[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[CDHart]

thanks for posting this --

Carolyn

[catonsville]

I remember the "Save Russian Jewry " signs not only in front of Synagogues , but on the lawns of the American legion and other non-Jewish places. This is the lesson for Christians. Stop fighting each other over dogma and history and get together. Every church should have signs in front, it will soon carry over into nonreligious areas.

Make it an issue in political campaigns. If a country murders Christians, picket their embassies and consulates wherever they are located. Start yelling

Christians have became too nice , too passive, uncomplaining and inoffensive. The murderers believe they can get away with it and so far they are right.

Christianity needs some angry prophets to warn of the eternal consequences of such genocide.

[King Black Robe]

Pioneers of the 30-year effort to save Soviet Jewry urged Christians yesterday to use the lessons of the Jewish experience in defending their brethren being persecuted around the world.

Wow! Great article.

[RussianConservative]

Then in 1974, the Jackson-Vanik amendment made Jewish emigration a condition for aid to the Soviet Union.

And a stick to beat Russia with 13 years after Soviets gone...but US consistently side with Islamics: Egypt (muslim over Coptic Orthodox), Eritria (islamic) or Ethiopia (Orthodox), neutral on Sudan (while Islamic genocide Orthodox), aid to PLO and demand Israel negotiate, PLO over Christian militia in Lebanon, Islamic Albanian over Serb and Makedonian, often Chechyn over Russia, Pakistani Islamics over Pakistani Christian & Sihke and Indian Hindu, Turk Islamic (since 1920s) over Greek, Armenian and Assyrian Christian and Cypriots, Bosnian Muslim over Serb, did I miss any? Oh and mum when Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other throw out all Christian and Jews.

One shining yes for Christian, E.Timor catholics over Indonesian muslim, after massacre so bad that can not be ignore....where is US Christian value in choosing Christian over Islamic?

[livius]

Great article. Pity it was written (if this is correct) in 1997. Obviously, not a lot has changed since then.

On the basis of our religion itself, Christians cannot be aggressive. But we could certainly do more to call attention to the problem and get more support.

On the other hand, maybe this is unrealistic. Christianity is not popular with the ruling left of most European countries and of the US, and the right is embarrassed by us. So I guess we're on our own.

I'd be really happy, at least, if our priests, pastors and preachers would be honest about this and tell us that, sooner or later, Christianity will be what it always was: a call to martyrdom (NOT in the Islamic sense, which is synonomous with homicide).

[Caipirabob]

Pioneers of the 30-year effort to save Soviet Jewry urged Christians yesterday to use the lessons of the Jewish experience in defending their brethren being persecuted around the world.

Worthy adice. Hang tough together or surely hang seprately...Ben Franklin's advice still stands the test of time. Or has the left made in "not PC" to use his name?!?

[Texas2step]

Thanks for posting. Will read later. :-)

[Zack Nguyen]

"The international persecution of Christians must stop, and Americans must lead the effort to stop it," said Lieberman, adding that he will mention the treatment of Chinese Christians to government officials he will meet in Bejing next week.

Kudos to Senator Leiberman. Bump.

[Texas2step]

Excellent post with some very good points. However, I think this issue is much harder to address because the people groups are in so many places at one time.

For a campaign to be effective, I think it needs to be focused in one place at a time. Where to place the focus? Who's going to take leadership of this plight?

Then you have the Christians who say, "Jesus tells us that we're going to be persecuted (which is true, by the way), and it's just a matter of time before it's our time (and some say we already are being persecuted - maybe so, but not to the extent of Christians in most other countries).

We are taught to look for the 2nd coming of Christ, and in that looking forward, we sometimes lose the ability to look around. In some respects, missyme is correct, that Christians do take up ministries for everyone, including Christians, but our efforts are so splintered as to be rendered less effected. We have paralysis by analysis, at time.

So, what to to do? That's a hard one. We need someone to step forward and do the unpopular of leading multi-denominational efforts in these areas. We have some who are trying to lead efforts that are needed, but none have yet been successful in really uniting the many different Christian denominations. Tough to succeed in this environment.

The Christian voice has been muted in Europe and is coming under attack in the U.S. These attacks are another reason we have been ineffective in helping our Christian brothers and sisters in countries of persecution. It's going to take someone like President Bush to use the bloody pulpit and the power and might of the United States, I believe, before we can come together enough to overcome the problems we have.

I realize this post is kind of disjointed, but I just typed my thoughts as they came up. Thanks again for posting.

[Taiwan Bocks]

Jewish leadership is generously exhibited and shared in so many spheres of the international community.

Bigots don't know what they are missing. Or do they just stew in their coveting?

Unfortunately American Christians rarely resemble Israelis, they more behave as sheeple.

Thanks for the ping.