As most of you know, this past Sunday we had the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church, and as a result, a few people have written about it.  The article I want to share with you today mentions the IDOP but also gives some examples of Christian persecution that are taking place in Canada, in ways that you might not normally consider to be Christian persecution.  Click here to read the full article.

Though not often reported in the media, persecution is a daily fact of life for many Christians around the world. Italian journalist, Antonio Socci, in his book, The New Persecuted: Inquiries into Anti-Christian Intolerance in the New Century of Martyrs, estimates that more Christians (about 45 million) were killed in the 20th century than in all previous centuries combined. The estimates are taken from sources such as Oxford’s World Christian Encyclopedia. Many of those murdered died in places like the former Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany. But the slaughter of some 1.5 million Armenian Christians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 must never be forgotten as well.

Persecution does not always involve martyrdom. Christians in different parts of the world are denied justice, discriminated against in their work, are in danger of losing their lives because they have converted, are captured and sold as slaves, and are forbidden to preach the truths of the Bible on penalty of fines or imprisonment. Indeed discrimination and maltreatment have a thousand and one different faces for those believers who find themselves out of favour with certain governments, and local citizens as well.