USA (MNN) — Persecution of Christians is growing. We’re seeing it all over the world. It’s happening in Asia, Africa, and most certainly the Middle East.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas welcomes U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in the West Bank.
(State Department Photo/Public Domain)
In light of increased persecution, the question is being asked: Is the foreign policy of the United States over the last two decade promoting persecution against Christians?
While that’s not the goal of U.S. policy, it appears to be a by-product.
The hope, therefore, is that addressing persecution against Christians would be a priority for the U.S. Tom Doyle with E3 Partners says, “Currently we’re not seeing that as a top priority. We’re just not, when it comes to Christians. When you see this push for democracy, it makes it even worse.”
Why? When regime change takes place, what’s left to replace it? Typically it’s the majority political institution.
Doyle says an example of that is the regime change mindset in the Middle East today. “These dictator/rulers in the Middle East, are they corrupt? Yes. Are they harmful to the people? Yes. But somehow, the Christians have fared better under them than they have when they’re removed and Muslim leadership takes over.”
Because the United States is typically involved in these regime changes, Doyle says the results aren’t surprising. “It’s the no forgiveness zone. Islamic jihadists keep score. Any kind of American footprint in their country: there’s going to be retaliation. It ends up making Christians the scapegoats.”
Despite this, the Gospel is still spreading. Many Muslims are turning to Christ through dreams and visions. Doyle says the uncertainty in the Middle East is causing Muslims to question their faith and ask a lot of questions.
What can we do? Pray. “In the dark difficult nations, the light is shining brightly. Pray for those believers there that they would not shrink back, that they would continue to be bold. Every day for them is challenging. They don’t know if they’re going to make it through the day or not. They could be killed for their faith.”
Join the E3 Partners prayer movement. They have two places to do that on Facebook. The first is their Dreams and Visions page. The other is through their 8Thirty8 page.
I am distressed that the media is pushing Hillary Clinton, former
head of the State Department, which started all these pro-revoluntary
issues. When she left State she said, “The world was safer than
when the administration took over.” A lie. With Libyian arms flowing
south into West Africa the whole area has been distablized. And then the humanitarian crisis related to Syria has no solution in sight. El Queda may end up controlling Syria and Iraq the way things are going. And that bodes ill for Christians and for Israel. Christians
need to be heard about this issue. Gene Madeira
Its not a stretch to imagine that if we go into middle eastern countries and kill their children just because, that the people might take a dim view of what they think we stand for (Christianity). The heavy handed regimes that have been overthrown may have been good for the Christians, but not very good for the majority of people in their countries. As a Christian I would not take the “better them than me” attitude. All life is important and we would not want the majority of people in a nation to be oppressed so that we can live in comfort, would we?