By Lloyd Cooke, Contributor 
Cooke
THE HISTORY of Christianity is replete with incidents of persecution and of death by the disciples of Christ. The result has invariably been the response of faith in the hearts of onlookers
who recognise the importance of the Christian message and its proclamation, even in the face of bodily suffering and death.
Today the Church across the world is suffering and dying for Christ more than at any other time in her history.
Perhaps the best known case in recent history has been the murder of Australian missionary to India, Graham Stuart Staines and his sons, Philip, 10, and Timothy, 8, who were burned to death January 23, 1999, as they slept in a jeep. The vehicle was reportedly parked outside a small makeshift church in the village of Manoharpur, about 600 miles southeast of New Delhi.
Staines, who for 34 years worked in India with people who suffer from leprosy, had been conducting open-air meetings in the village. As Staines and his sons slept, a group of militant Hindus doused the vehicle with gasoline and set it ablaze, then prevented Staines and his sons from getting out and kept would-be rescuers at bay.
His wife, Gladys, and daughter, Esther, were not with them at the time.
After a two-and-a-half-year trial, a court in the capital of Orissa state, India, found radical Hindu activist Dara Singh (a.k.a Ravindra Kumar Pal) and 12
others guilty of the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons.
More people have been made martyrs for the Christian faith in the 20th
century than in any other. The news media, both secular and public, carry stories almost every day of the dying of Christians across the world in the pursuit of preaching the gospel. But what are the facts of Christian persecution across our world? And why does the message of Christ draw the ire and the hatred of hearers wherever it is presented, as well as the believing response of faith in Jesus Christ?
Flipping through a file that I have been keeping of articles, facts and figures gathered from various sources of persecution of Christians today, I read the following headlines: "Christian situation worsens in Laos;" "Persecution continues in India, but the Church is growing;" "One Christian Released; One sentenced to Re-Education"(China); "Evangelist Beaten and Refused Treatment for Converting Dalits (India)"; "Beaten for Distributing Bibles (Turkey)"; "Full Gospel Church Confiscated (Eritrea);" "Christians are Targeted in Sri Lanka."; "Radical Islamists Target Christians (Somalia);" "Vietnamese Believers Excluded from Flood Relief"; "Vilification Trial Resumes for Pastors (Australia)"; "Hindu Extremists Burn Effigy of Christ"; "Four Christians Killed as Muslims Protest Arrests"; "Attacks Leave Christians Injured; Buildings Destroyed (Egypt)"; "Four Christians Killed in Violent Outburst (Indonesia)"; "Muslims attack Carollers in Indonesia"; "Government Action averts Christmas Attacks(Nigeria)".
I could go on ad nauseam. The daily e-mail service of Missionary Network News late in December had a piece entitled "Persecution against Christians increases in 2003." Christians around the world continue facing incredible oppression. According to 'Open Doors with Brother Andrew, "an estimated 200 million Christians face persecution, while up to 400 million more face discrimination or alienation for their faith." Persecution seems to have increased in North Korea, Indonesia and India."
An item from 'CMDNet Weekly Update' entitled 'Passion and Pain' said "Human Rights advocate and member of the United Kingdom House of Lords, David Alton, with co-writer Michele Lombardo, has written a new book called Passion and Pain: The Suffering Church Today. The book, published by the Christian human rights group, Jubilee Campaign, contains information and prayers for different countries where Christians are persecuted. It is full of harrowing but inspiring testimonies of Christians who have kept their faith despite suffering at the hands of brutal regimes and fanatical groups. In his introduction, Alton writes, "The persecution of Christians today is staggering and often graver in its breadth and severity than any suffered in history. More Christians Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox were martyred in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries combined'."
In the face of this endemic problem of persecution, the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberties Commission some years ago began urging the World-wide Christian Church to set aside the first two Sundays in November each year to pray for persecuted fellow Christians.
The "International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church" has begun to grow in influence as Christians have taken up the mandate to weep with those who weep of the brethren across the globe. Many other organisations have sprung up to share information and to foster the same end of prayer for
suffering Christians.
The World Evangelical Alliance's Religious Liberty Commission recently published on its web site their annual "Analysis of Religious Liberty and Persecution Trends, 2003". It discusses the countries in which persecution is prevalent today, and posits four reasons for the recent upsurge of religious persecution against Christians in recent years. Susan Kendall, the principal researcher says that these are: (1) Escalating Occult Violence; (2) Escalating Authoritarianism; (3) Increasing Fragmentation; (4) Rising Islamic Fundamentalism.
This report may be accessed at http://www.worldevangelical.org/persec_summary22dec03.html.
My own analysis of the situation relative to persecution of Christians and the causes are:
Firstly, much of the persecution is a direct backlash against the phenomenal growth of the Church in recent years, and the threat that this presents to followers of other religions. Kendall quotes Sir Isaac Newton's statement, and it is appropriate here, that "to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction." This principle applies not only in Physics, but in religion as well. Even among Hinduism in India, and Buddhism, in Sri Lanka, Laos, Myanmar and others (religions not normally aggressive in its relations with Christianity) there has been recently much persecution as a direct result of the phenomenal growth of Christianity in these countries. The same is true for much of the recent Muslim persecution. Secondly, there is the rise of Radical Islamic nations, since the Iranian revolution of Ayatollah Khomeni, rejecting westernisation (and its close sister, Christianity), seeking to make their countries conform to Islamic Sharia law. This is the cause of much of the persecution in Indonesia, Nigeria, Egypt, et al. Many Muslims and others who definitely see Christianity and all things western as synonymous. All westerners are considered Christians. Muslims often see all Christian engagement in Islamic countries as attempts to pass off the Christian religion and values on them.
Thirdly, nationalism in many countries is equating their ancestral religions with their cultural and traditional practices. They see Christian missions and Christian missionaries as subverting these, and threatening to their countries, so they try to stop their people converting to Christianity. Such is the case in India, Bhutan, Russia, and Georgia, where the Orthodox Church has been taking the lead against Protestant
missionary activity.
Fourthly, and most importantly, the Lord God is forcing western Christians to pay attention to, and to pray for people groups, nations, and areas of our world where the Gospel message still is not much heard. God has a heart of compassion for their salvation. Western Christians often focus on themselves and can hardly see beyond their own borders and comfort.
God wants Christians to pray and work for the evangelism of the multitudes in the uttermost parts of the world that have not yet heard or embraced the Christian gospel.
Lloyd Cooke is a lecturer in Christian Missions at the Jamaica Bible College, Manchester.
