By Faith McDonnell, Juicy Ecumenism.
U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, Bishop Angaelos of the UK Coptic Church, and U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (Photo credit: Middle East Minorities Caucus web page)
On February 4, the European Parliament unanimously passed a resolution recognizing the Islamic State’s (ISIS or Da’ish) “systematic mass-murder” of Christians, Yazidis, and other religious minorities as genocide. The resolution, the first by that body to ever recognize an ongoing conflict as genocide, followed up an earlier resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe that also overwhelmingly passed. Now the British Parliament’s House of Lords has taken up the issue. The United States government remains glaringly absent from those world powers speaking out against ISIS’ genocidal slaughter and destruction in the Middle East. But you can help change that right now.
There are 3 things you can do right now to try to make sure that the United States is on the right side of history on identifying and acting against the genocide of religious minorities from Iraq and Syria by ISIS. If you observe Lent, you may wish to consider taking these actions as part of your Lenten observance.