{"id":16791,"date":"2013-10-19T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2013-10-19T14:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/?p=16791"},"modified":"2013-10-19T14:59:19","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T20:59:19","slug":"does-christian-persecution-exist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/publiccatholic\/2013\/10\/does-christian-persecution-exist\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Persecution: The Deadly Worldwide Plague"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

What, exactly, causes some groups of people to be so vociferous and ugly in their denial of Christian persecution? What would cause someone to stoop to the level of personal attacks against those who speak of Christian persecution?<\/p>\n

These attacks, which are often slanderous, are crude attempts to silence those who would speak out for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ. Given what is happening, why would anyone do this?<\/p>\n

I had a long talk about this with one of my sons a couple of weeks back, and he said something that I think is more pertinent than we would like to admit. People who do things like this are at one with the persecutors.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

What he meant by this was that those who try to silence people who speak out for persecuted Christians are fellow travelers and enablers of the persecutors themselves. There is nothing new under the sun, and that is especially true when we talk about the great evil of violent persecution of whole groups of people.<\/p>\n

The persecutors could not act without their enforcers in the larger world demanding and coercing the silence of those who would speak against them. Evil, like cockroaches, needs darkness.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Hitler<\/a> set up phony concentration camps<\/a> to show the Red Cross. It is also why the Red Cross and the rest of the world bought it. No one seems to have questioned the rationale behind putting an entire population of people in concentration camps in the first place. Without that compliance, the lie would and could not have stood.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also why I get attacked just about every time I publish a post about the persecution of Christians. Persecutors always have their apologists. They need the darkness of obfuscation to continue their deadly work.<\/p>\n

It is painful to be attacked, but in this case, it is also an honor. I would far rather be the person who gets attacked for taking a stand against the persecution of Christians than the person who does the attacking. They are a sad lot.<\/p>\n

I regard these slurs and jibes as small attacks on me for doing my best to follow Christ. I am a little shy about saying this, because what I am doing by writing posts about Christian persecution is such a small thing that it embarrasses me. But by attacking me for trying, however feebly, to follow Christ, these people are giving me the Kingdom of Heaven.<\/p>\n

So, what I will say to those who go at me personally for trying to speak out about the persecution of Christians is thank you. I forgive you from my heart for your attempts to harm me personally and I pray for you daily.<\/p>\n

However, what I say to them about their support for the persecutors is shame on you. To use a quote from the McCarthy hearings of long ago: Have you no decency?<\/p>\n