By Joe Carter, The Gospel Coalition.
Last week the State Department released its International Religious Freedom Report for 2014. A major concern addressed in this year’s report is the violent opposition to religious freedom, including the persecution of Christians. Here are nine things you should know about the persecution being faced by our brothers and sisters in Christ around the globe.
1. China: Authorities in China continued to restrict the free printing and distribution of religious materials. The government limited distribution of Bibles to TSPM/Chinese Christian Council entities such as churches, church bookshops, and seminaries. Individuals could not order Bibles directly from publishing houses. Members of unregistered churches reported the supply and distribution of Bibles was inadequate, particularly in rural locations. There were approximately 600 Christian titles legally in circulation. According to a foreign Christian source, in the last 10 years an estimated 200 Christian bookstores and nine domestic Christian publishers had opened in the country. Authorities in Zhejiang Province also ordered the destruction of hundreds of Christian churches and crosses as part of a campaign to demolish illegal structures.
2. Iraq: Christian leaders estimate there are approximately 400,000-500,000 Christians in Iraq (a significant decline over the last 10 years from a pre-2002 estimate of 800,000-1.4 million), including approximately 5,000 evangelicals. Christians in the country face persecution from both the government and terrorist groups. Some evangelical groups chose not to register with the government, despite requirements to do so to operate legally. They reported they preferred to avoid increased government scrutiny of their internal operations, and to avoid regulations for registration that indirectly constrained proselytization. And many Christians have been subjected to killings, forced conversion, threats of violence, and intimidation by Islamic State (ISIL).
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A subtle persecution of Christians and conservative non profits and individuals continues in the United States, mostly under the Internal Revenue Service. It’s so bad the IRS top officials plead Fifth Amendment for protection from criminal prosecution during Congressional hearings last year. They even audited Billy Graham prior to last year’s election.
It was interesting to read “9 things you should know about global persecution of Christians.”
I had thought, while reading the above mentioned Report of Religious Freedom some time ago, that Americanized Presbyterians would and should learn some lessons by meditating upon what is reported by the State Department.
The Report makes a reference to “underground churches” existing in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Some North Koreans are secretly gathering together to worship God at the risk of imprisonment or even death. Elderly North Korean Christians and their disciples are teaching the congregants about Jesus Christ their Lord and Savior as the former were taught years ago, I may add, by the Bible-believing Christians including American Presbyterian missionaries of old.
The Report states elsewhere “[O]wnership of Bibles or other religious materials is reportedly illegal and punishable by imprisonment and severe punishment, including, in some cases, execution.” Ownership of the Bible is one mark of the Christian. (Cf. For late John Macquarrie of Oxford it was a mark of the Church.) To honor teachings of the Scripture is a matter of life or death, at least for those Christians who did not fear martyr’s death. Many Christians, including my parents, have risked their lives to own the Bible while transcribing, transmitting, translating, reading and/or proclaiming the Word of God.
The time may come, or may have already arrived, for American Presbyterians to check if they still own the Bible as their own honoring inheritance.