Pentecostals and Evangelicals Most Persecuted Group of Christianity
By Julio
Severo
Pentecostals and evangelicals are the most
persecuted branch of Christianity, a new report says.
UCS is a three-year, collaborative global research project
that investigates how Christian communities respond when their religious
freedom is severely violated.
In 2016, Christianity was ranked as the most persecuted
religion in the world. In those same figures, Islamic State (ISIS) murders of
Christians accounted for 30 percent of the persecution. ISIS has committed
genocide against Christians in Syria and Iraq. According to Trump, Obama
founded ISIS.
UCS gives three reasons to account for the
horrific acts committed against believers.
In many countries, evangelicals and
Pentecostals are comparatively recent arrivals and thus have not established
patterns of relating to surrounding populations and governments to the same
degree as churches with decades or centuries of history in a given region.
Evangelicals and Pentecostals are often
perceived to be supported by co-religionists and allies in the West. Especially
Muslims hate the connections evangelicals and Pentecostals have with Christian
groups in the United States.
Evangelicals and Pentecostals tend to
understand evangelism and conversion as verbal, urgent and sometimes dramatic
processes and, consequently, expect and are prepared to endure persecution.
To combat the violence against
Christ-followers, UCS recommends “Churches need to understand their global
responsibility for Christians under persecution and achieve unity across
Christian communities in supporting persecuted minorities. Particular stress
should be placed on building bridges connecting traditional Protestant,
Catholic, and Orthodox churches with evangelical and Pentecostal groups.”
Christians have been historically
persecuted by Islam.
Speaking January 2017 on Vatican Radio,
Massimo Introvigne, Director of the Centre for Studies on New Religions, said
that around half a billion Christians in the world are unable to express their
faith completely freely — with around 90,000 Christians who were killed for
their faith in 2016 alone, which is the equivalent of one Christian being
martyred every six minutes.
In March 2016, the Chaldean Bishop of
Aleppo reported that in just five years of conflict, the Christian population
of Syria has been reduced by two thirds from 1.5 million to just 500,000,
according to a Breitbart report.
Many Syrian Christians were killed by
ISIS, founded
by Hillary Clinton, or by Syrian rebels, funded, armed and trained by the Obama
administration and now by the Trump administration. While the Syrian government
was fighting ISIS, the Obama administration was helping Islamic rebels who were
essentially damaging the Syrian government’s war against ISIS.
Such reality puts the U.S. behind Islamic
persecution of Christians. In fact, according to the 2016 World Watch List, published by Open Doors USA, even
though North Korea is the number one in Christian persecution, the other
countries that ranked highest on such persecution were Syria, Afghanistan and
Iraq.
This is very bad news for the U.S., which
has been militarily interfering in Syria and which invaded and intervened in
Afghanistan and Iraq. The results are obviously appalling, at least for
Christians.
In 2014, Raymond Ibrahim, author of the
bestselling book “Crucified Again,” said in his article “Confirmed:
U.S. Chief Facilitator of Christian Persecution”:
Whenever
the U.S. intervenes in an Islamic nation, Islamists come to power. This is well
demonstrated by the other three nations to which the U.S. brought “democracy” and
where Christian minorities suffer “extreme persecution”:
Afghanistan: The supposedly “moderate” Karzai
government installed by the U.S. upholds many of the draconian laws enforced by
the Taliban—including the apostasy law, fiercely persecuting those who seek to
convert to Christianity—and, in 2011, under U.S. auspices, it
destroyed Afghanistan’s last Christian church.
Iraq: After the U.S. toppled Saddam
Hussein, Christian minorities were savagely attacked and slaughtered, and
dozens of their churches were bombed (see here for graphic
images). Christians have been terrorized
into near-extinction, with well over half of them fleeing Iraq.
Libya: Ever since U.S.-backed,
al-Qaeda-linked terrorists overthrew Qaddafi, Christians—including
Americans—have indeed suffered extreme persecution. Churches
have been bombed; Christians have been tortured
and killed (including for
refusing to convert); and nuns
have been threatened.
Surely
a common theme emerges here: Where the U.S. works to oust secular autocrats,
the quality of life for Christians and other minorities takes a major nosedive.
Under Saddam, Qaddafi, and Assad, Christians and their churches were largely
protected.
Ibrahim then said, “Prominent indicators
confirm that the U.S. is the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians
around the world today.”
During his campaign, Donald Trump said
that the administration of former President George W. Bush lied
about his reasons to invade Iraq. Trump said that he opposed
such invasion. Christians in Iraq took a very heavy toll for Bush’s bad
decision. The Iraqi Christian community, which was over 2 million before the
U.S. invasion, is now less than 400,000.
Under Bush and Obama, while Muslims in
Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq had facilitated immigration to the U.S., Christians
were essentially banned. Oppressors in, victims out. During his campaign, Trump
made many promises to correct this incredible immigratory inconsistency by
favoring Christian victims, not Islamic oppressors. But until far, he has not
fulfilled his promises.
On the contrary, in the
first days of his administration, Trump, through his CIA director, rewarded
Saudi Arabia for fighting Islamic terror, when actually the Saudi dictatorship
is the main sponsor of the global Islamic terrorism.
Saudi Arabia has today more Christian
blood in its hands than any other Muslim nation. Even so, in his planned trip
to Israel this month, Trump intends at the same time to visit Saudi Arabia.
Trump seems to have forgotten the role of Saudi leadership in the global Islamic
terrorism, including that most terrorist Muslims in the
9/11 were Saudi.
The
United States, founded by Christians, more specifically by Protestants, should give priority to persecuted
Christians, including by helping Christian immigrants, especially persecuted by
Muslims, but since some thirty years ago it has been giving priority
to Muslims. The U.S. has protected Saudi Arabia and Islam, not Christians.
For
his visit to Israel this month, I would have two suggestions to Mr. President
Trump: Because Israel has an active military involvement in Syria, encourage
Israel to bomb ISIS bases in Syria and to receive Christian refugees from
Syria. The second suggestion is: Exclude Saudi Arabia and include Armenia, the first officially
Christian nation in the world.
In
this trip, Trump should recognize the Armenian
Genocide, where almost 2 million Christian
Armenians were slaughtered by Turkish Muslims 100 years ago. Such acknowledgment
would send the clear message that the Trump administration is seriously worried
about Islamic persecution of Christians.
While Christians are the most persecuted
religious group on the earth, Muslims are the main persecutors of Christians in
the world. So why has the Trump administration had an excellent relationship with
Saudi Arabia, not Armenia?
With information from Charisma, CBN and
ChristianHeadlines.
Portuguese version of this article: Pentecostais e evangélicos são o
grupo mais perseguido do Cristianismo
Source:
Last Days Watchman
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