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| Religious persecution, especially of those of the Christian faith is rampant in many parts of the world. Of course the news is suppressed by the various authorities, but the cry still goes up..... |
| Religious Freedom? Not Here! |
 Back in the "good old days", if someone had a different religion to you, and you were in a powerful position, you might get it into your head to 'convert' them. If the object of your efforts didn't want to be converted, than you might decide to make an example of them and burn them at the stake, or something in the same vein.
Human history is strewn with the sad and sorry examples of this sort of meglamania. Of course, in today's rational and enlightened times, or are they? you would expect such carrying on to have passed away. Well, you'd be wrong, very wrong. Did you know that in a number of countries, the active, systematic, persecution of Christians goes on day by day. Sometimes this is Government policy, sometimes it is the normal activity of other religious groups? Whatever the reason, it is happening now. What is really interesting, is that members of those religions expect, and get, equitable treatment in the UK. For certain, if they were treated in the UK, the way Christians are treated in their country, there would be an outrage. Something is very wrong somewhere! While we're on the subject of the UK, all is not well here either. For Instance, in Yorkshire over 130 people have been arrested for preaching in the open air (Daily Mail 1st May 1997). In April of 1997, two Christians, preaching in the open air, were set upon by a gang of youths, The Police arrested the victims as they were, 'causing a breach of the peace'. Does this sound like a country delighting in religious freedom? We don't think so. And the established UK Church (ie. Church of England) don't help either. In 1998 a grieving Lincolnshire Father and Mother were refused permission to put a cross on their daughter's grave, because, according to rules laid down by the diocese's legal chancellor, "Crosses are discouraged, as excessive use of the supreme Christian symbol is undesirable" (Daily Mail 6th June 1998). To repeat, this is not in Islamic Iran, or Sudan, but Lincolnshire, UK! Simon Heffer, writing in the Daily Mail (Sat. 6th June 98) makes this valid point,"... the two worst blots on modern western civilisation - Nazi Germany and Communist Russia - were both atheist states, which, .... tried to eradicate the symbols of Christianity?". Although he was writing in the context of the de-Christianisation of the Millenium celebrations by the British Government, it is worth noting here as well.
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| So then, if, as many people insist, Christianity is a dead, or dying, religion, and a load of rubbish, irrelevent and outdated, why are so many people trying their hardest to kill it off.
What are they afraid of? |
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