{"id":26767,"date":"2014-07-30T08:00:53","date_gmt":"2014-07-30T13:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=26767"},"modified":"2017-10-21T20:51:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-22T01:51:50","slug":"viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/","title":{"rendered":"<i>Viewpoint:<\/i> A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><em>by M. Francis Mannion<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Recently, I picked up in Barnes and Noble a book entitled <em>The Global War on Christians. <\/em>My split-second reaction was that this was probably a work of hysteria and exaggeration by a \u201cright-wing\u201d Christian author.<\/p>\n<p>Until I saw the author\u2019s name: John L. Allen Jr. Allen is one of the most respected religious journalists in the U.S., having worked for many years as the senior correspondent for the <em>National Catholic Reporter,<\/em> and now for <em>The Boston Globe. <\/em>Allen is no purveyor of hysteria and exaggeration, but a sober and thoughtful writer.<\/p>\n<p>Consider the following examples of Christian persecution Allen details:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In Iraq, fifty-two people died recently when Islamic militants stormed and burned the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Salvation; of the sixty-three Christian churches in Baghdad, forty have been bombed; in 1991, the Christian population of Iraq was at least 1.5 million, now most Iraqi Christians have fled the country, leaving less that 150,000 behind. (The Archbishop of Mosul said recently that his diocese has been virtually \u201cwiped out.\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>In India\u2019s northern state of Orissa, as many as 500 Christians were killed in 2008, many hacked to death by Hindu radicals; an estimated 500 Christian homes and 350 churches and schools were destroyed.<\/li>\n<li>In Burma, Christians are considered political dissidents, and as many as 5,000 believers have been murdered; the government has given its air force authority to bomb Christians on sight.<\/li>\n<li>In Nigeria, the militant Islamic group Boko Haram has been responsible for almost 3,000 Christian deaths since 2009. The group is determined to drive Christians out of the country completely.<\/li>\n<li>In North Korea, considered the most dangerous place in the world for Christians, roughly a quarter of the country\u2019s approximately 300,000 Christians are believed to be living in forced-labor camps because of their refusal to join in the cult of the \u201cdear leader.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Allen spends 299 pages detailing many more such hostilities toward Christians in China, Laos, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Egypt, the Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Belarus, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, to name but the most flagrant.<\/p>\n<p>He states that his book \u201cis about the most dramatic religious story of the early twenty-first century, yet one that most people in the West have little idea is even happening.\u201d \u201cChristians today,\u201d he says, \u201cform the most persecuted religious body on the planet, and too often its new martyrs suffer in silence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Allen refers to the evangelical group Open Doors, devoted to monitoring anti-Christian persecution, which estimates that \u201cone hundred million Christians worldwide presently face interrogation, arrest, torture, or even death because of their religious convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He reports that Protestant scholar Todd Johnson, an expert in Christian demographics, \u201chas pegged the number of Christians killed each year from 2000 to 2010 at one hundred thousand.\u201d That works out to \u201celeven Christians killed every hour, every day, throughout the past decade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Why are Christians in the West not aware of this terrible holocaust? For one thing the media do not report the persecution of Christians, and consider such news \u201cpolitically incorrect.\u201d Political leaders, for various reasons, are deaf to cries for help.<\/p>\n<p>I must say that I myself was shocked by Allen\u2019s book, and wondered what Catholics parishes in the U.S could do. I recommend the following: include persecuted and murdered Christians in the Prayers of Intercession every Sunday; encourage parishioners to buy Allen\u2019s book and read it; sponsor parish lectures on the subject, and set up book-study groups; barrage local and national leaders, especially in Congress, to do something about the growing \u201cglobal war\u201d on Christians.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Msgr. Mannion is pastor emeritus of St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Salt Lake City. Reprinted by permission of Catholic News Agency.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why are Christians in the West not aware of this terrible holocaust? For one thing the media do not report the persecution of Christians, and consider such news \u201cpolitically incorrect.\u201d Political leaders, for various reasons, are deaf to cries for help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[357,43,13,2480,3125],"tags":[1199,2556],"class_list":["post-26767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-demographics-and-sociology","category-eastern-liturgy","category-ecumenism","category-secularism","category-viewpoint","tag-msgr-m-francis-mannion","tag-viewpoint"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why are Christians in the West not aware of this terrible holocaust? For one thing the media do not report the persecution of Christians, and consider such news \u201cpolitically incorrect.\u201d Political leaders, for various reasons, are deaf to cries for help.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Francis Mannion\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Francis Mannion\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Francis Mannion\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/00056ecece512f638325309e2ecba809\"},\"headline\":\"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":620,\"commentCount\":9,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Msgr. M. Francis Mannion\",\"Viewpoint\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Demographics and Sociology\",\"Eastern Liturgy\",\"Ecumenism\",\"Secularism\",\"Viewpoint\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/\",\"name\":\"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/30\\\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"description\":\"Worship, Wit &amp; Wisdom\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"width\":1340,\"height\":209,\"caption\":\"Home\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/00056ecece512f638325309e2ecba809\",\"name\":\"Francis Mannion\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/fmannion\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home","og_description":"Why are Christians in the West not aware of this terrible holocaust? For one thing the media do not report the persecution of Christians, and consider such news \u201cpolitically incorrect.\u201d Political leaders, for various reasons, are deaf to cries for help.","og_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/","og_site_name":"Home","article_published_time":"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":411,"height":90,"url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Francis Mannion","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Francis Mannion","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/"},"author":{"name":"Francis Mannion","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/00056ecece512f638325309e2ecba809"},"headline":"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway","datePublished":"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/"},"wordCount":620,"commentCount":9,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Msgr. M. Francis Mannion","Viewpoint"],"articleSection":["Demographics and Sociology","Eastern Liturgy","Ecumenism","Secularism","Viewpoint"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/","name":"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway - Home","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-30T13:00:53+00:00","dateModified":"2017-10-22T01:51:50+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/30\/viewpoint-a-world-wide-persecution-of-christians-is-well-underway\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Viewpoint: A World-Wide Persecution of Christians is Well Underway"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","name":"Home","description":"Worship, Wit &amp; Wisdom","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization","name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","width":1340,"height":209,"caption":"Home"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/00056ecece512f638325309e2ecba809","name":"Francis Mannion","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/fmannion\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26767"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26770,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767\/revisions\/26770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}