Posts filed under: christians

I consider myself a catholic in practice and the way I live my life but I'm not outraged at the US governments requirement that institutions cover contraceptives, and I'm was happy when Komen restored funding to PP. Do you think that this "outrage" over the "war on religion" is overblown and misguided? Wouldn't you agree that the idea that we religious are the marginalized minority is a huge insult to truly persecuted Christians around the world? - comedyintrying

That’s a good question!

The response hinges on whether religious freedom is a fundamental human right. If it is, then any violation is serious, though some are more serious than others.

Roll back the clock a bit. If someone had told Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott that their outrage over women being denied the right to vote was unjustified because women in Asia and Africa were being treated far worse, often in conditions approaching slavery, do you think they should have piped down?

A violation of life (as is sometimes the case for persecuted Christians) is as grave as they come, but a violation of conscience in religious matters is also serious, so much so that it’s explicitly protected by our Constitution’s First Amendment.

Hopefully this can actually raise awareness among Americans that Christians around the world suffer such unjust persecution. The Internet is very good at bringing us closer to them — I have friends on Facebook from countries that are extremely difficult for Christians to live in — and somehow we have something more in common now than before.

Anyway, that’s mostly in the realm of personal opinion. Thanks for writing, and God bless you!

- Father Shane

∞Posted on March 22, 2012

Notes: 7 notes

Tags: #catholic, #hhs mandate, #obama administration, #religious freedom, #religion, #catholicism, #contraception, #komen, #pp, #planned parenthood, #persecution, #christians, #christian, #women's rights, #feminism,

Why is this still happening?

Her name was Mariah Manisha. She was murdered after resisting rape, forced marriage, and forced conversion. She was 18.

Okay, it used to happen in the Roman Empire. But this is 2011.

∞Posted on December 15, 2011

Notes: 35 notes

Tags: #pakistan, #persecution, #christian, #christians, #mariah manisha, #mariah bibi, #mariah, #maria goretti, #catholic, #catholicism, #martyr, #martyrdom, #rape, #gunshot, #marriage, #conversion,

abandonedmemoriesanduselesswords:

When God chose to reveal himself, he did so through a human body. The tongue that called forth the dead was a human one. The hand that touched the leper had dirt under its nails. The feet upon which the woman wept were calloused and dusty. And his tears…oh, don’t miss the tears…they came from a heart as broken as yours or mine ever has been.

∞Posted on December 7, 2011

Reblogged from: Bury Me Beneath the Willow

Notes: 38 notes

Tags: #God, #catholic, #christ, #christian, #christians, #religion, #gospel, #jesus, #jesus christ,

80% of the acts of religious intolerance in the world today are directed against Christians. The threat doesn’t come just from Islamic extremism, but a bewildering variety of forces: the rise of Hindu radicalism in India; the policies of officially atheistic regimes in China and North Korea; old tribal and ethnic rivalries in parts of Africa, given a new religious veneer; even secular prejudice against religious faith in parts of Europe and North America.

Lamentably, this reality is largely unknown. Two weeks ago, for instance, marked the one-year anniversary of an assault on Our Lady of Salvation in Baghdad, a Chaldean Catholic church where 53 people were killed and hundreds injured in the wake of an assault during Mass by al Qaeda-linked gunmen. (It’s the death toll, not the fact of the attack, that makes Our Lady of Salvation stand out. In the last eight years, 43 of the 60 Christian churches in Baghdad have been bombed at least once.)

In a just world, this anniversary would have been talked about from every pulpit in America. Instead, it passed largely in obscurity.

Of course, Catholics shouldn’t be concerned exclusively with the rights of other Christians. A credible defense of religious freedom has to mean freedom for all. Yet it is Christians today who are paying the most substantial price when religious freedom is denied — and if we won’t come to the defense of fellow Christians in jeopardy, what hope is there for anyone else?

— John L. Allen, Jr.

∞Posted on November 21, 2011

Source: ncronline.org

Notes: 84 notes

Tags: #persecution, #christian, #christians, #catholic, #catholics, #persecuted, #religious freedom, #freedom, #martyr, #martyrdom, #iraq, #baghdad,

A Christian is martyred every 5 minutes

∞Posted on June 3, 2011

Notes: 43 notes

Tags: #christian, #martyr, #martyrdom, #persecution, #christians, #catholic, #faith, #victim, #victims,

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