Thursday, October 03, 2013

Why the silence?

"According to a 2011 Pew Forum study, Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world with followers of the faith being actively harassed in 130 countries." - See more at this link.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It is worth comparing and contrasting Terry Mattingly's recent post on this (I have not yet listened to the podcast, or followed the links):

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/getreligion/2013/10/pod-people-deja-vu-on-global-persecution-of-christians/

Mr. Merritt fails to acknowledge the fact that, and extent to which, many are concerned with the varieties of persecution both in the First/'Western'/English-speaking world and (for example) in the Middle East and Africa, the Sub-continent, North Korea, South East Asia, and the so-called "Peoples' Republic of China", without any "fear of being perceived as Islamaphobes or outright racists" (experience and expectation, yes, fear, no).

Mr. Merritt seems to speak about 'the recession' on such a high level of generalization that it is hard to know how to evaluate this as a factor.

Interesting is Mr. Mattingly's indirect quotation from Paul Marshall - in 1997 - about possible lack of interest by some "in violence on the other side of the world that threatened believers in ancient churches that looked nothing like their own suburban megachurches."

One wonders how many fail to acknowledge "believers in ancient churches" as really or equally Christian. Anglicanism has been exceptional among Protestants in recognizing such "ancient churches", yet even various Anglicans have historically treated many as more benighted and superstitious than as fellow believers. My impression is that this has changed considerably, first among Anglicans, and recently more widely among Protestants, with heightened attention to their being persecuted among the results.

Semi-Hookerian