Wholy4Christ

The Perpetual Need for Prayer

Many Nations where surprised to find themselves on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s “hit list.” While it is expected that China, North Korea, Eritrea and Saudi Arabia are on the top of the list, Vietnam, Pakistan and Nigeria where not expecting to be on the list. Their governments seemed to put an effort in allowing and encouraging religious freedoms.

What went wrong? Well, it wasn’t the governments that practice discrimination officially. The local leaders; religious and secular, that led the persecutions or allowed mob violence and personal vendettas take root. India, Egypt, Turkey and even Israel failed in the efforts to protect minority religions. Being made aware of this, efforts are underway to rectify the problems.

While it is easy to condemn these Nations, it is hard to boycott, reprimand and close ranks against them. China, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and many others are “Trade partners” with America. We are trying to build bridges with Iran, Iran, Venezuela and Cuba. Yet all these Nations still have to deal with the mind set that Christianity is a “Western Intrusion”.

International Christian Concern has put together a prayer calendar that is available by request at icc@persecution.org. and Voice of the Martyrs has a prayer list as does Open Doors. To keep updated on the trials of the Persecuted Church, The Roman Catholic Church also reports on the Christians of all walks in China, Burma and throughout the Sub Continent at asianews.it and UCAN.org.

Each day I read their reports and I also read news on Mission New Network. To see the complete list of nations on the USCIRF list you can go to their web site uscirf.gov.

I would like to point out that not all persecutions is against just Christians. In Countries such as Uzbekistan, there are only a handful of religions that are given freedom. Russian Orthodox Roman Catholic and the “National Musim” faiths are accepted, evengelicals, Baptist and Luthern are not. All other Muslims are rejected as well as all Eastern Religions.

What is needed is prayer for the people who having become refugees are being told that they have to return to their homelands even though they are under the threat of death. The U.S.A. and its allies must put these people first. They need our protection over all others. While we face the debate on new immigration laws, those people who come to America for religious freedom are the only ones to be given priority. Those seeking economic betterment can say what they will, but they need to wait in line. It should be understood by the government, that the life of every man, woman and child is the most important reason for entry. Those who enter the country from Mexico can wait a while longer, and use the proper channels.

And as a Free people, we need to step up and tell our leaders that the persecuted Christians should not be delayed in being allowed entry. And we need to let them know that we do not want to buy products made by enslaved people, or from nations that fail to allow its people to worship God as they choose. If China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other nations do not step up in protecting all their people then we should stop all trade with them. We should not aid and condone prosecutions by dealing with them. All Nations on the USCIRF list should be put on alert; No Religious Freedom, No Trade.