. They are His saints. Every
Christian that ISIS and Boko Haram murders goes to heaven. And each
one of their murderers -- unless they face the horrible reality of
what they have done and repent from the heart -- is destined for
the flames of eternal hell. They will burn there alongside Hitler,
Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Stalin, Osama bin Laden and all their followers.
No matter how they lie to themselves, these things they do are not
of God. They are from the pit.
Our job, dear brothers and sisters, is to stand witness to our fallen
brothers and sisters in Christ. We must tell their stories. We must
lift them and their sacrifice up because they are being lifted up in
the exact way that Our Lord was and for the same reason, so that the
world can see them and be healed by turning to Him.
We need healing desperately in this world, and that healing we need
can only come from one place: The Cross.
When we witness the violent persecution of Christians, we are seeing
a re-enactment of Calvary in our world right in front of our eyes,
today. Every Christian who suffers and dies at the hands of these
satanic human monsters is Christ crucified again in real time in
front of our eyes.
Can you wait with me one hour? Jesus asked Peter, James and John.
Will you run away from me again? He asks us. Will you shout crucify
Him! as they did? Or, will you just walk away and hide your faces
because bearing witness hurts too much?
We must stand witness to these our brothers and sisters in Christ who
are suffering and dying for Him. We must. It is our charge, our call
and duty. It is our vocation before God.
We must write about them and develop a literature for them as the
Jews did for those who died in the Holocaust. Because this is another
holocaust. It is the holocaust of Christians in an entire region of
the world.
Satan's lessor disciples; the ones who make fun of Christian
persecution and who try to bully into silence those of us who must
bear witness, are our small cross. Their carping bits of nastiness
should be meaningless to us. Offer whatever pangs you feel for those
who have died and pray for those who do this, then keep on keeping
on bearing witness to the truth of this martyrdom of a whole people
for their faith in Christ.
It is painful and exhausting to stand witness to atrocity. But we
must do it, and we must do it in the Lord.
Any lessor action would be running away from Him all over again.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/publiccatholic/2014/09/christians-are-suffering-and-dying-for-christ-we-must-stand-witness/