• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

• Vol. 22, No.1 nternatlona January 1998 etln• Statistics, Mission, and HUlDan Rights eaders of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN look forward to parison ofProtestant andRomanCatholic Missionary Strategy(1965), R the January issue each year for the"Annual Statistical Protestant Crosscurrents in Mission (editor, 1968), Rediscovering Table on Global Mission," by David B. Barrett. One of the Christianity Where It Began: A Survey of Contemporary Churches in categories reported, since 1986, is "Average Christian Martyrs theMiddleEastandEthiopia (1974),A GuidetoChristian Churches in per year." In the early 1990s the figure dropped from more than theMiddleEast (1989),and MissionLegacies (co- editor, 1994). He 300,000martyrs per year to abouthalfthatnumber, reflecting the will be remembered not only as an outstanding scholar, author, collapse of Communismin easternEurope and the former Soviet and teacher,butas a gracioushumanbeingand winsome witness Union. for Jesus Christ. In this issue of the BULLETIN, Canadian researcher Paul Marshall examines the issue of the persecution of Christians from the perspective of human rights. The author of the 1997 volume Their Blood Cries Out, Marshall first presented this mate­ On Page rial last July to a U.S. State Department advisory committee. 2 Persecution of Christians in the Marshall states, "In the last five years, the persecution of Chris­ Contemporary World tians has taken place in approximately forty countries. .. My PaulMarshall best estimate [is that] some 200,000,000Christians in the world are members of persecuted groups.... An additional400,000,000 8 William Carey, Modern Missions, and the live in situations of nontrivial discrimination and legal repres­ Moravian Influence sion." Marshall's thesis is that Christians are suffering "what is DavidA. Schattschneider probably the largestandwidest manifestation of religious perse­ 13 Shaking the Foundations: World War I, the cution in the world today." Western Allies, and German Protestant Marshall urges Christians and governments to confront all Missions religious persecution, whether of Christians or others. Govern­ Richard V. Pierard ments are the major perpetrators, reminding us of the Apostle's prayer request "for kings and all who are in high positions," that 20 The Legacy of Melvin L. Hodges the Gospel may prosper (lTim. 2:1-4). GaryB.McGee 22 Noteworthy Norman A. Horner (1913-1997) 26 Annual Statistical Table on Global Mission: Former associate editor of the INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN 1998 Norman A. Homer died on August 6, 1997, in Louisville, DavidB. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson Kentucky. He was 83. Afterservingas a Presbyterianmissionary 28 The Legacy of George Brown in Cameroon, West Africa (1939-49), he was professor of mis­ Charles W. Forman sions (1950-68) and simultaneously dean of Louisville Presbyte­ 34 Book Reviews rian Theological Seminary (1956-68), and then missionary in the Middle East, with residence in Beirut, Lebanon (1968-76). He 35 Fifteen Outstanding Books of 1997 for was associate director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center Mission Studies and associate editorof this journalfrom 1976to 1982. In addition 46 Dissertation Notices to his articles and reviews published in our pages, Dr. Homer is remembered for his books Cross and Crucifix in Mission: A Com­48 Book Notes of issionary Research Persecution of Christians in the Contemporary World Paul Marshall The following essay is adapted from a presentation made to the percent; that is, 80 percent of the world's active Christians live in Advisory Committee to the U.S. Secretary of State on Religious non-Western countries.' It is these who are most likely to suffer Freedom Abroad, July 2, 1997. PaulMarshall is Senior Fellow in persecution in today's world. Political Theory at theInstitutefor Christian Studies, Toronto. He In addressing the persecution of Christians, we are focusing is also Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Free University of on what is probably the largest and widest manifestation of Amsterdam, Netherlands; Adjunct Professor at Fuller Theological religious persecution in the world today. The sites of this Seminary, Pasadena, California; and Academic Advisor on Reli­ persecution are many and varied, but we can group the main giousFreedom totheWorld Evangelical Fellowship. Hehastestified trends in four categories. onreligious persecution before theHelsinki Commission oftheU.S. Congress andlectured on humanrightsat theChinese Academyof The Islamic Countries Social Sciences, Beijing, China, and in othercountries around the world. His most recent book is a survey of religious persecution Muslims in North America and elsewhere have a legitimate worldwide, Their Blood Cries Out (Dallas: Word Books, 1997). concern that raising the question of Islamic persecution of Chris­ His writings have been translated into Russian, German, Dutch, tians can contribute to already present anti-Muslim and anti­ Spanish, Japanese, Malay, Korean, Indonesian, and Chinese. Arab prejudice. They are also properly concerned that the widespread persecution of Muslims should not be neglected or slighted. I wish to avoid contributing to either of these dangers. he persecution of Christians today is worldwide, mas­ That is why I explicitly point out, in my book Their Blood Cries sive, and underreported. Althoughit has received some T Out, more than fifty instances of Islamic tolerance of Christians increased attention recently, knowledge and concern about per­ and of cases where Muslims themselves are persecuted by Is­ secution of Christians is limited to relatively narrow circles. It is lamic regimes. As a matter of fact, most of the Islamic regimes still nota feature on ournewspages; the coveragehasbeenon the and groups thatI cite for persecution of Christians also persecute editorial opinion pages and has focused on people in Washing­ moderate Muslims and Muslim minorities. ton concerned about this persecution rather than on the persecu­ But while Islam in its history often has shown greater toler­ tion itself. Even in the contextof the recentcoveragein the United ance than its Christian counterparts, there are now intensifying States in regard to the Most Favored Nationstatusof China, there attacks on religious minorities, mostly Christians, throughout was comparatively little attention to what is actually going on in the Islamic belt from Morocco on the Atlantic eastward through China.' While we have received news of the courageous Chinese to the southern Philippines, and this situation desperately re­ political dissident Wei Jingsheng, the news of the arrests and quires systematic attention. This wave of persecution is not torture of China's leading Protestant house church leaders, with limited to, but has worsened because of, the activities of radical several million followers, has been passed by. Islamicists. The persecution is of three overlapping types. In what follows, I will focus only on situations where a Direct statepersecution. This takes place in countries such as person's religionis a significantcomponentof the persecutionhe Saudi Arabia, where any non-Islamic or dissident Islamic reli­ or she suffers. Hence I do not cover situations such as, for gious expression is forbidden. Christian meetings are outlawed, example,Rwanda,whosegenocidewasethnicallybased;or Iraq, and worship services held anywhere other than in the embassies where Saddam Hussein persecutes all without regard to creedf of certain powerful countries will be cracked down on by the or Central America or Peru, where the focus is on political mutawa, or religious police, and their members imprisoned. Any opposition to government or guerrillas per see It must, of course, Saudi who seeks to leave Islam faces the real prospect of death. be added that there are few cases where religion is the only factor In countries such as Mauritania, the Comoros, and Sudan, this giving rise to persecution: religion is usually intertwined with ethnic, political, territorial, and economic concerns. I demarcate religious persecution by asking whether some or all of the oppression and discrimination that people suffer would occur if Christians have been they were of a different religion. denied food and water It is important at the outset to say who Christians are, since unless they convert, and in North America there sometimes seems to be an implicit assumption that Christians are white European males. On the children are kidnapped to contrary, the Christian church is not predominantly a European be raised as Muslims. or American phenomenon. From its beginnings, Christianity spread into Africa and Asia. It was in Africa beforeEurope, India before England, and China before America. Currently, more not only is a threat from vigilantes but is part of the legal code Christians are engaged in Sundayworship in China than in all of itself. western Europe combined. The same is true in Nigeria and In Sudan, a major component of the complex civil war is an Brazil, and probably also India and the country with the world's effortby the Khartoum regime to impose its form of Islam on the largestMuslimpopulation,Indonesia. Two-thirdsof the world's largely Christian and animist South and on the Beja Muslims in Christians, as recorded by government census, live outside the the East. Over a million and a half are dead. Shari'a law is West. When one focuses more narrowly on Christians who are imposed,Christiansin refugeecampshavebeendeniedfood and active in their churches on a regularbasis, the ratio is closer to 80 water unless they convert,

Load more

  48

Copy Link