Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

WORLDWIDE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

I discovered "Worthy News" today which seems to do an excellent collating news from around the world, including coverage of Christian persecution.  Here are a few examples:

Congressman Calls for Dismissal of Ambassador

Friday, July 13, 2012 (6:19 am)

WASHINGTON D.C. (Worthy News)– Congressman Frank Wolf has called for the immediate dismissal of America's ambassador to Vietnam after showing little concern for the importance of human rights in that country, according to International Christian Concern.

In a letter to President Obama, Wolf wrote that the ambassador’s dismissal of human rights issues was “symptomatic of this administration’s overall approach to human rights and religious freedom.”

As part of a campaign to eradicate Christianity from Vietnam's more rural regions, government-sponsored agents attacked a priest and his parishioners during a Christian service in the north-central part of the country on July 1, and in June, local police and paramilitary forces destroyed two Christian churches, leaving hundreds of ethic Hmongs without a place to worship.

“For the last several years the U.S. has sought to strengthen ties with the Communist government of Vietnam while brushing aside the regime’s long list of human rights abuses, including the systematic persecution of Christians," said Ryan Morgan, ICC’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia. "Christians are being arrested, beaten, tortured, and driven from their homes by a government that sees their religious beliefs as a threat. I fully agree with the sentiment expressed in Congressman Wolf’s letter to the administration and call for the State Department to stop prioritizing virtually every other issue at the expense of Vietnam’s human rights activists and Christians.”

Update: Nigeria Violence Kills Over 100 Christians

Thursday, July 12, 2012 (4:38 am)

ABUJA, NIGERIA (Worthy News)– Nigerian authorities said Sunday, July 8, that at least 63 people were killed when suspected Muslim herdsmen armed with guns and machetes stormed Christian villages, while missionaries claimed over 50 pastors and missionary leaders died in separate violence.

The attacks rocked Christian villages near the city of Jos in central Nigeria’s Plateau State since Saturday, July 8, said Mustapha Salisu, spokesman for a special taskforce made up of policemen and soldiers deployed in the area to curb years of violence.

Officials initially said that as many as 37 people died in the raids and reprisal attacks that followed, but death toll estimates later rose to over 60 killed.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoted Mark Lipdo, who runs a Christian advocacy group known as the Stefanos Foundation, as saying that 13 villages have been attacked. He said they were all Christian.

PASTORS, MISSIONARIES KILLED

The latest clashes came on the heels of reports obtained by Worthy News from missionary workers that as over 50 pastors and missionary leaders were "murdered so far" in recent weeks, before the latest clashes occurred.

"It is heartbreaking to think of the suffering these native Nigerian missionaries are enduring so that those who are in darkness will hear the gospel of the salvation provided by our Lord Jesus Christ," said Rae Burnett, Africa Director for Christian Aid Mission (CAM).   [more . . .]

Revolutionary Guards Close Church Properties

Wednesday, July 11, 2012 (6:59 am)

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

TEHRAN, IRAN (Worthy News)– Both the Central Assembly of God Church in Tehran and its summer campsite have been closed by the Islamic authorities, according to the Farsi Christian News Network.

Officers of the Revolutionary Guards closed the Jennat-Abad Church along with its campsite, the "Garden of Sharon," once a popular site for Christian gatherings and conferences; eye witnesses' reported a large notice posted on the gates warning of severe consequences should anyone try to enter the premises.

These latest closures follow the official termination of Friday Persian (Farsi) language services and the compulsory cancellation of all Bible classes as well as any distribution of Christian literature.

After the Iranian New Year celebrations, Islamic state security insisted that church leaders reveal the National ID numbers of their congregations, causing some to stop attending services.

"COKE DIPLOMACY" ALLOWS MONTAGNARD CHRISTIANS TO ROT IN VIETNAMESE PRISONS

Scott Johnson writes:

Today, some thirty three years after the Vietnam War ended, hundreds of Christian Montagnards or Degar people rot in Vietnamese communist prisons, seemingly abandoned by their former ally as the US State Department deems them unfit for categorization as “prisoners of concern.”  . . .

Vietnam is today quite intent on maintaining archetypical communist control over religion, and Montagnards are threatened and tortured into signing ‘forced’ confessions or pledges to stop participation in Christian house churches. While thousands have been persecuted, hundreds of Montagnards have actually been sentenced to long prison terms not only for being members of these house churches, but for speaking out against human rights abuses or for trying to flee to Cambodian as refugees.   (much more....)

Me:  Must we abandon former allies in favor of "Coke diplomacy"?   Shameful!

Arther Berman - "Democrats and the Killing Fields"

Berman's recent article reminds us again of America's shameful flight from Southeast Asia and the killing fields that resulted.  It seems the Democrats are willing to do it again (this time Iraq) if given the chance.

Berman wrote earlier this year on "The Lies of Tet" demonstrating again how media misreporting has devastating consequences.  - For more on the Vietnam era and its relevance to current foreign policy, see my earlier posts here. 

President Bush Compares Deserting Iraq to Abandoning Vietnam: Anti-War Leftists Howl

I hope I shall not be violating blogger ethics by reposting so much material from two bloggers below, but links have been provided, and I invite readers to view the posts in their original setting as well as here.  I wish to have the material consolidated here so one can understand as clearly as possible what is at stake should we abandon Iraq prematurely. 

From Peter Wehner:

No More Vietnams (or Cambodias)

Peter Wehner - 8.23.2007 - 10:23AM

In his speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars yesterday, President Bush reminded us of the agony and genocide that followed the American retreat in Vietnam:

In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands of Cambodians died by starvation and torture and execution. In Vietnam, former allies of the United States and government workers and intellectuals and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished. Hundreds of thousands more

Victor Davis Hanson Asks and Answers: "Why Study War?"

Hanson concludes his major and most recent City Journal article with a long bibliography of books dealing in one way or another with war.  Since I appreciate lists of recommended books on almost any subject (even though the day never seem to come when I will have time to read them), I here reprint Hanson's list:

Studying War: Where to Start

While Thucydides’ Peloponnesian War, a chronicle of the three-decade war between Athens and Sparta, establishes the genre of military history, the best place to begin studying war is with the soldiers’ stories themselves. E. B. Sledge’s memoir of Okinawa, With the Old Breed, is nightmarish, but it reminds us that

Remembering America's Shameful Failure to Stand By Allies And Keep Promises

Michael Gerson, noting that Democrats in a rush to get out of Iraq offer no plan to deal with the chaos that would result down the road, offers a painful reminder in his article, An Exit to Disaster. 

In 1974, a weary Congress cut off funds for Cambodia and South Vietnam, leading to the swift fall of both allies. In his memoir, "Years of Renewal," Henry Kissinger tells the story of former Cambodian prime minister Sirik Matak, who refused to leave his country.

"I thank you very sincerely," Matak wrote in response, "for your offer to transport me towards freedom. I cannot, alas, leave in such a cowardly fashion. As for you, and in particular for your great country, I never believed for a moment that you would have this sentiment of abandoning a people which has chosen liberty. You have refused us your protection, and we can do nothing about it. You leave, and my wish is that you and your country will find happiness under this sky. But, mark it well, that if I shall die here on the spot and in my country that I love, it is no matter, because we are all born and must die. I have only committed this mistake of believing in you [the Americans]."

Eventually, between 1 million and 2 million Cambodians were murdered by the Khmer Rouge when "peace" came to Indochina. Matak, Kissinger recounts, was shot in the stomach and died three days later.

Human Rights Abuse in Vietnam

Richard S. Williamson, former US Ambassador in the United Nations during the Reagan Adminisration who later served as a member of the US Human Rights Commission in Geneva, provides an update on human rights in Vietnam.  It's not a pretty picture.