Martyr: Dune James Rike

Dune James Rike, the wife of Pastor James Musa Rike, was murdered by Muslim extremists in Kurum, Nigeria.

Please pray for the family of Dune James Rike, and for Christians being persecuted in Nigeria.

Martyr: Asha Mberwa

Asha Mberwa, a Somali mother of four children, was murdered for her Christian faith.

Please pray for the family of Asha Mberwa.

Martyrs: Iraq

In the October 31 attack on the Syrian Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of Deliverance in Baghdad, Iraq, 58 people were murdered. A three-year-old boy named Adam told the al-Qaeda backed terrorists that murdered these people (including Adam's parents) "Enough, enough, enough!" until he, too, was killed.

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Please pray for Christians suffering persecution in Iraq.

Martyrs: Iraq

Attack on church in Iraq kills at least 58.

Please pray for all Christians in Iraq.

Will you pray for a restricted nation?

Over at Christian Persecution Blog there is a call for prayers for those living in restricted nations. These are countries where Christians are harassed, beaten, deprived of property and human rights, raped, imprisoned unjustly for their faith, and murdered.

I will be praying for the African nation of Eritrea. Here is a brief description (to read more you will need to click on Eritrea):

Eritrea has been devastated by war and drought. With independence in 1993, hopes were high that Eritrea could become a model democracy for Africa. Today those dreams lie in tatters. The Marxist government imprisons tens of thousands of citizens, tortures at will, and pursues a systematic policy to eradicate evangelical Christians and churches. Thousands have fled as refugees into neighboring Ethiopia and Sudan. Up to 500 Eritreans leave their country every week to escape this oppressive military state.

Will you join me in spending a month praying for Christians living in one of these countries?

Martyrs: Afghanistan

Ten members of a Christian medical team were slaughtered in Afghanistan by Taliban forces.

Please pray for the families of those who were slain.

Martyr: Son Jong Nam

Son Jong Nam was tortured to death for trying to spread the Gospel in North Korea.

Please pray for Christians in North Korea.

UPDATE: (12:30 PM 7/7/10) For some reason Yahoo! has this story on its sports page. Here is the picture:



It would be wrong to suggest that Yahoo! considers the killing of Christians to be some kind of sport (although I could be wrong). But it is clear they consider it no big deal, and perhaps worthy of a bit of mocking.

Just imagine the outrage if Yahoo! had published news about the death of Matthew Shepard on Yahoo Sports......

Martyrs: Nigeria

A second wave of attacks in Nigeria has claimed another thirteen lives.

The (relative) tolerance for Christianity in the United States is certainly not a worldwide phenomenon, and even that appears to be coming to an end. But we are not yet at the stage Nigeria seems to be entering.

Marytrs: World Vision in Pakistan

Six Christian workers for World Vision in Pakistan have been murdered. Eight others were hospitalized.

Please pray for all aid workers in Pakistan and in other dangerous places.

Nigeria

John Hinderaker at Power Line recently had a post titled, "Why Don't Christians Care?" He was referring to the recent slaughter of 500 Christians in Jos, Nigeria.

Since Hinderaker is a Lutheran and I am an ex-Lutheran, I went to the ELCA's website to see what the leadership had to say about the massacre. Here is what I found:



It is possible that this search was flawed, and the the information I was looking for is elsewhere. However, I have yet to run across it. If the leadership of the ELCA - ostensible a Christian denomination - has any official expression of concern over the slaughter of their brothers and sisters in Christ, it is very well concealed.

Puzzling over the apparent lack of concern, Hinderaker had this to say:

Maybe "mainstream" Christianity is dead, except as an appendage of secular liberal opinion. Maybe, as the world's largest religion, Christianity has become so diffused that New World Christians don't much relate to their co-religionists in Africa and Asia.

Perhaps. But I think that much more is going on here. The ELCA is not merely post-Christian, it is in the process of transforming itself into a far-Left political party that pursues a purely secular political agenda. While I do not think that we will ever see a "Lutheran Party" that nominates and runs candidates for elective office (I could be wrong), I do believe that eventually we will see the ELCA using the tax-exempt status that churches enjoy to pursue political goals and ends that would otherwise require them to follow campaign finance laws.

One of the more common phrases that my wife and I heard during our time as ELCA missionaries was "speaking truth to power". But never once did we hear it used outside of a purely political context. Opposing the Iraq War, capital punishment and the Bush tax cuts was "speaking truth to power". Supporting immigration reform and increased social welfare and public education spending was "speaking truth to power". And so on. Ironically, many of these same individuals were scandalized every time Jerry Falwell or James Dobson or some other non-liberal Christian opened his/her mouth.

As I wrote previously, the ELCA acts and feels like an ecclesiastical version of MoveOn.org - complete with crackpot conspiracy theorists (I lost count of the number of 9/11 Truthers I met in the ELCA) and prejudice (Southern Baptists were probably the favorite target). Given the Left's growing hostility towards traditional Christianity, and the fact that the ELCA eschews preaching the Christian Gospel in favor of "speaking truth to power", is it any wonder that the deaths of so many Christians fails to arouse any outrage?

UPDATE 3/12/10: Here is a screen shot of the ELCA's news releases:




Among the stories listed, there is one about peace building in Senegal, another one about several Minnesota bishops releasing a pastoral letter to the Minnesota state legistature asking for ... something, a report by ELCA lobbyists in Washington on the 2011 Federal budget, and a response to Lutheran CORE. Still nothing about Nigeria.

UPDATE 3/13/10: I can find nothing on the Word Alone website about the killings. Same for LCMC website and the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod website. I don't expect Lutherans to be marching in the streets waving the blood shirt, but this is alarming.

Perhaps this issue bothers me because my wife is African. For me Africa is more than a place with beautiful parks, wild animals, and starving children in need of Western help. It is home - a place where I have friends and family.

The secular media coverage of Africa tends to be shallow and frequently misleading. Nevertheless, they reported on this slaughter. I with that someone in the Lutheran community would at least mention the deaths of over 500 Nigerian Christians.