Living with the Hope of a Different Life

It's time to pay attention. When women are stolen and forced into marriage, trafficked, raped, or even murdered, it should be hard to walk away and do nothing. When kids disappear for years or for good. When men are tortured, sent to prison for decades or just killed to satisfy the whims of an evil regime, it is time to do something.

Open Doors International is an agency that works with persecuted people in order to restore hope, dignity, and the right to live out a faith which costs many their lives. There are more people killed for these reasons in Nigeria (above) every year than in most other countries combined. 

Two out of every five Christians are facing severe persecution if they live in Asia; one out of five in Africa. The staggering number of people persecuted comes in at 365 Million last year. That's more people than the entire population of the United States.

Don't be lulled into thinking things are rosy in North America! You'd expect things to be bad in Cuba, but Mexico comes in at number 37 in the list of Top 50 Countries where it is most dangerous to be a Christian. Check out the full list here- then participate in helping make a difference.

It's Not a Disney World

In just the last year, there have been: Over 360 million Christians experiencing high levels of persecution and discrimination; It gets worse. 5,898 Christians were killed for their faith; A total of 5, 110 churches and other Christian buildings were attacked. Across the world, 6,175 believers were detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned. Over 3,829 Christians abducted. The full report can be found here.

Walt Disney World this is not.

(From 2022 World Watch List, OpenDoorsUSA)

One Out of Eight

Will you be next? Hatred is a universal condition, and what people do to each other because of it is often extreme and with lasting consequences. No one is immune from the effects. Hard core persecution for spiritual beliefs is very common in the world we live in.  Yesterday morning, Open Doors, a Christian relief organization released its World Watch List for 2020, the 50 Countries Where It's Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus. Yes, China, home of Shanghai Disneyland, is on it at #23. So is the home of the (most likely) next Magic Kingdom, India, at #10.

The list is formed from data researched in two main areas: Violence and Pressure (National Life, Community Life, Family Life, Church Life, and Private Life.) Violence includes murder, rape, imprisonment etc. 

That statistics show an overall increase of 6% from 2019. Here's the current "Top 50":

Jesus himself warned his believers about coming persecution for those who follow after him. The Bible's book of Matthew gives this in detail that even mother and father would turn their children over the be killed and visa versa.

According to this year's report, 260 Million people suffered severe persecution because of their faith- 1 out of 8 believers in Jesus- with almost 3,000 killed, 3,700 wrongfully jailed, and almost 10,000 churches and buildings destroyed. 

Maybe you're not a Christian, and you don't care. But you should. This famous writing by Martin Niemöller - written during the middle of the 1940s- should make you think twice:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

(Data copyright Open Doors.)

Standing Through the Storm: God Is Often Most Visable When Things Are Most Awful

"During the tenth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, many of the people who survived that fateful day were interviewed by the press. One was a man who lost his father to a heart attack as a young boy and outlived an IRA bomb blast in Britain as well as survived violent San Francisco earthquakes. Steve Gill was executive vice-president at Standard Chartered Bank and had just left his office in the World Trade Center for a breakfast meeting when he had to dodge the glass shards raining down from the North Tower after the plane had hit it. He successfully fled the scene on a ferry bound for Staten Island.

As a Christian, he has been repeatedly asked why God spared him but not thousands of innocent mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters. He has no definitive answer. But when reflecting on lessons learned he says, “I saw that God is often most visible when things are most awful, whether it’s Christ on the Cross or the World Trade Center attack killing three thousand people…I don’t know why bad things happen. But I see that God is most present when things are at their worst.”      

There are a number of biblical examples. Perhaps Joseph’s situation stands out most. Languishing in a jail on unjust charges, he is even forgotten by those he befriends and helps. At his lowest point, he is brought to Pharaoh to interpret a dream and becomes the second in command of the nation and saves his people and the Egyptian nation from starvation.

The Persecuted Church also testifies that God is most present in the worst of times. Pastor Wang Ming Dao spent over twenty-three years in prison in China for his faith. On his release at eighty years of age he said of his imprisonment, “That was my honeymoon with Jesus!” 

Muslim background pastor Medhi Dibaj in Iran spent seven years in prison with the last few years isolated in a small cramped cell. On his release he said, “The past few years have been the sweetest years I’ve ever spent with Jesus.”

Liviu Georgescu was a teenager when his father, Costel, was distributing Bibles in Romania during the communist regime. Open Doors asked him what he thought of the time when his father was in prison for his faith. Liviu said, “It was a very good time, because then we had more time and opportunities to give Bibles to people and to talk about the faith. Now there is more freedom, but we have to work harder and put in longer hours in order to get by. This means that we have little time or energy for the faith. There is less interest as well.”

God seems to be most visible when things are at their worst."

(Text copyright Open Doors. Photograph copyright Reuters.)

What's Coming Next?

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

                                  Martin Niemöller

This Lutheran pastor and theologian had the right idea. He was a outspoken vocal critic of Adolph Hitler. Persecuting people has not disappeared with the Holocaust.

Take a look at this new research compiled by Open Doors. It's called the World Watch List 2019. Fascinating stuff.

Sometimes, other numbers help explain what's happening a little better:

Increase in persecution jumped 14% from the 2018 report.

Persecution of Christians is happening all over the world, with extreme persecution (death, imprisonment etc.) happening mostly in North Korea, the Middle East, and Africa. The numbers also take into account violence, church life, national life, community life, family life, and private life.

If you look at the chart, you'll see the West is not immune. Mexico and Columbia make the list as well. What has this looked like in a year? Look below.

Eleven Christians are killed every day

because of what they believe.

For a further look at the report, look here. Or here for a much more detailed report. What's coming next?

Yes, it's very dangerous to be a Christian... but what will you do to change the situation?

(Images from Open Doors.)