i will personally burn you for implying that christians are systematically persecuted go to school
Hi! Perhaps a little lesson would be good here.
The first Christian to be persecuted was Christ himself. They literally killed him for what he taught.
Christianity was illegal for the first 300 years of its existence, until Constantine was like “O wait that shit’s dope I wanna do that too.” In that time, Christians were regularly tortured, beheaded, stoned, burned alive, drawn and quartered, and – in a word – persecuted. There are records of that, both in the Bible and in historical texts. Take your pick of which you would like to look further into, and do that, please.
Some time in the fourth century AD, king Athanaric of Terving decided to kill some Christians. This one was called the “Gothic persecution” because he specifically targeted Goths that had converted to Christianity.
In the year 516 AD a Jewish warlord in Yemen by the name of Yousef Asa'ar decided that all Christians must convert to Judaism or die. When they refused, he killed about 20,000 Christians.
During the Roman-Persian wars, Christians were persecuted by Jews and by Persians. This one had a death toll of about 17,000 Christians.
During the mid seventh century, Christians living in areas governed by sharia law were banned from spreading their faith by threat of death. They were also forced to pay higher taxes; those who could not do so were required to surrender their children, who were then sold as slaves. Christian men were not permitted to marry Muslim women, but Muslim men were allowed to marry Christian women.
If we jump to the 14th century, we see massive persecutions committed by Tamerlane. This became known as the Assyrian genocide, where at least 20,000 Christians were killed.
In 17th Century Albania, Christians were forced to pay higher taxes than non-Christians, leading them into poverty where they were then unable to afford basic necessities, like, oh, you know, food.
The French Revolution was accompanied by the dechristianization of France, wherein clergy were deported or killed, churches were desecrated and pillaged, and public worship and religious education were outlawed. A law was passed in 1793 that made it illegal to be or harbor a priest who had not sworn off his ordination, by penalty of death.
Christianity has been illegal in China since the late 17th century. This one’s still going on today. We see “Catholicism” rising in China, but the “priests” and “bishops” are hand-selected by the Chinese government, who then tells the Church to ordain them. If that doesn’t reek of state propaganda and suppression of religion to you, I don’t know what will.
In Japan in 1614, the Tokugawa shogunate decided they’d had enough of Christianity in their country. They ordered the expulsion of missionaries and execution of converts. Naturally, the Christians didn’t like that. A young Japanese Christian, Amakusa Shirō Tokisada, led the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637. When the Hara Castle fell, the shogunate’s forces killed 37,000 Christians. They put Amakusa’s head on a spike at Nagasaki for public display.
And now we’ve reached the “Modern Era.”
Between the years of 1843 and 1847, Kurdish and Ottoman forces killed over 10,000 Assyrian Christians, and sold thousands more into slavery. During the Bulgarian Uprising and Russo-Turkish War, over 15,000 non-combatant Christians were killed.
The Hamidian massacres occurred between 1894 and 1896. In these, the forces of the Ottoman Empire targeted Armenian and Assyrian Christians. It is estimated that as many as 325,000 were killed. Another 546,000 people were made destitute by deportations and destruction of farmstead towns and villages. Unarmed Assyrian women were raped, tortured, and murdered.
The Young Turks government of the Ottoman Empire apparently wanted in on the fun. This resulted in about 3.4 million deaths, including 1.5 million Armenian Christians, 750,000 Assyrian Christians, 900,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, and 250,000 Maronite Christians between the years of 1915 and 1921.
The Bolsheviks wanted to remove the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church, so they promoted atheism and intentionally murdered 500,000 Christians during the 20th Century.
When the Soviets took over, they continued the slaughter. It’s estimated that the total number of Christian victims of the soviets is somewhere from 12 million to 20 million.
In Mexico, the Christero War occurred because of persecutions. (When the Soviet Union opened an embassy in Mexico, the Soviet ambassador was awed at how closely the Soviet Union and Mexico resembled each other.) From 1926 to 1934, the number of priests in Mexico dropped from 4500 to 334. These remaining priests needed to be licensed by the Mexican government. The ones who were no longer able to serve had either emigrated, been expelled, or fallen to assassination.
Let’s move on to “the present” (the last 30 years or so).
It is estimated that over 100,000 Christians are killed annually because of their faith. The World Evangelical Alliance estimates that over 200 million Christians are denied some fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. Paul Valley (a Rabbi) states that roughly 80% of all acts of religious discrimination is directed at Christians, despite them making up only 33% of the world’s population.
There is a Christian non-profit organization that publishes a “World Watch List,” which is a list of the 50 countries most dangerous for Christians. North Korea, Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan, Eritrea, Libya, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran are the top ten on 2018′s list.
Sudan and Iran still implement the death penalty for apostasy (converting from Islam to Christianity, or even secretly practicing Christianity without openly professing a conversion).
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt published in May of 2019 that Christian persecution in the Middle East is “arguably coming close to meeting the international definition of genocide, according to that adopted by the UN” due to extremist groups and failure of state institutions to protect their citizens.
From 2011 to 2013, over 150 Christians have been kidnapped for ransom in Egypt.
Despite making up only 5% of the Iraqi population, Christians account for 40% of the refugees living in nearby countries.
You may not remember, but in 2017, Isis took a group of Christians and beheaded them, one by one, on video. They expressly stated the people were being murdered for being Christian.
But no, you’re right. There definitely hasn’t been systematic persecution of Christians. I must be imagining all of that.
Thank you for illuminating the dim recesses of my narrow mind and worldview.
