According to CNS News, the Britain’s Government is gearing up to appear in the European Court of Human Rights to argue the case that employers can compel Christians to keep their crosses out of view while on the job. The case essentially hinges on the notion that wearing a cross or crucifix is not an expression of faith, nor is it a requirement to be a Christian, such as wearing a turban or a hijab.
Personally, I believe that if your faith requires or even moves you to wear a turban or hijab, then by all means wear that which speaks to your faith. I also happen to believe the same thing about crosses and crucifixes.
Despite the usual Christmas furor over crèches and trees; despite crosses honoring State Troopers who have fallen in the line of duty being taken down, and despite ABC’s latest offering of “Good Christian B*****s” for the moment, Christianity is still standing in the United States.
Consider the following from persecution.com:
Consider a priest in Egypt who was sentenced this month to six months in jail and whose church was torched. The reason? The building ended up being two point five meters higher than in the architectural plan. Coptic Christians in Egypt marched in protest, and were fired upon by counter protestors. More casualties were caused when soldiers ran over the some demonstrators with riot control vehicles.
In Iran, Christians are routinely arrested in their homes. Converts there must worship in private homes, since leaving Islam is against Iranian law. Christians who are arrested are interrogated, detained, and pushed to renounce their faith. Authorities seized the one woman’s deed to her home, her bank account numbers, and other belongings. Families do not know what has become of those who have been arrested.
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In North Korea, some 30 thousand of the 200 thousand political prisoners there are Christian.
On Christmas Day of last year, Li Ying, who is a Christian journalist and activist was released from prison after serving 12 years of a 15 year sentence in China. Her crime? Publishing an underground Christian magazine. If 15 years sounds harsh, keep in mind the original sentence was death.
In places like Egypt, the African sub-continent, Saudi Arabia and even parts of the Philippines, Christian churches are bombed or burnt; Christians are murdered or must live as second class citizens. Their property and lives forfeit at any moment. In some of these countries, Christian women endure sexual abuse and forced conversions to Islam.
Christians are one of the most persecuted groups in the world and yet it goes unreported day in and day out. Mainly because Christians do not have the support of the mainstream media outlets across the globe. It is not “in” right now in many circles to be a follower of Christ.
As frustrated as Christians in the United States find themselves they face nowhere near the hardships as their brothers and sisters across the globe. But if they do not stand with them and with each other, the death and persecution of even one Christian no matter how remote the corner of the globe in which it occurs diminishes us all.
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