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| Posted: 19 May 2014 10:01 PM PDT Throughout May, we'll be reposting information and stories from HopeForTurkey.com to guide your prayers as we focus on praying for the Peoples of Turkey this month. Join us in praying for this spiritually dark area of the world, and as you do, be sure to take advantage of the 31-day prayer guide. Eleven years ago a young single man named Metin walked into a book fair with lingering doubts about his relationship with God. He yearned for something more and sensed he wouldn't find the answers in Islam. At the book fair he came across a Christian book table where they were handing out New Testaments for free. It was only the second time in his life that he had even seen a New Testament. He quickly took it along with some videos and other materials and headed home. As he began reading about the Word made flesh in John 1 he was intrigued. He then began visiting a few churches and found himself drawn to both the people and to the content of what he was hearing. Still, Metin was hesitant to openly confess Christ as Lord. Then one day a man simply asked Metin when he was going to become a Christian … READ MORE |
| Christian Persecution Is Unjust Too Posted: 19 May 2014 08:56 AM PDT In a recent article for the Christian Post, Chelsen Vicari points out a group of people who are often the object of gross injustice and even more often overlooked–Christians. Reading that sentence might make you cringe, because even if you agree with it, you know that most people don’t. There’s an unspoken rule in the world of social injustice: don’t make much of suffering Christians. But the reality is, people all over the world are the object of egregious hate crimes and violence because they are Christians. Vicari pointed this out in light of the recent #BringBackOurGirls social media outcry over Boko Haram kidnapping almost 300 Nigerian school girls. “And so the problem,” Vicari points out, “is not that young evangelicals focus heavily on injustices like human trafficking. The problem is that too many only focus on issues like human trafficking, because they are deemed politically correct.” Simply put, everyone is willing to fight against human slavery and sex trafficking (both of which are feared to be possible for the girls kidnapped by Boko Haram). Doing so will even make you look good. But to go to bat for marginalized or mistreated Christians… well that’s just not too trendy. In the words of Vicari, “Unfortunately, young evangelicals (and the broader world) did not take notice of this tragedy because the girls were Christians, but because their captors intend to sell them into human trafficking. Something is very wrong with this ‘social justice’ scenario.” Here is an extended excerpt from her article: Among Millennials, the term “persecution” is a dirty word when applied to Christians. Society continues to paint Christians as “clamoring and crying” over nothing when we decry discrimination targeted our way. Let’s face it, if media outlets were calling the Boko Haram travesty what it is, a matter of severe Christian persecution by Islamists terrorists, then many of us Millennial would shy away from voicing our outcry, all for fear of being called Islamophobic. Why do I suspect this? Because kidnapping Christian girls is not the first attack by Boko Haram. Far from it. Yet the evangelical world has remained largely silent. Hanging on her office wall, Faith McDonnell, the Institute on Religion and Democracy’s Director of Religious Liberty programs, has a calendar documenting all of Boko Haram’s attacks on Nigerian Christians during 2012. It was put together by the Nigeria Working Group Washington, Justice for Jos+ Project, and Jubilee Campaign. To list just a few of a myriad of Christian-targeted assaults, the calendar included:
This is what injustice looks like. Millennial evangelicals have big hearts. We know that social justice is an important facet of Christianity. So why are we ignoring the voices of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being harassed, kidnapped, arrested, beaten, beheaded, and burned alive for their faith? Read Chelsen Vicari’s entire article here. |
| Posted: 19 May 2014 08:37 AM PDT Throughout May, we'll be reposting information and stories from HopeForTurkey.com to guide your prayers as we focus on praying for the Peoples of Turkey this month. Join us in praying for this spiritually dark area of the world, and as you do, be sure to take advantage of the 31-day prayer guide. On a weekend night in a quiet residential neighborhood of Istanbul, Pastor Baris sat in his office preparing his Easter sermon. In the small basement flat where the church meets, his office doubles as the nursery on Sundays. A sign over the front door of the otherwise unremarkable building reads "Grace Church." Due to prior attacks with rocks and worse, the outside windows are covered with metal grates. Suddenly, the doorbell rang. Baris stepped away from his desk to answer the door, though he was not expecting anyone … READ MORE |
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