FReepers, Let's GIT_R_DONE!
Posted on 02/25/2015 8:08:37 AM PST by HomerBohn
1. Will Christianity’s over 2,000 years in the Middle East come to end during our lifetimes?
That’s the question Christian persecution in the region asks. Today In Defense of Christians is sponsoring a Day of Action today in solidarity with Persecuted Christians in the Middle East, with an emphasis on prayer, speaking up, and charity: “As Christians across the Middle East continue to face ongoing persecution and death, including the recent beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts and emerging news of a mass kidnapping of Christians in Syria, IDC calls on friends and colleagues nationwide to join a Day of Action on February 25, 2015. IDC encourages Christians of all denominations, members of all faith traditions, and all people of goodwill to unite in prayer, political advocacy, and charitable giving. Working in solidarity, we can more effectively champion the cause of Middle Eastern Christianity.
“First, participants are invited to mark February 25 as a special day of prayer and sacrifice. IDC is providing resources for raising awareness in local communities across America. “Second, participants are empowered to engage in political advocacy. IDC is coordinating outreach to the State Department, Congressional Representatives, and the White House, asking for accountability and commitment from our national leaders. “Third, participants are directed to charitable organizations delivering humanitarian aid to Christians, as well as to other religious minorities, in an attempt to accelerate desperately needed relief to the region’s refugees. “IDC hopes that the Day of Action will mobilize communities across the nation, including the American Diaspora, to stand with Middle East Christians. The campaign is designed to elevate the appeals of citizens so that Washington will hear their concerns. During these harsh winter months, urgent action is needed. IDC is confident that Americans are ready to give voice to the voiceless Christians of the Middle East.” To learn more about the Day of Action, visit IDC’s website here — or visit IDC on Facebook.
2. John Burger writes: [Father Andrzej Halemba, head of Aid in the Church in Need’s Middle East section] heard stories from several people working on the ground, including a nun who told him that in a village near Hassake, the area where the Christian civilians were kidnapped Monday, a group of jihadists came into town on motorcycles and ordered the women to stay home and not to go outside. “And they pulled down all the crosses and said, ‘You should obey Sharia,’ and ‘We’re coming back.’
So the Christians were saying ‘We have to protect ourselves,’ and they sent the women and girls away and took weapons and said they would fight. But what kind of fight? They can’t do much against ISIS jihadists.”
Adding to the problem is the fact that many Christians in Syria fear being targeted by extremist groups even in refugee camps, so they avoid going there and registering and thus have so far benefited only to a limited extent from relief provided by the UN and other large, secular NGOs. Instead, they tend to go to their parishes and the charities of the local Church. Aid to the Church in Need will fund a number of projects to help Christian communities in Aleppo, Homs, Damascus and other cities and villages that have been hard hit by the war. The charity will help provide 4500 vulnerable families with funds to purchase oil, gas electricity and to pay their rent for four months; ensure a supply of medical supplies for communities in Aleppo and Hassake for six months; pay for repairs and fuel costs at half a dozen schools in Aleppo and Damascus, and support local Churches in the repair of badly damaged or destroyed infrastructure, including churches, catechetical centers, and diocesan offices.
Archbishop Jeanbart’s dream project is to establish a “Solidarity Fund” to help Christians rebuild their livelihoods, start businesses, and get training. He says it’s his duty to try to keep Christians in Syria. “It’s important for the Church universal to maintain the presence of the Church in Syria,” he said from his war-ravaged city. “We are the sons of the first missions. The first Christians baptized by the Apostles included many Jews from Syria who would go on pilgrimage to Jerusalem at Pentecost…. So we have a responsibility to do what we can to maintain the presence of the Church where it was born.”
3. Bryan Grim, an expert on religious liberty around the world, formerly of Pew, in an interview: Grim recounts an episode from his college years at the height of U.S.-Iran tensions in the 1970s. To curb anti-Iran sentiments inflaming the university community, he and friends in campus ministry distributed flyers citing Scripture and inviting students to love their Iranian neighbors. Their efforts were met with anger and insults. Grim says the moment was a pivotal one for him, making him realize “the most radical thing in the world is love.” Speaking of the disturbing numbers of young Muslims turning to an extremist form of Islam, Grim says his work is increasingly geared to raising awareness about “radical love.” “If you want to counter radicalization,” he says, “what more radical way to do it than caring about your neighbor?”
4. Cardinal Timothy Dolan talked with Msgr. John Kozar of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association on his weekly radio show on the Catholic Channel on Sirius XM. Msgr. Kozar commented that a beheading used to get people’s attention. We’ve been through so many of them though now, and especially with ISIS – it is its propaganda of choice. “People are so fatigued… They want to move on… even to the point of saying ‘let them kill each other,’” Msgr. Kozar observed. Those of us who are Christian, in a particular way: We’re going to have to answer for these kinds of attitudes. He also warned against a “hit and run” approach to the persecuted and the region. And asked for honesty: There is a religious persecution going on by religious extremists, on a religious minority. Finally, he pointed to the faith of Christians under persecution – the courage that keeps them moving forward in hope. (I’m reminded of some of the stories of the families of the 21 Copts martyred I tried to highlight in my latest syndicated column.)
5. They call them “crusaders”; keeping an eye on ISIS’s latest kidnapping, of women and children from Syria.
6. The Daily Signal highlights some of the best of America here: Zarephath Health Center, where Drs. Alieta and John Eck see patients enrolled in Medicaid or without insurance. And the husband-and-wife team do it for free. “It’s a godsend,” Davide told The Daily Signal. “When you don’t have insurance—they’ve been very helpful. I always say, ‘God bless these people,’ because they’re so nice.” The brainchild of John and Alieta Eck, the Zarephath Health Center opened in Somerset in 2003 as a way to serve low-income patients needing medical care. But their clinic differed from others already in existence: contrary to programs like Medicaid that serve low-income Americans, it wouldn’t cost taxpayers a dime. The building the clinic calls home was given to them by the Zarephath Christian Church, and donations from the community help keep the lights on. Because there is little overhead and the doctors volunteer for free, John and Alieta Eck are able to keep their patient costs low at just $13 per patient. “The people who are sick and have no funds would go to a clinic, which is what it used to be way before we had big government programs,” Alieta Eck said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “We’ll take care of them. It’s in our DNA. That’s why we went to medical school, to care for people and not to be so worried about whether they can pay us or not.”
7. Michael New further remembers John Wilke. Lila Rose, founder of Live Action confirms my memory from an interview long ago: “His book “A handbook on abortion” (which I found on a shelf in my parent’s study) was the book that inspired me at age 9 to care about the preborn.” Matt Swaim will dedicate an hour of his Cincinnati morning radio show tomorrow to celebrating Dr. Wilke’s life. (You can listen online from anywhere.)
8. “Here’s my response to the ever-present implied rhetorical non-question about how to mother seven children.”
9. RFI: The Mont Saint Michel island off the Normandy coast was completely cut off from mainland France on Wednesday evening for the first time for 184 years. (Drone video at link.)
10. I guess this is one way to combat a disposable culture? Or be tempted to wonder if we’re beyond help?
We have to free ourselves here in America and perhaps Europe before we can save the sandbox. We have been invaded, make no mistake. We need a Crusade.
After cleaning house in the West we can attempt to clean the vermin from the Middle East
“And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.”
Mullah Hussein will insist.
Move all the non-Muslims out of the Mid East and nuke it into a glass parking lot.
The Obamatollah is doing his best to end the slaughter of Christians by making sure there are no more Christians alive to slaughter.
What we need is an awakening in this country first. This is a spiritual battle first and foremost and needs to be fought with prayer first and bullets next if need be.
It is getting to the point that the only nation that will allow any Christians at all will be the Holy Land or Israel, where it all began.
If Saddam Hussein hadn’t been forcefully removed and executed there wouldn’t be a calamity in the middle east.
He kept things in check in Iraq. He may have been a brutal dictator, but he didn’t present any problems until Bush I prodded and tempted him. His planes kept Iraq in check by bombing Tehran regularly. Christians and Jews alike were protected by Saddam.
Then, along comes Bush II.
I am so sick and tired of hearing about WMD unless it is applied where it correctly belongs....in Iran wherein lives the current rat in the White Hut’s soul brothers.
Now what America doesn’t need is yet another Bush OR a Clinton.
Obamatollah LOL , Islamic Muslim in Chief.
Your right about him ending the slaughter of Christians in the middle east, by making there is no more Christians in the middle east.
They are working on the Jews and Israel at the same time they persecute and slaughter Christians.
Not only does he not love America, but he hates Christians and Israel to.
I couldn't agree more. Obviously it's too late now to replay that move, but taking Saddam Hussein down, his nastiness notwithstanding, was a monumental error.
[[Will Christianity’s over 2,000 years in the Middle East come to end during our lifetimes? ]]
Of course not, when times get tough Christians get tougher and Christianity thrives- even if it has to go underground-
Don’t forget all the muslims in enclaves in America’s distressed cities.
The only way we’ll have piece is to close our borders and evict all those who will never conform to what passed for polite society decades ago.
All the scum who crawled across that porous southern border AND all the muslims allowed in by a government enamored by the idea of a NWO.
[[but he didn’t present any problems until Bush I prodded and tempted him.]]
Hmmm, tell that to the 1000’s of people he murdered- tortured, lit on fire, sent through shredder machines ALIVE- hung from meat hooks and beaten until they died- - tell that to the 1000’s of young gradeschool girls his sons raped- on and on it goes- But alas- it didn’t affect tyou personally, so ‘no big deal’ eh?
Iraqis who were fortunate enough to escape stood before congress many times begging us to stop this modern day hitler- Apparently you would have told them to STFU huh?
[[his nastiness notwithstanding,]]
Yeah- no skin off our noses- who cares if he wiped out 1000’s of his own people in holocaust-like fashion- better to just shrug our shoulders and say- whatever-
I would have put America first!
If I needed any middle eastern nation to vilify I would have picked the Saudis. In fact, within 48 hours I would have ordered the bombing of the Saudi oil fields.
And while I was at it, Godfather-like, I would have bombed North Korea back into the Stone Age. Those people would be better off dead.
At that time, China was not the land and sea power it is now and they would have either sat back and watched or did something stupid. Russia is another matter entirely.
The socialist world would have sucked in their breath in amazement and wouldn't have attempted a damned thing.
Face it. The time for pussyfooting is over. We've allowed this government to morph into a giant monster that spends more time vilifying its people than protecting them.
(Give me a count on the murder and torture of Iraqis. Were there any Christians or Jews in that count?)
At the rate we're going it will take a brutal dictator with a wide streak of benevolence to drag this nation out of the quicksand mire created by our 'democracy.'
**Will Christianity’s over 2,000 years in the Middle East come to end during our lifetimes? **
No, actually this is helping the Christians of the future, for with martyrdoms as being practiced in the Middle East, more people are converted to Catholicism.
“The gates of hell shall not prevail against her.”
like I said- apparently you would have looked those Iraqi’s In the eye In congress and told them to STFU- it’s not our problem- Thanks for clarifying- the world did the same thing when the Jews were beign murdered en mass as well- better to just turn a blind eye to it and pretend it’s not happening, or worse yet- tell them we simply aren’t interested- Whatever- Have a nice day-
Annihilation is the only answer. Otherwise decades of endless wars. That is why the bomb was dropped on Japan. Estimated between 5.7 and 9M lives were saved by not continuing the war with Japan.
Its the same thing.
Lostesa cosa.
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