Welcome to our 7th carnival of Christians who are writing and praying for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Once again, our hope and prayer is that you are encouraged by these writings and that you will find new friends and tell a few friends to join us.
Let's begin our carnival with a post from Egana's Tapdance who shares with us how singing for the persecuted has empowered her prayer life. This article includes a link to lyrics and a sound recording that I have been prayer-singing for the Christain women and unwanted children of rape in the Darfur conflict area."
Tidbits & Treasures writes about statistics from the China Aid Association that says that 1958 Christians are arrested yearly and Christians are continuing to be persecuted and arrested in China for fear of their corrupting future generations.
Hal from The Great Separation gives us a round up of news having to do with christian persecution ranging from rape, a murder of one man in police custody, to the thousands of arrests in China.
Jill from Home Learnin has written a short post about the blog the kids who went to Vietnam recently with The Voice of the Martyrs.
Lana who writes at The Byzantine Sacred Art Blog submits a post called "Remembering Kosovo's New Martyrs". Orthodox Christian Fathers, Rev. Hariton (Chariton) and Stefan, have joined the multitude of Christian New Martyrs after been abducted, tortured, mutilated and killed by Albanian Muslim KLA in Serbian province of Kosovo.
Cindy from Inspirational Korner shares her post called Pray for the Persecuted that she received from the Voice of the Martyrs newsletter. She hopes to inspire others to get involved with us.
Laura from Pursuing Holiness wrote about Todd Nettleton's excellent live-blogging of the Wear the Crown Conference.
Jan at Counted Worthy shares a post called Christians Who Suffer on the Front Lines and some thoughts she had after attending the Wear the Crown conference last week.
And our final entry comes from Brooks who writes at Jesus Christ, Final Sacrifice concerning what real faith looks like. He gives a look back at Abdul Rahman.
May the Lord Bless you all richly as you persevere for your faith and give you opportunities to bless His name and others. Have a great weekend.
We will return on July 5th with more great information for you!
I think it is wrong to persecute Christians or anyone else. What happens to practitioners of any religion when they choose to practice their faith in their own home is wrong, but that's where it ends.
When missionaries (who are historically responsible for some of the greatest atrocities in history) are persecuted for trying to convert the world to their faith, and/or intrude on others lives in an efort to "save" them or "witness" to them - then they deserve whatever type of reception they get.
But at the same time I also cannot stomach the vomit-inducing hypocrisy of any member of any organized religion - especially Christians - having the unmitigated gall to cry persecution in the same breath that they turn around and persecute gays and lesbians. It's the same thing. Remember love thy neighbor?
Bear in mind, if you want to stop being a target for the ire of others, stop trying to lead by propaganda and conversion and start living by example.
The day you stop persecuting others, may be the same day others stop persecuting you. Until the day when a member of GALA or some other group stands on the corner handing out pamphlets denoucing your church-going, or pickets outside your church telling everyone who goes inside that they are going to hell or tries to convert you to being a homosexual, then you can come cry persecution, but until that day, you reap what you sow.
Religon is personal: Keep it to yourself.
Posted by: Rudicus | July 04, 2006 at 11:44 AM