

(By Jeffrey Walton, Juicy Ecumenism). More than 250 million Christians are suffering persecution of some kind around the world today, according to Baroness Caroline Cox of the U.K.-based Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART). Many live under the oppression of Communism, fundamentalist Hinduism, political Buddhism and, above all, militant Islam.
Cox spoke June 30 before 1,400 clergy, bishops and lay delegates at the Anglican Church in North America Provincial Assembly held on the campus of Wheaton College in Illinois.
Cox said Christians to have an obligation, quoting Saint Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians, “When one part of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer.”
“We do have a mandate to be alongside those brothers and sisters,” Cox declared “If not necessarily in person, then certainly in spirit and prayer.”
Cox is a cross-bench member of the British House of Lords, where she served as a Deputy Speaker from 1985 to 2005. Created a Life Peer in 1982, Cox describes herself as a Baroness by “astonishment”, and a servant by faith.
Speaking of Christians under pressure in Armenia, Burma, Sudan, Nigeria and Syria, Cox quoted St. Francis of Assisi, that “Pity weeps and turns away – compassion weeps and puts out a hand to help.”
Speaking of a woman whose child is dying of starvation in Sudan, Cox relayed her words: “I could go to a government-held area, get some food and medicine, and save my little boy, but I am a Christian. I’m not going to convert to Islam. We will live and die as Christians.”
“To sacrifice yourself must be tough,” Cox assessed. “To sacrifice your child – I am blessed with 10 grandchildren – I can hardly imagine sacrificing a child for my faith. That is the price of faith for so many of our brothers and sisters.”