An international day of prayer for the persecuted church was observed in churches around the world on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017. The motto for 2017, taken from Romans 8:31 was “If God is for us Who can be against us?
The persecution of Christians is ongoing, deadly and widespread. According to statistics; worldwide, each month, 322 Christians are killed for their faith, 214 church buildings and Christian properties are destroyed, and 772 forms of violence are committed against individual Christians or Christian groups. These figures add up to more than 15,000 incidents of serious persecution per year.
The top 10 persecuting countries are: Iraq, Syria, Eritrea, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Iran, Libya and North Korea. Egypt also sees many acts of violence against Christians, including this month when Christians in Mina were forced to lock the doors of their church when a mob of a thousand plus made violent threats.
In October a Coptic Orthodox bishop walking to a meeting in a Cairo suburb was stabbed repeatedly by an extremist assailant as he entered the meeting place. The man fled the scene. An ambulance was immediately called but it took ninety minutes to arrive and the Bishop died at the scene.
On Palm Sunday, jihadis triggered a car bomb beside a Coptic church causing great carnage and loss of life. Michael Coren in a Post article noting Egypt, indicated that this is a “Church under siege. ”
The cry of persecuted Christians around the world is “Pray for us!” Today 100 million of them are suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ.
During the leadership debate in the 2015 election campaign, “refugees” was a topic. Justin Trudeau said, if elected, his government would bring in 35,000.
With the election of Trudeau, the government in 2016, began the herculean task of bringing to Canada 35,000 refugees.
While monitoring Christian persecution I was interested in knowing how many of these persecuted and suffering Christians would be among the 35,000. I visited our MP’s Picton office with this question, and then I submitted an email request to determine the number. MP Neil Ellis provided a very gracious reply but he did not answer my question.
I contacted an opposition office to discover that not even the House of Commons has been able to determine the number of Christians benefiting from Trudeau’s generous invitation. There appears to be a tight lid on the number, with little of the promised transparency.
With a little analysis, deductive reasoning and sensitivity to the situation, one arrives at a disappointing conclusion; namely; that there may be zero Christians among the 35,000. If I’m mistaken, I trust that Ellis, our MP for Bay of Quinte will clarify the number.
Robert C. Wilson
Picton