Modern Martyrs

As you string up Christmas lights next month to celebrate the birth of Christ, think of Pastor Li De Xian. He's been arrested 13 times in six months for "illegal preaching" in his home country of China.¹ Pastor Li was forced to assemble 4,000 Christmas lights per day during one prison term in 2000. When he didn't make quota by the end of his 17-hour workday, he was whipped.²

After two weeks he was released with grave warnings not to preach again. With his family under constant surveillance by the authorities, he says, "I will preach [the gospel] until I die."³
Pastor Li is not an anomaly when it comes to Christian persecution. And China is not the only persecuting country.

The Open Doors ministry publishes a "World Watch List." Based on a point system, the annual report ranks 50 countries that persecute Christians. The ranking considers various aspects, such as religious freedom and the official status of Christians in a country.

Their January 2005 report reveals North Korea as the worst persecutor of Christians in the world, for the third year in a row. Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Laos and Iran follow in order on the list.

Two hundred million people worldwide currently suffer persecution because they are followers of Christ.⁴ That is the equivalent of every passenger who traveled on any U.S. airline between Memorial Day and Labor Day 2005 being murdered.⁵ Around the world, victims are arrested, evicted and attacked because of their faith. They are intimidated, interrogated and imprisoned. They are beaten, burned, beheaded, starved, stoned, raped, knifed and killed.

This summer in Bangladesh, two young men received threats of death if they didn't cease showing the JESUS film, a movie based on the Gospel of Luke. Serving with a health organization, Lipial Marandi, 21, and Tapan Kumar Roy, 27, also showed the film. Two weeks after the threats, in the early hours of July 27, 2005, the accusers entered Marandi and Tapan's house and hacked them to death with machetes.⁶ In a premeditated attack, the murderers padlocked nearby neighborhood doors beforehand, preventing neighbors from coming to the men's rescue when they heard screams.

This isn't the first instance of JESUS film volunteers being killed, nor of the perpetrators remaining free. In Bangladesh in 2003, Hridoy Roy was followed home one evening by seven men, tied to his bedpost and stabbed to death. "These men lived among the people and loved them and cared for them," says Dave Beeler, of Campus Crusade in Asia. "They were well aware of the risks involved yet saw the film's message to be worth that risk."

In Eritrea, pastor and father of four Kidane Weldu is in jail. He is neither charged nor allowed visitors. Weldu is one of 883 Christians in this small East African country jailed for their faith. Many of them—although not Kidane—are held in metal shipping containers. "Sweltering in the daytime and cold at night, the containers have no sanitation. Infectious diseases and diarrhea are common." ⁷

The Eritrean government states that they allow freedom of religion. This is gravely ironic, as the actions toward Kidane and others ⁸ prove the exact opposite. Amnesty International believes Kidane is held prisoner because he exercised his right to freedom of religion.⁹

Various factors contribute to current persecution. "The West's so-called 'War on Terror'[after the 9/11 attacks] continued to be seen in the Muslim world as a 'War on Islam' and is bitterly resented," states a Lausanne Committee paper.¹⁰ "For most Muslims there is no hope of getting the revenge they desire . . . but instead they often have opportunity to attack local Christians in their own countries, the logic being that [indigenous] Christians are co-religionists of the 'Christian West.'"

In North Korea, the Communist government perceives Christianity as one of the greatest threats to its authority and "will arrest not only the suspected dissident but also three generations of her family to root out the bad influence." ¹¹ In Eritrea, the government says evangelicals are unpatriotic and disrupt national unity.¹² Muslims hold an overriding belief that Islam is far superior to all other religions and that Muslims have the exclusive right to political rule.¹³

Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, says that Christians in America today may hear about persecution in the Christian media, but he says the topic doesn't make it to most secular news channels. "There's a great level of ignorance," says Jeff. "When people hear about persecution they say things like, 'I just didn't know.'"

Even when awareness is raised on the issue, there's still apathy within the Christian community. "First of all, [persecution] is big and scary," says Carl Moeller, president of Open Doors, USA. "Our categories of freedom aren't comfortable with this knowledge of persecution. Second, people don't understand that anyone can get involved at any level on behalf of their Christian brothers and sisters. Thirdly, we're a self-centered culture."

Joel Pilcher, vice president of communications for Open Doors, USA, agrees. "It's an uncomfortable message for us," he says. "Often churches, although many may have a focus on missions, are more interested in their immediate needs—like a new parking lot—than sharing the message with their members."

So why does persecution still exist? Whether because of a bitterly perceived, increasingly dominant Western "Christian" culture, or simply because we live in a world rancid with sin, we shouldn't be surprised by it.¹⁴ The Bible mentions persecution 58 times. It's a biblical reality.

A spotlight will shine on this reality on November 13, this year's International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. The annual event, created in 1996 by various ministries and denominations, helps give exposure to the dark subject of persecution.

In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul exhorts believers to see the body of Christ as a unit, even though it's made up of various parts. It's a default pattern to focus on our part of the body, yet God calls us to look beyond ourselves.

Jeff King points to verse 26: "'If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.' If someone smashed your toe, you would scream. If we are a body, part of our body is being crushed. Why are we not crying out?"

You can contact the writer at Angie.Bring@ccci.org.

¹ John Foxe, The New Foxe's Book of Martyrs (Gainesville; Bridge-Logos Publishers; 2001).   ² Ibid.   ³ Ibid.   ⁴ OpenDoors.org, interactive map page, "Remember the Persecuted," Worldmag.org.   ⁵ "Airlines expect 200 million to fly this summer," MSNBC.com, May 25, 2005.   ⁶ Campus Crusade for Christ press release, August 5, 2005, and Janet Parshall's America radio interview with Dave Beeler of Campus Crusade on August 12, 2005.   ⁷ Jeff Sellers, "Dumped into Drums," ChristianityToday.com, July 18, 2005.   ⁸ Ibid.   ⁹ Ibid.   ¹⁰ "Factors Contributing to Persecution," The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, 2004 Occasional Paper.   ¹¹ World Watch List, January 2005.   ¹² Sellers, "Dumped into Drums," op. cit.   ¹³ Lausanne Occasional Paper, op. cit.   ¹⁴ John 15:20,21.

WHAT CAN I DO?
»Get informed. For your home page, choose a website that reports on Christian persecution. Sign up for newsletters that regularly report persecution in the news. Read books like Safely Home by Randy Alcorn.
»Pray. Sunday, November 13, is this year's International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. For information or a free prayer kit, visit www.PersecutedChurch.org or call 1-888-524-2535.
»Get involved. Write your elected officials, sign petitions to increase political pressure on countries that persecute Christians, and speak to your church to raise others' awareness.
»Support. Give financially to organizations that support persecuted Christians and their families.
»Some Online Resources:
International Christian Concern: www.persecution.org
Open Doors: www.opendoors.org
The Voice of the Martyrs: www.persecution.com