Christianity is coming under increasing attack in the Western world. However, at the current time it is nothing like what is happening in Africa, where persecution is a reality of daily life, and Christians are often times not safe in their churches or homes. According to a recent study, the level of persecution is so high that one out of six Christians on the continent faces “high” levels of persecution according to a report:
According to a recent report released by Open Doors USA, one in every six Christians in Africa experiences high persecution. The data represents a significant increase on that gathered in the previous year which found that one in every eight African Christians experienced high persecution.
A press release from Open Doors USA reported, “More than 631 [million] Africans consider themselves to be Christians. Overall, Open Doors World Watch List estimates that over 245 million Christians now experience high, very high or extreme persecution.”
Open Doors USA ranked Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, the 12th most dangerous country to be a Christian in the world. In Nigeria, Christians living in the country’s northern and middle belt regions face increasing threats from extremist groups such as Boko Haram and militant Fulani herdsmen.
According to Open Doors USA, “Nigeria’s score for violence has stayed as high as possible, primarily due to the increased attacks on Christian communities by Hausa-Fulani Islamic militant herdsmen. Additionally, in parts of northern Nigeria, Christians are treated as second-class citizens with Christians from Muslim backgrounds facing persecution from their own families.” (source)
Remember also that when one reads this, while most of the persecution in Africa and worldwide comes from Islamic terrorists, many of these same terrorists are subsidized, trained, or encouraged by the US government and her western allies as part of a geopolitical game of chess. Thus while one cannot exonerate the persecutors, the fact is that much of the persecution of Christians is driven by political objectives, effectively using the blood of Christians and other peoples as a sacrifice for the worldly pursuit of power.
It is true that the world of politics can be very difficult to navigate, and the world does not operate just by simple harmony. Chairman Mao infamously said that power grows from the barrel of a gun, and sometimes people have to make hard decisions in difficult circumstances. This can be said for Christians as well. However, what makes a difference between Christians is that to be a Christian, one acts on the basis of principle first for the sake of moral truth.
For example, Christianity does not discourage war at all. However, Christianity forbids immoral wars and arbitrary slaughter because man is made in the image and likeness of God. While fighting at times is necessary, it is always supposed to be a final option and is not to be done indiscriminately or without a clear purpose. This is what differentiates the Christian from the pagan, for while the Christians fights for an on principle, the pagan will gladly sacrifice principle and morality for power because he makes himself the standard of right and wrong, and in so doing equates his own might with moral right, which is an absolute evil.
Many describe the Western world as “post-Christian,” and this is correct in the sense that the Faith which was in Europe and much of the US is no more as the people have left by choice, and there is little interest among the masses in returning to the Faith. There are still Christians, but the numbers continue to decline save for the constant influx of immigrants which tends to bolster the numbers. Even in this case, it takes but a few generations for the same immigrants to abandon their religion in favor of the worldly seduction of modern life.
The decline of Christianity is a dangerous omen for the future, as it foretells disaster and war. While some will complain about Christian morality as a “restraint” on their supposed “freedom,” this very restraint is not a shackle on helping a man grow in virtue or bettering his life and that of others, but is on his tendencies to vice, preventing him from helping himself at the expense of others. As Christ prayed that the will of the Father would be done at the Mount of Olives before his crucifixion, so is what the Christian is supposed to strive for, not for ‘one’s own will do be done.’ With Christianity removed from society, and with the growing hatred of Christianity in the western world that is reaching new levels with Generation Z, the very society once defined by Christianity will likely not just turn her back on the Faith, but will in the future attempt to define herself by her hatred of the very faith that made her.
This is the danger of the “populist” movements of the western world, for while they will speak about Christianity and talk of “Christian values,” so few of the people in the leadership of these movements are Christians. The reason for this is because they do not care about Christianity save for it as a vehicle for their own power, and once they believe they reach a “critical mass” where they no longer need Christians, their true sentiments will be revealed and they will turn against them. This was the lesson of the French Revolution and all of the populist revolutions backed by wealthy individuals in finance and industry alike in the 19th and 20th century. These revolutions are not being made for the benefit of any people, but of an elite class whose god is darwinism and their own power.
Africa is currently one of the worst, if not the worst place for Christians on Earth right now. However, this persecution is open, clearly illegal, and clearly disordered by its manifest violence. The western world, however, given her support of said persecutions for political reasons and her hatred of the Faith, has the direct possibility to become worse than Africa. The persecution would be more organized in that the first and most obvious ways would be forms of “legalized” discrimination through laws made under the guise of social betterment, and they would have the support of the people. While I do not like the idea of using political parties as an example since both Republicans and Democrats are of the same philosophy and moving the country to the same miserable end, to be a Christian in the society of the future would be similar to professing that one is a strong Republican in the New England states save for parts of New Hampshire, Maine, and select enclaves- it is a recipe to invite social ostracism, possible termination from work (although an employer will never say that one was fired because of politics even though that will be the reason), and even property destruction without care from police as to who did it.
Many times it seems that Christians are concerned about the future life, and indeed one should be ready for the return of Christ, as one knows neither the day nor the hour. However, for too many Christians, talking about the Eschaton is a substitute for willful ignorance and laziness, not so far as “political involvement” is concerned, but as a way to distract oneself from the fact that the house of his society is burning around him and he refuses to get out of his armchair, let alone help those closest to him that he would be in the best position to help.
“Christian politics” in the western world is done for the foreseeable future. Political involvement is good, but the reality is that Christians have lost miserably, and they need to accept that and move on to the next step, which is necessarily the consolidation of their faith by redefining themselves by fundamental teachings and their adherence to them. To take a lesson from the Muslims, it is to decrease political involvement and to focus on living out what the Faith teaches as it has been revealed. For Protestants, this will necessarily mean a decline because Protestantism in all its forms is based on a revolutionary philosophy against the Magesterium of the Church, meaning Sacred scripture and Tradition as well as the universality of Christ’s message in favor of a personal interpretation and tribal context of revelation. The same will exist for Catholics, but it will be different in that for Catholics it is only the continual process of what has been happening for some time now.
But the message should be clear. If this is what is happening in Africa, what does one think is going to happen in the West? Indeed, claims of “superior IQs” of “western man” did not stop him from feeding Christians to lions and hungry bears. If he did this before out of hatred of Christ and the Faith, and given the examples of the savagery of the French Revolution and the following conflicts, what makes one think that he will not do this again?
Prepare yourselves accordingly.