The Modern Persecution of Christians

The persecution of Christians almost seems an anachronism, hearkening back to the days of pre-Constantine Rome where the evil Emperor would cheerily send a believer to the lions with a quick thumbs up or down.

Today’s religious persecution is more often described as a form or religious ‘intolerance.’ The ACLU, for instance, has made much hay about the ‘stigmatization’ of Muslim groups by the U.S. Government.

But what one rarely hears discussed, at least until it reaches the headlines, is the quiet persecution of Christians in Muslim-majority nations. Sadly, one such example hit the wires yesterday.

According to the AFP, some 500 Christians were slaughtered by members of the Muslim, Fulani ethnic group near Jos, Nigeria. 

"People were attacked with axes, daggers and cutlasses -- many of them children, the aged and pregnant women."

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Surprisingly, the news has sparked relatively little outrage.

The CNN “top” headlines featured tornados in Oklahoma (no surprise there), the Oscars, and inexplicably, the long-dead Natalie Wood.  It also featured a lengthy piece on the Christian missionary who was arrested “on suspicion of kidnapping” Haitian orphans.

If one can draw any conclusion about the persecution of modern Christians from CNN, it is that such persecutions are relatively uninteresting. Apparently, 1 Christian, allegedly kidnapping 20 kids in Haiti, is much more attention grabbing than 500 Christians being slaughtered by Muslims in Nigeria. Even the AFP described the martyrdom as a mere “sectarian slaughter.”

There’s no deep point to be made here other than the obvious. But for a Nation such as ours, where fully 76% of the population pledges fealty to the Christian faith, surely the present-day persecution of Christians deserves more coverage than the Oscars.