Hall of Shame 2007

While here in the USA & in Europe there is plenty of anti-Christian sentiment, we are still fortunate to not face the persecution that Christians do in many other parts of the world. There, if you practice your faith you can expect to be attacked , killed or imprisioned simply because of your faith. International Christian Concern (ICC), as a part of its mission, monitors the level of persecution throughout the world.

ICC has recently released The Hall of Shame 2007 - The World's 10 Worst Persecutors of Christians. This report looks at the 10 countries where Christians are experiencing the worst levels of persecution. As they so sadly point out, this persecution is "almost entirely ignored by the media". This report covers the period from December 2005 to 15 December 2006. While it will be no surprize that 3 of the 10 countries are Communist, 5 others are Islamic.

They divide the persecutions into 2 types, government sanctioned persecution & social/religious persecution (while not actually sanctioned by the government, the government policies tolerate its occurances for the most part). The report issued by the ICC gives the background of each country as well as documenting the persecutions that have occured.

So, what countries made the 1st Hall of Shame?

10. Pakistan

9. Vietnam

8. China

7. Eritrea

6. Iran

5. Somalia

4. Saudi Arabia

3. Ethiopia

2. Iraq

& the holder of the worst record for persecution of Christians in 2006 is (& should be no surprize to anyone):

1. North Korea

There are plenty of things we all can do to try & change this situation. Obviously the 1st & foremost is to pray. As I've pointed out before, prayer has to be the foundation of any efforts by Christians, whether it is fighting abortion, or helping our persecuted brothers & sisters.. Then there are several other things you can do. Get informed, write letters to the editor, elected official, embasies of the offending countries (again, these actions aremuch like the pro-Life efforts we need to be about). For more ideas & a list of who to contact check out ICC's What Can I Do? page.

Scripture tells us that when 1 member of the Body of Christ suffers we all suffer. & it also says that whatsoever we do to the least of our brethren, we do that to Christ. & while there will always be some form of persecution against Christians, that doesn't make us any less obliged to do what we can to help out. The Apostles & Christian martyrs were able to face persecution, imprisonment & death. It was through the prayers & support of other Christians that God worked to strengthen them to endure to the end. No less is expected of us. Someday we may be the ones facing persecution. I would hope that there will be others out there praying for us.