People Are Dying to Know Christ

Last summer’s blockbuster movie Gladiator featured a Hollywood version of the gladiator fights in the Ancient Roman coliseum. The director first filmed and then later cut out a scene that showed Christians being torn apart by lions for their faith. Killing Christians is no more entertaining now than it was in ancient Rome. The Christians would not fight back. The early Christians would kneel in the dirt of the coliseum to pray for those who were killing them as they died. Following Jesus’ example, they refused to give up on loving God and loving others even as they were tortured and died. 

The saying was that the early church was watered by the blood of the martyrs. As Rome killed more Christians, more and more people gave their lives to Christ. It wasn’t uncommon for someone to come to faith in Jesus after seeing a Christian martyred. Seeing someone willingly suffer and die while praying for those who killed them was a powerful example of Christian witness. 

It would be nice to think that dying for the Christian faith was merely a fact of history. However, more Christians were killed for their faith in the 20^th century than in the previous 19 centuries of Christianity and the 21^st century is looking worse, not better. 

Throughout a band that wraps primarily around the middle of the globe, Christians are threatened, tortured, and killed for their faith. Communism, Nationalism, and Islamic Fundamentalism have led to an increase in the persecution of Christians. One example is the Southeast Asian nation of Laos. In 1998, Laos labeled Christians as “state enemy number one.” Christians represent just two percent of the population of Laos, but the communist government there has created a program to completely eradicate Christianity from their country. Suspected Christians are called on to sign a lengthy document resigning them from the “foreign religion, into which the enemy has enticed them.” The Christians must renounce their faith, confess faith in the Party alone, or face imprisonment and torture.  

One Laotian church leader, the 46-year-old Pa Tood, has been held in prison for more than a year. Deep inside the prison, Pa Tood never sees the light of day. A high-ranking leader from his own village offered to get Pa Tood out if he would just renounce his faith in Jesus. Pa Tood said, “If I wanted to give up my faith, I wouldn’t be here.” For this refusal they confined Pa Tood to stocks 24 hours a day and cut his food rations way back. As you read the newspaper, Pa Tood sits in stocks in the darkness of Savannakhet Prison praying for the strength to go on.  

In Southern Sudan, Christians are standing firm in their faith against constant attacks by Islamic fundamentalists. The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is a Christian group that reaches out to assist persecuted Christians worldwide. VOM brought Bibles printed in several Sudanese languages to the Aswa River in Sudan. A man of the Dinka tribe named Alex joined many others in walking a great distance to meet the group distributing Bibles. A volunteer gave Alex a Bible translated into Dinka and said, “This is from the Body of Christ in America.” Alex told him that they had only one Bible to share among the 400 people in his village.  

Pa Tood is just one of the millions of Christians around the world for whom the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ means the constant threat of torture and death. Alex is just one of millions of Christians who thirst for the life-giving word of God. Their stories of pain and suffering seem so distant from our own experiences in Camden County. Yet, through prayer and other forms of support, we can reach out to come to their aid.  

Another way to help the persecuted church is to contact Voice of the Martyrs to learn more about how you can better pray for and support persecuted Christians around the world. Voice of the Martyrs can be reached online at www.persecution.com or by phone at (918) 337-8015. Another way to assist persecuted Christians is to find out what missionaries and missionary groups within your own denomination are doing to support persecuted Christians. We have an opportunity to stand alongside our persecuted brothers and sisters in Christ to show them that they are not alone. 

(The Rev. Frank Logue is pastor of King of Peace Episcopal Church in Kingsland.)