Paul Marshall - Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians

PRAISE FOR PERSECUTED

This powerful and timely text shines a light into dark corners of the world where men and women face intimidation, persecution, and even death for their religious beliefs. Its authors have used their freedom of expression to uphold the liberties of others. Their book is both a challenge and a rebuke to those of us who fail to raise our own voices on behalf of the persecuted.

DAVID ALTON, PROFESSOR LORD ALTON OF LIVERPOOL

HAS SERVED FOR 18 YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, IS AN

INDEPENDENT PEER AND ONE OF THE FOUNDERS OF JUBILEE

CAMPAIGN FOR RELIGIOUS FREEDOM, WWW.DAVIDALTON.NET.

Christians are under attack to an unimaginable degree in the modern age, and, indeed, Christianity may become nearly extinct in some parts of the world because of religious extremism and despotism. Persecuted is a crucial primer on the threats and a clarion call to action. It is extraordinarily well-documented, tells a gripping story, and offers real solutions for reversing the alarming trend.

LEONARD A. LEO, CHAIRMAN, US COMMISSION ON

INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM (20092012)

For over two millenia Christians have made enormous contributions to the societies in which they live. It therefore is a great irony, and a great tragedy, that Christian minorities are today under siege in so many spots around the globe, including countries with objectives that Christians can help achieveincluding economic growth, social harmony, and stable democracy. Marshall, Gilbert, and Shea have written the definitive work on an issue that will come to haunt the 21st century: the central place of Christian persecution in the global crisis of religious liberty.

THOMAS F. FARR, DIRECTOR, THE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM PROJECT,

THE BERKLEY CENTER AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

This authoritative, well-researched, formidable book should be required reading for all Christians who have the privilege of living in freedom and do not have to make any sacrifice for their faith. This deeply disturbing catalogue of escalating persecution must challenge us to respond with prayer, advocacy, practical help and political pressure on our governments to promote religious freedom more robustly wherever it is denied or diminished. Otherwise, comfortable Christianity will be guilty not only of failing to fulfill the biblical mandate to speak for the oppressed but of betraying the spiritual, cultural, and political heritage which it is our duty to pass on undiminished to our children and grandchildren. Reading this book may help comfortable Christians to wake up, stand up, speak out and act in support of our brothers and sisters suffering persecution. There is an urgent need to prevent further assaults on religious freedom in our world where more than 70 percent of people suffer persecution ranging from harassment and discrimination to imprisonment, torture and martyrdom.

THE BARONESS (CAROLINE) COX.

When historians look back at this era, they will wonder why more wasnt done to stop the mass persecution of Christians in many parts of the world. Among those who will not be faulted are the three gifted authors of Persecuted. Make no mistake about it, this is most authoritative account to date on this subject.

WILLIAM A. DONOHUE, PH.D., PRESIDENT, CATHOLIC

LEAGUE FOR RELIGIOUS AND CIVIL RIGHTS

As shocking as the brutal murders of Christians is the silence of U.S. leadership and media that seems to embolden perpetrators of atrocity. Further, among many American Christians, we hear the unwise if not apathetic assumption that the Church grows during persecutionthis is likely untrue as we think of the history of the Church in Japan and now the Middle East where Christians, present there for millennia are now often either dying or fleeing. Speak. Stand. Act on behalf of our siblings in Christ. They are bearers of blessing and peace. They are the Body of Christ, so intervene for Christ and the Kingdom. And lets spread the news of this book so necessary to bring justice, sanity and hope to the time which is ours.

KELLY MONROE KULLBERG, AUTHOR OF FINDING GOD BEYOND

HARVARD: THE QUEST FOR VERITAS AND FOUNDER OF THE VERITAS FORUM

PERSECUTED

THE GLOBAL ASSAULT ON CHRISTIANS

PAUL MARSHALL, LELA GILBERT,
NINA SHEA

2013 by Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, and Nina Shea

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherexcept for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

[Marshall, Paul A., 1948

Persecuted : the global assault on Christians / Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, Nina Shea.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages ) and index.

ISBN 978-1-4002-0441-0 (alk. paper)

1. Persecution--History--21st century. 2. Martyrdom--Christianity--History--21st century. 3. Christian martyrs--History--21st century. I. Gilbert, Lela. II. Shea, Nina, 1953- III. Title.

BR1601.3.M23 2013

272.9--dc23

13 14 15 16 17 QG 6 5 4 3 2 1

We dedicate this book to the great principle of religious freedom, known to Americans as the first freedom, both because of its placement as the first clause of the First Amendment in the US Constitution, and because it is the core freedom, essential to the fulfillment of other rights and freedoms, as well as to the preservation of human dignity and the flourishing of the person. This freedom, in all its fullness, includes, but is not limited to, the freedom to worship. It encompasses the freedom to choose ones religion, and the freedom to manifest ones religioneither alone or in community with others, and in public or privatein teaching, practice, worship, and observation.

CONTENTS

by Eric Metaxas

by Most Reverend Charles J. Chaput,

Archbishop of Philadelphia

WHEN IMPRISONED BY THE NAZIS AT TEGEL PRISON, DIETRICH Bonhoeffer wrote extraordinary and now famous letters. In one of them he wrote, Im now reading Tertullian, Cyprian, and others of the church fathers with great interest. In some ways they are more relevant to our time than the Reformers....

Thats quite a statement for a German Lutheran. I cant read Bonhoeffers mind, but I believe his connection to the church fathers wasnt so much theological as it was practical. Cyprian was beheaded by the Roman government. Bonhoeffer himself was soon to be hanged by the Nazis. To be a serious believer in the early days of Christianity was to be a marked man, and I think Bonhoeffer saw in Cyprian and the others a passion and a commitment that seems only to come from religious persecutionsomething that he personally knew and experienced.

Those of us who live in the modern West dont experience anything along these lines, and most of us are deeply ignorant of the sufferings of our brethren around the world. Indeed, as we read these words now, millions suffer. And we have been blessed with such a bounty of religious freedom that we can hardly imagine what such suffering must be like. We are relatively safe from government interference. We can say what we like and can worship where we want without legal repercussions. The current administrations much-contested HHS mandate, as well as other laws, are encroaching on our religious liberties in very real and disturbing ways, and these encroachments must be seen and must be strongly resisted. But we actually have religious liberties to encroach in the first place.