Global Persecution of Christianity

Night has come and as darkness slowly sets in, one by one the lights of the house are extinguished as the family retires to sleep. All is quiet and still, until suddenly, shouts and loud noises are heard downstairs where a group of men are battering the door open, cursing and shoving each other out of the way as they ascend the stairs toward the bedrooms. Lights go on, followed by terrified screams as the intruders drag a Christian woman outside and leave as abruptly as they came. Hours later, her bloody, lifeless body is found at the doorstep, a horrifying testimony to all that dare to proclaim Christ as their Savior.

Despite sounding like an excerpt from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, this actually happens all over the world today, as Christians face death, persecution and oppression daily, sacrificing liberty, life, and freedom for the sake of their beliefs. Although this war on Christianity has spread to a global scale, the focal point of persecutions is the Asian and African countries where, for centuries, any dissenters from the accepted state religions were quickly searched out and exterminated mercilessly.

Never before in the history of the Church have so many Christians been persecuted for their beliefs. Worldwide, an estimated 250 million Christians are at risk daily in countries where such incidents occur. "We are not talking about mere discrimination," says Nina Shea, director of the Puebla Program on Religion Freedom, but real persecution torture, enslavement, rape, imprisonment, forcible separation of children from parents.

Although the plight of Christians under persecution has been blatantly ignored by the news media and neglected by human rights organizations and the government, even worse is the fact that, thousands of miles away, in first-world countries, Christians live peacefully, unaware of the struggles their brothers in Christ endure. To them and to the rest of the population, persecution of the Church died out in the Roman Coliseum along with gladiators and centurions. Contrary to the perceptions held by both seculars and Christians alike, most Christians are not white. Christianity was in Africa before Europe, India before England, China before America. Three-fourths of all Christians live outside the West. It may be the largest Third World religion.

Christianity’s two primary enemies in today’s world are the Middle Eastern and African Muslims and the Asian Communists, in whose hands alone, millions of believers, men, women and children, have suffered silently and been martyred for their faith. So intense and widespread is this persecution, that in some countries of West Asia, it has been labeled as genocide as millions are killed; in fact, more Christians have died in the Twentieth Century than in all the previous centuries combined. It began with the mass murders of Christians in Armenia; it is ending with mass murder of Christians in Sudan and China. Then, as now, the world looked away, even as it looked away during the most unspeakable mass murder of all, the Holocaust.

Ever since Abraham dishonored Ishmael and gave his inheritance to his rightful son Isaac, Israelites and Arabians have been at war, both theologically and militarily. Four thousand years have passed and this perennial conflict continues. Some Islamic countries have tolerated other religions, but in others, such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, outright persecutions are carried on not only by the government but also by the people themselves. Because Christians are such a minority in those nations, maintaining their faith becomes a desperate struggle for survival as they are given the choice of either converting to Islam or being deprived of food, clothing and shelter. Thousands of women and children have been sold into slavery to Muslim masters who later force them to convert to Islam while the men which have been left behind are beaten severely then crucified by the army.

Becoming a Muslim is very easy; in fact, it is highly encouraged by constant intimidations and warnings given by both their neighbors and the government. Yet, to become a Christian is to sign a death warrant. Muslims who have the audacity to convert to Christianity face death threats and brutal harassment. In some countries of Africa, the clash between Muslims and Christians has even led to bloody civil wars, costing thousands of innocent lives and eventually involving different ethnic groups and even countries. Foreigners within the country are prohibited from attending religious services in their own embassies. Unsurprisingly, missionaries applying for visas are banned from entering the country. However, many missionaries have been able to start a ministry in Muslim countries by entering as workers, such as teachers, engineers, or lawyers. Even so, spreading the Gospel is a perilous and treacherous matter, due especially to the extremely rigorous laws of Islamic countries, such as the Blasphemy Law, which makes it a capital crime to insult the Prophet Mohammed "by any imputation, innuendo or insinuation." This law has been used repeatedly to justify a reign of terror against Christians.

In Egypt, it is not illegal to be a Christian (if a person were born into a Christian family), but no one can legally become one (Cardinal) . Saudi Arabian citizens must be Muslims, while any expressions of Christianity -- wearing a cross, reading a Bible or uttering a non-Muslim prayer -- are strictly forbidden. The Mutawwa’in, the Saudi religious police, search out hidden church services among the millions of Filipinos, Koreans, Indians and other foreigners who work in the oil fields, sometimes even publicly beheading Christians who are discovered. Faced with this cruel reality, the only option left to Arabian and foreign believers is to leave the country, which, besides being costly and dangerous, means certain death if they ever return.

Meanwhile, in Communist countries, the clash changes from religion against religion to an disproportionate and ghastly battle between state and religion. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Eastern European client states, the surviving Communist countries in Asia noted the churches’ role in fostering the disintegration. Holding on to the Marxist philosophy that "religion is the opium of the people," they set out to totally eradicate Western religions from their nations. China’s state-run press, referring to Christianity, proclaimed, "If China does not want such a scene to be repeated in its land, it must strangle the baby while it is still in the manger."This chilling pronouncement blatantly ignores the fact that Christianity has been strongly rooted in China since the seventh century, surviving even Mao Zedong’s 27 years of fierce oppression which culminated in the Cultural Revolution of 1966-76. During what were probably the largest intense persecutions of Christians in history, countless Christians and other believers were executed.

Many of China’s estimated 80 million Christians still worship in fear (Johnstone 35). Every Sunday, they rise at 3 a.m. and gather at secret worship centers, in the home of evangelists. Chinese police roam the countryside, seeking out these "house churches", as they are labeled. In further retaliation, the government is carrying out a massive ongoing campaign to force the rapidly growing house churches to register with the, due predominantly to the powerful influence Christianity is having on the youth of China. The Chinese government is concerned that religious activity could lead to separatist feeling, especially in Tibet, for example, where authorities tightened restrictions on the practice of Tibetan Buddhism and most of all, Christianity. However, despite the furious oppression they have suffered, the number of Christians grows steadily, surpassing even other religions such as Buddhism and Islam and surprisingly more Chinese join Christian groups than the Communist Party of China.

In addition to the growth of the Chinese house churches, Christianity has also spread in other Communist countries such as South Korea and Indonesia, where some churches have memberships of over 100,000 (The Presbyterian Layman). Even so, persecution is fierce, especially in Indonesia, where in 1995, Communists unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow the government. Refugee Chinese Christians became the scapegoats, resulting in the massacre of thousand of Christians all over Indonesia. Stores, schools and even homes were ransacked and burned to the ground in the ensuing riots which transformed the country to a barbarian state of chaos. Women were raped and mutilated mercilessly in front of their families, then the whole household was brutally shot. All foreign missionaries in the country had to leave the country, fleeing for their very lives and leaving behind years of hard work in the ministry, as their homes and communities were laid to waste.

Despite the terrible onslaught and persecution Asian Christians have endured over the past decades, there are more evangelicals in Asia than in North America. Singapore's churches rank as the most evangelistically active in the world, with one missionary sent out per 1,000 Christians. Seven of the world's ten largest churches are located in Seoul alone, a city in which there was not even a single church 110 years ago. It has been estimated that about 28,000 Chinese become Christians every day in China. If the rate of conversions continues unchanged, all of China will become Christian by the year 2216, or in roughly 118 years (César 24).

After years of persecution and oppression, the martyrs’ outcry has finally been heard by churches and governments in countries such as the United States, where legislation concerning worldwide persecution is being deliberated in Congress (Hastings) One such bill, called "The Freedom from Religious Persecution Act," would create an independent office within the executive branch to monitor religious persecution throughout the world. The director of the proposed office could trigger sanctions on offending countries by banning exports and cutting foreign aid. However, economic interests by American corporations in countries that would be affected by this legislation, such as China, Saudi Arabia, and Sudan, has considerably delayed the bill’s trajectory through Congress. Christianity’s miraculous survival through ages of persecution and torture has been further set to test in today’s world by the Muslims and Communists, whose global war on Christianity has wiped out millions and left countless other scarred for life because they have dared to stand up for their faith in Christ. Nevertheless, Christianity has once again triumphed and is constantly growing, as if persecution were an incentive. Millions have died and millions will die, but the Word of God and His Church will remain steadfast in the face of evil.