Praying for the Persecuted

Matthew 5:10-12

           In light of terrible news stories appearing lately, I thought I would share a sermon I  preached several years ago to observe the Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians.  More contemporary illustrations of persecution, sadly, can be found with little effort.  The format is one I used at the time; it should not be hard to follow.

When you hear religious persecution mentioned do you immediately think of the early centuries of Christian history or, maybe, the dark days of the Spanish Inquisition?  If so, consider these observations.

            ---- Some students believe that more Christians have died for their faith in the twentieth century than in all of the previous nineteen.

            ---- According to a New York Times piece from July 27, 1997, the US State Department lists some 78 nations where discrimination and violence against those in the minority religions is widespread.

            ---- While Christians aren't the only targets of persecution, they may well be the most frequent.  Nikki Stephanopolis, spokeswoman for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (and George's mother), has said, "...there has been more persecutions of Christians in this century than anyone else."

           

I.  What shape does this persecution take?

            Jesus mentions two forms persecution might take.  Both can be found in our world.

   1.  Persecution may take the form of physical abuse.

   1:1  The word "persecuted" suggests some type of physical assault.  it may also involve loss of privacy, property, or privileges. 

   ---- Millions of Christians have suffered in the Sudan, China, and the former Eastern bloc countries.  It may help to try to put names to some of those who have suffered physical persecution.

   ---- In India, Christians are often the object of attacks by Hindus.  In October 1989, four members of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a radical Hindu group financed in part by the Hari Krishnas in the US, attacked and beheaded a pastor as he was returning home from church services.  Although India's constitution promises religious freedom, the local police attempted to force the pastor's widow to sign a document dismissing charges against the four men.  The RSS has also burned about forty churches in India.

   ---- The October 12 New York Times reported that Chinese Roman Catholics believe their bishop, Su Zhimin has been secretly imprisoned.  Because the Chinese authorities are concerned about world opinion, it is almost impossible to get truthful reports from the police.  The Baptist press also reports incidents of lay-personss being beaten and sometimes killed by police in remote areas.  Until Hong Kong was returned to China, refugees from the the mainland often told tales of religious oppression.

   ---- Most Islamic countries have official policies forbidding the open practice of Christianity.  Even Egypt, which allows Christians more freedom than most other Arab nations, can behave capriciously toward Christians.  Herbert Schlossberg tells the story of a group of Moroccan Christians who discovered this truth.

"Albajar Barani traveled to Egypt along with a fellow Moroccan Christian in order to attend a training program for Christian workers.  Late one night they were suddenly dragged to the police station along with their two Tunisian roommates.  The four were not allowed to eat or sleep for three days and three nights while they were questioned, and they were beaten numerous times.  The favorite method was to strike them repeatedly on the soles of their feet with stick and then make them run in place on their bruised and swollen feet.

"They spent the next six month in Torah prison in Cairo, under persistent pressure to convert to Islam.  One of the Tunisians were put in a cell with members of the Moslem Brotherhood and could have been killed.  Nobody on the outside knew what had happened to these men for two months.  Then they were able to get word to the outside, and friends began to mount a world wide publicity campaign.  This had many fits and starts, and the men were going downhill with the heat, hunger and thirst of prison life.  for the first two months they could not shave, bathe or brush their teeth.  They had only small quantities of beans and rice to eat.  and this was full of worms and other insects.  There was no furniture;  they slept on the stone floor."

Eventually their case was brought before a judge--nothing changed.  Only after concerted pressure from other countries did the Egyptian government order their release.

2.  Persecution may take the form of psychological abuse.

2:1  One of the Greek words translated as "persecution" comes from a root which suggests narrowness.  The idea seems to be that persecution "puts the squeeze" on those persecuted.  There is pressure to change.

            In China, Christian parents may lose their children if they openly practice their faith or attempt to convert their children to faith in Christ.  The children are "reeducated" to expunge any influence of the gospel.  Parents all over the world love their children.  The Chinese practice reminds me of the Roman persecutors who attempted to force Christians to abandon their faith by threatening their children.

2:2  The very word "persecution" comes from a Latin root which means "to pursue".  Persecution involves harassment,  relentless pressure to abandon the faith.

(ILL)  Israel promises religious freedom to both Christians and Muslims, but ultra-orthodox Jewish groups sometimes harass evangelicals.  In Tiberias an electronics company which employs several Christians has been the target of local trouble-makers.  Although most of the persecution involves psychological pressure, the opposition once set fire to the hotel where the church met.

2:3  Jesus speaks specifically of "insults".  These seem to be words of disrespect hurled at the believers. 

2:31  Another form of psychological abuse is slander.  Norlie's translates the verse, "they keep on telling lies about you." 

   Common charges brought against the early church included cannibalism, immorality, atheism, and treason.

   ---- Christians around the world must face insults and slander.  When totalitarian governments control the media little can be done to combat the lies.

(ILLS)

   A pastor in Jerusalem reports that pictures of his church members are posted around the city.  The posters include names, addresses, and a charge that these people are members of a group similar to the Ku Klux Klan.

   Christians in totalitarian countries are often accused of treason and spying for the United States.

   Donato Lama, a Filipino who worked as a computer programmer in Saudi Arabia, spent two years in prison because police found a picture of him praying.  Imagine trying to live out your faith in a place where a simple act of piety might be grounds for your arrest.

What can we do?

Certainly we can encourage our government to bring economic and diplomatic pressure to bear on nations which allow such human rights to be abused.  But, more importantly, we can pray.

Today is the second annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.  Initiated trough the efforts of Karen Mahaffy, a housewife and mother from Laredo, Texas, the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is intended to focus attention on the plight of all Christians--regardless of denominational affiliation--who live under threat because of their faith.

I'm going to offer several suggestions about how we might pray in the light of the reality of persecution in our world.

1.  Pray that persecuted Christians might remember Jesus' assurances to sufferers.

   --The persecuted are assured that they have an inheritance.  Jesus assures them that they belong to the Kingdom of God, that they are part of a great heritage.  Williams:  "Keep on rejoicing and leaping for ecstasy, for your reward will be rich in heaven;  for this is the way they persecuted the prophets who lived before you."

--The persecuted are assured that they are having an impact.  Nominal Christians seldom face persecution.  Here’s John Stott,  "Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value systems."  The persecuted are making an impact.  Sometimes that influence is greatest during the persecution.

(ILL)  Stories continue to be told of man and women drawn to Christ through the faithfulness of persecuted Christians.  Alexander Solzhenitsyn became a believer through the witness of a doctor who was beaten to death a few hours later. 

2.  Pray that persecuted Christians resist efforts to divide them and turn them against each other.

--Totalitarian governments have been particularly successful in sowing disharmony among Christians.  Polish Baptist leaders admit that they allowed their churches to receive favorable treatmen as the former Communist regime mounted an assalut against Catholics.  The Baptist leaders eventually realized they were being used to drive a wedge between that nation's Christians.

3.  Pray that persecuted churches might be able to do the work of the church in difficult times.

--In many totalitarian countries or nations with official religions other than Christianity the church is tolerated but not allowed to do its important work of evangelism or nuture.

--In Nepal, for example, it is legal to be a Christian but illegal for a Hindu to become a Christian.  Conversion is punishable by a year's imprisonment.  Upon release, the conversion is considered to be invalid;  so the process begins again.  Most Islamic nations have similar laws. 

--Let's pray that churches find the grace to do their work of outreach and nuture.

4.  Pray that the recent advances in religious freedom in formerly totalitarian lands might continue to be enjoyed.

--The collapse of the Soviet Union was accompanied by a flurry or religious activity.  Evangelicals and other church groups were invited to Russia to conduct partnership missions and other outreach ministries.

--They have been so successful that Russian Orthodox leaders, fearful for their traditional role as the established church of the Russian people, have begun to object.  Leaders of the new Russian government see the new forms of Christianity as a threat to national unity.  As a consequence, the Russian Parliament has been considering laws which would make it illegal to convert from Orthodoxy to another form of Christianity.  Since most Russians are de facto members of the Orthodox Church, this would have the effect of nullifying evangelistic efforts. 

[This is yet another demonstration of the danger of a religion, any religion, being too closely allied to the state.  Some in the United States define “the separation of church and state” to suggest religious people—especially Christians—should have no influence in government.  That’s hardly what the founders meant; but neither did they mean the institutions of government such as schools should become the support system for any religious group.]

5.  Pray that Western society might better understand the plight of those persecuted for the faith.

--For a varity of reasons westerners are often ignorant of religious persecution:

   (1)  Organizations devoted to exposing human rights violations are often concerned only with political oppression, not religious oppression.  In fact, the director of one human rights' organization recently complained that the new attention being given to religious persecution might detract from the more important problem of political persecution.

   (2)  The World Council of Churches, and to some degree the National Council of Churches, has ignored the issue of persecution because it makes the Council's love-affair with Marxism seem ill-advised.

   (3)  We don't have a clear picture of non-western cultures.  For example, while we are aware of Muslim opposition to Christianity, our understanding of Hinduism is based on encounters with the mildest practitioners of this religion.  The majority of Hindus are militant defenders of their faith and deny minority religions the most basic or rights. 

6.  Pray that our government would become more vocal in speaking out for religious freedom and doing something about it.

   --A July 23, 1997, editorial in the New York Times (hardly a conservative tabloid) complained that Congress and the President were doing little about the problem of persecution, despite a State Department report on the persecution of Christians.

   --Yet, Madeleine Albright, a woman whose family was victimized by totalitarian government and who is known for her courage, cautions against taking too strong a stand on religious persecution lest it interfere with foreign policy.  

   --The Speaker of the New York City Council recently proposed an ordinance that would forbid the city from doing business with companies doing business with persecuting nations.  Pressure from unions and business leaders in the city led him to withdraw the proposal.

There needs to be a new sense of outrage and courage demonstrated by leaders in both our major political parties.

7.  We need to pray that American Christians would be vigilant in guarding their own religious liberties.

   --There's no sign of physical abuse of Christians in our nation, but I think it can be argued that we are often the object of attacks meant to distort our image.

   (ILLS)

   --Movie critic, Michael Medvid, an orthodox Jew, comments on the way Christians are portrayed in contemporary films: 

   --While we can't expect the schools to carry on our work, we shouldn't be passive when some teachers go too far in trying to shut-out the very existence of an alternative worldview.  Most public school teachers are not as paranoid as the teacher in Decatur, Illinois, who told her first graders to strike the word "God" from their phonics textbooks because it's illegal to mention God in a public school but some radical secularists wouldn't mind all positive mention of God eliminated from our schools.  I wrote the column that was in this past week's Suburban News in response to an article that told of a new elementary school curriculum that taught children that the first Thanksgiving was held to thank the Native Americans.  [While the pilgrims were thankful to the Native Americans, you may be sure their expressions of thanksgiving did not end with acknowledging the help given by the neighbors.]

   --I heard recently of an effort to require pastors to be licensed by the state before they can engage in pastoral counseling.  I believe pastors need preparation for their work, and that they need as much insight as possible in dealing with the problems of church members, but this proposal would be a clear intrusion by the state into the affairs of the church.   [Today I might have added that I believe seminaries should teach prospective pastors to be aware of their limits, to recognize they might face some issues that require more highly-trained counselors be called upon for help.]

When Paul asserted his rights as a Roman citizen to have a hearing before the authorities, he established an important precedent.  As Christians we should have no hesitancy to appeal to the law of the land to protect our rights to worship.  And we need to be bold in defending those laws.

8.  We need to pray that persecuted believers might know a joy that transcends circumstances.

   --The language here suggests that the persecuted can know a profound joy in the midst of their suffering.  cf Acts 5:40-41.

   --Such joy can have a powerful impact on others.  cf Acts 16:25f.

CONCLUSION

In the face of the modern reality of persecution, what can we do?

1.  Speak out on behalf of the persecuted church.

2.  Pray for the persecuted church.