The Reality of Christophobia!

Dear Crosswalkers,

There are three big stories that have to do with faith and spirituality in the news. One of them, the sad death of Whitney Houston, we will not deal with here, although I hope to cover it next month in our sermon series. The other two are Christophobia and Lin-sanity! Today we will look at Christophobia. Tomorrow I will share the phenomenon of Lin-sanity!

Last week I read a powerful and shocking account of the persecution of Christians across the globe. I tend to keep my finger on the pulse of this issue, so it wasn't the content that shocked me (although the content is shocking). But that it came from a politically correct mainstream media source such as Newsweek was a real but pleasant surprise. Though the years, Newsweek has been assailed for it's progressive/liberal/secular bias, but in this case, the magazine deserves credit for bringing to light what most of American media has kept in the dark. The article was written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who was born in Somalia into the religion of Islam but is now an avowed atheist. Her reporting of the persecution of Christians however, is spot on. Here is a portion of what she writes:

..A fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.

I highly recommend this article!! You can read the entire story by clicking HERE

After reading this account, how can we not be filled with gratitude to live in a country that was founded on freedom of religion? More to the point, how can we not amp up our prayers for our brothers and sisters living in so many parts of the world who are suffering horribly for the honor of the name of Jesus? Our Lord said this:

“If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first. The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you. Do you remember what I told you? ‘A slave is not greater than the master.’ Since they persecuted me, naturally they will persecute you. And if they had listened to me, they would listen to you. They will do all this to you because of me, for they have rejected the One who sent me." John 15:18-21 (NLT)

Millions of our brothers and sisters are living out the painful reality of our Lord's words. If you want to learn more about the persecuted church, you can click HERE to go to the Voice of the Martyrs website.

Crosswalk's commitment to financially, actively, and physically help those who are not free to express or share their faith has for the past year been focused on the Buddhist nation of Bhutan. I've shared with the some of the stories of the men and women who struggle to live out their faith in that place. Lord willing, Crosswalk will at least partially sponsor another event later this year aimed at training and equipping the Bhutanese pastors to have a fruitful impact for Jesus in their country.

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie