Johnnie Moore - 10 Things You Must Know about the Global War on Christianity

In February 2015, ISIS terrorists released a now-infamous video that horrified the world. On a Libyan beach, twenty-one Christians were dressed in orange jumpsuits, standing silently in a line, heads down, their hands cuffed behind their backs. ISIS members in all black stood behind each one, guarding the kidnapped prisoners. In the midst of this ominous scene a masked spokesman addressed

Then, on signal, all the Christians were pushed to the ground and beheaded. This image shocked the world. It finally convinced a skeptical press of the rising persecution of Christians around the world, and it helped to jar an apathetic church from its malaise.

Yet the horror we witnessed on that beach was not an anomaly.

This and other horrors have become familiar to us weve seen them on the news, people have reacted to them in shock on our Facebook feeds, and they might be the first thing we think of when we hear about persecution of Christians worldwide but they are even more familiar to countless Christians around the world who have borne the atrocities of escalating persecution for decades.

Just because it was the first time you noticed doesnt mean it was the first time it had happened.

Yet the global war on Christians has many more faces than those of masked ISIS fighters dressed in black in a Middle Eastern desert. Terror unfolds every day across Africa and Asia and in both North and South America. It can involve not only physical violence but also political maneuvering and legalized discrimination. It can be initiated not only by religious extremists but also by families, employers, or governments. It affects tens of thousands each year, all around the globe.

The lowest estimate is that every month,

• Christians are killed for their faith;
• churches and Christian properties are destroyed; and
• acts of violence (such as rape, beatings, forced marriages, arrests, and abductions) are perpetrated against Christians.

Genocide against Christians has been recognized by the US, European, British, Australian, and Canadian governments and by Pope Francis, who said,

Perhaps more than in the early days, [Christians] are persecuted, killed, driven out, despoiled, only because they are Christians: Dear brothers and sisters, there is no Christianity without persecution.... Today too, this happens before the whole world,

Heres my question: Will you be a part of that silence?

Persecution of Christians is a human rights concern so severe that it demands much more from us and much more from the entire world, whatever our religious beliefs. Standing by while others suffer for their faith goes against the basic rights of religious freedom that all people deserve.

There are things we can do to help even as everyday people. But first we need to understand whats going on. In my book The Martyrs Oath I share the stories of Christians persecuted around the world, but here in this pamphlet I would like to make you aware of ten simple facts that will help you understand the reality of the global war on Christianity.