Timothy Samuel Shah, Associate Director and Scholar-in-Residence at the Religious Freedom Project, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs at Georgetown University, recently penned an opinion piece about persecuted Christians around the world that appeared on FoxNews.com. The piece explores five "myths" about Christian persecution, and reasons why it is largely ignored in the West, especially by the media.
Most of these victims [of Christian persecution] will continue to be ignored, however, as long as five myths continue to cloud popular thinking about global Christian persecution. Based on an abundance of new evidence, the experts in Rome will show that the myths don't stand up to the facts.
Shaw then goes on to expore the five myths, including the myth that persecution is only a Middle East issue and the myth that Christians actually bring persecution on themselves by their actions and philosophies.
You can read Shaw's piece here.
Do you agree with his positions? Do you feel that the media adaquately and accurately covers stories of Christian persecution? If not, why do you think they don't?
Continue the discussion in the comments section to this post.
I agree that the myths in the article are prevailing myths. The spiritual battle is always waged against the truth with lies: believe a lie; empower the Liar.
There is no denying aggressive persecution of Christians that has been going on around the world in places like Nigeria, Eritrea, Somalia and Ethiopia.
Much like the world standing by while huge numbers of people were slaughtered in Rwanda, and earlier under Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, addressing the wicked oppression of people is something that has to go behind to the philosophies and worldviews that people hold.
It takes courage to stand against wickedness, and concerted, persevering, united prayer to crack the foundations of wicked systems.
Persecution is in the West and building. The media already selectively report and often in a biased way. As one social commenter stated, the concentration camps and gas ovens of Germany weren't decided by the ministers of the military, but were prepared in the classrooms years before.
We have been indoctrinated for decades in the classrooms and media of the West. It's later than most of us think.
May God stir His people to the kind of humble, united, persevering prayer that invites revival of His people.
May America bless God.
Posted by: Ellen | December 11, 2013 at 10:09 PM
I admire those who courageously live faithfully knowing persecution is a possibility. It's much more comfortable to ignore Christian persecution than to try and solve it. Besides praying, I'm not sure what more can be done to alleviate it.
The media disparages Christianity and tries to devalue the benefits of faith. It would be inconsistent for them to spotlight persecution when they subtly encourage it by their dismissive and sometimes hostile attitudes.
Saying a Christian invites persecution is equivalent to saying a woman asked to be raped. Crimes are committed because of a lack of guiding principles or conscience.
There are some truths in the article... there are myths that affect the way I view persecution.
Posted by: SB | December 10, 2013 at 08:50 PM