The Persecuted Church. Fridays. Persecution in America

I’ve decided to revive my series of Friday posts on Christian persecution.

I will post this on Fridays for what I think is an obvious reason. Our Lord was murdered on a Friday. He is still being murdered, tortured, raped and unjustly imprisoned today in the guise of his persecuted followers.

Totalitarian regimes seek to control the religious faith of their citizens. Dictators, whether they are fascists or communists, want the church under their thumb. Christianity, in particular, is a threat to dictators.

That’s because Christianity, when it truly seeks to follow Christ, is always revolutionary. Jesus Christ affirmed the worth and the inherent freedom of every human being. As St Paul said, there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Christ Jesus.

The struggle to realize that truth has led through the centuries to the abolishment of slavery, the growing, but far from complete, legal equality of women, and the rise of democratic governments in which ordinary people do not have to fear being taken off the streets by government gestapos.

Christians were not persecuted in America until Trump. At the beginning what we saw was mostly the granting of favors, government money and position, to Trump-worshipping, right wing clergy. This was coupled with a steady rise in attacks on the missions of churches that do not bow before the false MAGA god by removing funding or support for them.

Lately, this has taken a far more brutal and violent turn. There are several examples, most of them in conjunction with ICE. A pastor is Florida was arrested, a homeschooling father in Mississippi was taken, another pastor was taken in Atlanta, a parishioner in Los Angeles was removed from a Catholic Church. Asylum-seeking Christians from Afghanistan were removed from their church.

As I said, Christians are persecuted all around the world. Countries which are majority Muslim often engage in some form of Christian oppression or persecution, including the murder of their Christian citizens.

Iran is no exception.

Since America’s founding, persecuted people, including persecuted Christians have come here, seeking the freedom to practice their faith in peace. This freedom to, as Wesley said, “think and let think” in matters of faith is one of the hallmarks of this country. It is who we have always been.

Until now.

Now, Trump’s ICE gestapo has begun arresting Christian asylum-seekers from other countries, putting them in one of their prisons and then deporting them to God only knows where.

These people are not criminals. They are not here in illegally. They are faithful Christians who refused to give up their faith in Christ in the face of violent persecution in other countries and who have come here legally seeking asylum and the freedom to follow Christ.

One recent example was reported in Christianity Today. A Christian who had fled to this country from Iran was grabbed by ICE at his church. His pastor filmed the “arrest.”

I think it’s fascinating that, without appearing to see the irony of what he was saying, the ICE agent told the pastor that he was “just following orders.”

In this particular instance the ICE agents weren’t as brutal as they’ve been in the films of other arrests I’ve seen. They called the pastor “sir” and they didn’t throw the man to the ground and beat him.

But they are operating as Gestapo, nonetheless. They are Trump’s masked, private police that he is using to go into churches and take people away who are in this country legally. They’ve gone into Catholic Churches and taken people too.

From Christianity Today:

Ara Torosian is an Iranian pastor at Cornerstone West Los Angeles. He leads the church’s Farsi-speaking congregation. He came to the United States as a refugee 15 years ago after being imprisoned for his faith.

On Tuesday, the pastor recorded on his phone as masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested two of his church members on a Los Angeles sidewalk. The Iranian husband and wife had pending asylum cases, according to Torosian. They fled Iran for fear of persecution for being Christians and had been part of his congregation for about a year.

The detentions add to a growing number of church members and Christians seeking religious protection who get picked up by ICE.

“He was undocumented. That was his crime, of course. But I think a man like this deserves a pardon. The president of the United States just pardoned a family that was found guilty of tax evasion,” Nina said, referencing the convicted businessman Paul Walczak.

In May and June, as the administration pushed to meet higher deportation goals, it began to detain more immigrants without criminal histories. According to government data, 65 percent of ICE “book-ins” at detention centers are not criminals. Only 7 percent are convicted of violent offenses.

The Department of Homeland security has said in court filings that it will prioritize deporting even immigrants who have had charges dismissed, and it has ended protections for some Christians facing persecution in their homelands, such as Afghans.

In Los Angeles, Torosian said the Iranian couple from his church called him for help when ICE agents approached them near their home. As he filmed agents binding the hands of the husband, whose name CT is not publishing, the pastor told the agents, “He’s an asylum-seeker.”

“It doesn’t matter,” one agent says in the video.

“He came with CBP One,” Torosian replies, referring to the now-discontinued app that migrants used during the Biden administration to apply to lawfully enter the country.

“It’s no longer valid anymore. That’s why he’s being arrested,” another agent says.

Seconds later, the detained man’s wife collapses to the grass in an apparent panic attack, convulsing and hyperventilating. Torosian moves closer, attempting to comfort her. Agents tell him to keep away or face arrest himself.

The pastor asks if he can go with them or even follow them. “They need me,” he says. An agent says the pastor cannot go with them.

Torosian tells the agents that the couple was persecuted in Iran and fled because of their faith.

The agents don’t respond.

“They came here for freedom, not like this,” Torosian tells the agents. “I know you are doing your job, but shame on you. Shame on this government.”