Guest editorial: It is wrong to neglect the persecuted

I recently mentioned to an acquaintance I was leaving the next day for Ethiopia. I continued by saying I had been in Nigeria just a few weeks earlier.

Randel EverettShe asked, “Why are you going?” I told her our organization seeks to awaken the church in America to those facing religious persecution around the world.

She replied, “It’s biblical!”

I asked what she meant by that statement.

She said, “The Bible says there will always be persecution.”

I was speechless. I walked away without responding. Is that the answer we give to the parents of a Chibok girl who was kidnapped by Boko Haram? When we heard more than a dozen survivors of an attack on Agatu, a village in Nigeria where Fulani herdsmen targeted and killed about 500 Christians and drove the others away from their homes, should we have simply said this is just to be expected? How should Bob Fu, president of China Aid, respond to his friend Pastor Li Jiangong, whose wife was just buried alive on April 14 as she was peacefully defending her church from those who wanted to destroy it?

It is inexcusable for one to use religious faith as a justification for ignoring the cries of the oppressed. It was William Wilberforce’s faith that awakened him to the inhumanity of slavery. Transformational leaders such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela were driven by the base awareness that all people are created in the image of God.

This past year, we have interviewed hundreds who are suffering from religious persecution in Iraq, Syria, China, Nigeria and Ethiopia. We have heard stories of beatings, imprisonment, starvation, killings and people driven from their homes. We have met with orphans and widows. Some of the persecution comes from totalitarian governments, some from militant religious groups, and some from angry mobs or even family violence. We listened to stories of incredible faith and sacrifice.

The Bible commands us to “Remember those in prison, as though in prison with them” (Hebrews 13:3). It is wrong for the church in America to neglect the cries of men, women and children around the world who are suffering from religious persecution.

Using religion to defend our apathy is an insult to the grace of God, who listens to our pleas when we beg for mercy.

The 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative joins other wonderful organizations, such as China Aid and Watch and Pray, to document stories of religious persecution. Please join with us in praying for those who are suffering and act as advocates for those who are oppressed.

Randel Everett is president of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative, which seeks to empower a movement to advance religious freedom as a universal right.