It’s the season of goodwill, but the ideal wouldn’t exist without the world’s leading religion and human rights pioneer.
Christianity has been a dynamic force for positive change for more than 2,000 years, inspiring a free and just planet, and setting the standard for ethics, morality, and freedom of worship.
Christians institutionalized feeding the hungry, quenching the thirsty, clothing the naked, healing the sick, giving hope to the incarcerated, comforting the bereft, and showing mercy to the destitute. But they are a geopolitical target for social injustice and their persecution is fanatical around the globe.
Christ’s believers are the most oppressed, abused, victimized, and ill-treated people on earth, facing discrimination in 139 countries — almost three-quarters of the world’s nations — according to the Pew Research Center.
Endangered Christians are the new lepers, forced to flee their ancient biblical heartlands or face bigotry and death in the terror cauldrons of Asia, Africa, and the Middle East with astounding oversight from the West:
• Eighty percent of all religious discrimination is directed at Christians, reports the International Society for Human Rights.
• Christians are being crucified and beheaded for their faith.
• They are being forced to convert to Islam or face death.
• Their churches are being torched and their ranks decimated.
Militant Islam and theo-fascist Islamo-regimes are the major culprits. Down through the ages, Muslims have persecuted Christians and other freethinkers for being “infidels,” while establishing Islam’s dominance at the expense of Middle Eastern Christians by squashing their right to self-determination.
The season of goodwill is a great time to remember that religious liberty — the first freedom of the First Amendment — is a civil right born of Christian values. The same ones that put others first and wish one and all a very “Merry Christmas.”
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