“Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them,” 1 John 2:10-11.
When asked how the country could heal from the savage slayings of members of Bible study group at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, an elderly black woman responded, “Pray.”
At the same time, halfway across the globe, when a radio talk show personality addressed the suspected right-wing Jewish extremists’ arson attack at the Church of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee he said “it should give everyone pause.”
So pause for a minute, pray, and then ask yourself: if, as a Christian, I fail to speak the truth about the persecution of other Christians, how could I then count on my fellow believers to come to my defense when I am being persecuted?
Make no mistake, Christians are being persecuted all over the world, and all over the world people are turning their backs. Do not believe for a minute that all believers will go free – if we are free to remain silent.
We are not free to remain silent. We are not free to shut our eyes. God’s servants freely waive their right to ignore what is wrong.
When he spoke of what he saw; the persecution of Palestinian Christians and the abhorrent treatment of them, some of his “fans,” who claim to be Christians, became anything but Christ-like. They hurled epithets and demanded that he be removed from the air. They said that they would never listen to him again and no one else should have the opportunity either. His voice should be silenced.
Are we to believe that expressing concern for our fellow Christians makes one anti-Israel? Using that simple minded logic, then we would have to assume that most Israelis support the attack on the Church of the Multiplication. They don’t, which is why most Americans are pro-Israel.
The Light tells us that life is complex. Galatians 3:28 teaches us that “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
It is in – and through – the Light that we are compelled to discuss those complexities. It is only in the Light that we can we end the hate and oppression of Christians.
Hamas, Hezbolla, and ISIL are the products of darkness. As we have seen in our own country, with the likes of Elton Simpson, Nadir Soofi, and Dylann Roof, the darkness is seeping in. Evil is evil whatever form it takes, and no matter its target.
In the cover of darkness the intellectually lazy dwell while the knives are sharpened for us. We are next.
To paraphrase Dylan Thomas; Christians cannot go gentle into that darkness, we will rage against the dying of the light. We will speak the truth about the treatment of our brethren and let God, the Almighty, be our judge.