The most persecuted minority in the world

The most persecuted minority in the world July 25, 2016

In America our thoughts are on gun violence, police violence against blacks, wage gaps, gay wedding cakes and transgender bathroom use. Around the world, Christians have other things on their minds.   Not that the issues in our country aren’t important.  True, in some countries a police officer kills a person and gets promoted.  In ours, there is at least public outcry and perhaps prosecution.  And while the trauma of being denied a wedding cake can’t be underestimated, and the groundwork of government limitations on religious liberty can’t be ignored, we aren’t to the point where homosexuals are thrown off buildings or Christians beheaded in the town square.

What is stunning is that this global persecution largely goes unnoticed.  Not that it never gets reported.  Sometimes, unfortunately, you get the impression it is reported insofar as it helps drive home political points.  So more than one Catholic has jumped on the plight of Christians whose displacement comes from the turmoil brought about by our Iraqi invasion.  In most cases, the emphasis is on trashing the US policies that helped get us to this point.  Try bringing up the restrictions placed on Christians in Indonesia, or the ongoing conflict in Nigeria that stretches back decades, and you might be accused of trying to change the subject.

That goes far in maintaining the portrait of a region filled with love and tolerance and openness except for a few terrorists who only hate us because the US made them hate us.  But peel back the layers of our carefully crafted narratives, look across the entire world picture that crosses national and cultural and ethnic boundaries, and the picture becomes a little more complicated.


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