A few days ago, there was another terrorist attack in the tiny country of Burkina Faso in West Africa, where six Christians were executed at a Church. Information has since come out that has confirmed the Christians were indeed martyred, since the terrorists are reported to have attempted to convert the Christians to Islam before they were murdered:
Christians in Burkina Faso are mourning a deadly attack on a Protestant church as “a new turning point in terrorism” in the West African nation.
Sunday’s shooting at an Assemblies of God congregation in a northern village left six people dead, including the pastor, and represents the first church attack among the recent surge of Islamist violence.
A dozen gunmen on motorcycles stormed the courtyard of the Sirgadji church after worship, fatally shooting its longtime pastor as well as five other congregants after demanding they convert to Islam, according to a statement sent to CT by the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Burkina Faso, Michel Ouédraogo. The attackers also stole from the church and burned its pulpit.
The church was one of the oldest Protestant congregations in the region, which borders Mali to the north, and pastor Pierre Ouédraogo had served there since its founding in the 1980s. The longtime pastor had sensed danger, but told family members “he prefers to die for his faith rather than leave the village where he has served for nearly 40 years,” said his son-in-law, according to the AG statement.
His testimony “shows the commitment that Pastor Pierre Ouédraogo had for the ministry,” Michel Ouédraogo told CT. “His family and members of the church are shocked, and naturally live in fear. However, we firmly believe that God will comfort them in these moments of pain.” (source, source)
Christian persecution is a major and growing issue around the world. However, it also grows with political power. That is to say, the persecution of Christians is many times a political ordeal orchestrated by governments for their temporal gain using Christian persecution as a way to justify their own self-serving policies.
Consider all of the talk about Christians and Christian persecution in Iraq. Yes, ISIS was involved, but who made ISIS, and how did all of those Islamic “rebel groups” appear after Christians had been living in peace in Iraq for decades and made up 6% of the nation’s population, and many even served in the highest ranks of Saddam Hussein’s government? The persecution of Christians in Iraq cannot be blamed simply on “the Muslims,” because it was the Americans along with NATO, Israel, and Saudi Arabia who gave the constant flow of weapons, ammunition, training, and logistics to enable a genocide as part of a geopolitical plan for monopolizing and stealing resources and preparing for a war with Russia.
One may look at the situation with Syria as well. The Asad family has openly shown their respect for Christians, and between 20% to 25% of Syria was Christian. Those numbers have declined as Christians have been severely persecuted by the same groups funded by the same cabal of nations who destroyed Iraq.
The drug cartel terrorists of Central America have violently persecuted Christians while at the same time have been reviving paganism, yet they always seem to elude capture from the government. Yet, it is also a known fact that drugs are linked to black-bag funding from many government, especially the US, and there are direct overlaps between the cartels and US military operations. It does not matter that Christians suffer and die, but that those who are funding the suffering get their money and geopolitical objectives realized for their own gain.
There is much Christian persecution in Nigeria right now at the hands of Boko Haram, but who funds Boko Haram? As Shoebat.com has noted, Nigeria is a major power in West Africa with much potential, and is also the greatest supporter of China outside of China, and has large reserves of oil and other minerals as well as is geopolitically strategic with her location. She also hosts a major oil pipeline that brings oil from West Africa to Europe. All of these terrorist attacks are happening in and around her, and at a time when the US appear to be working with NATO nations to develop new oil and mineral access routes in Western and Central Africa.
Christians are being severely persecuted in India, but who are the persecutors? They are Hindu nationalists modeled after the same national socialism as Germany and what America has promoted for decades with Operation Gladio. India is also a major US ally. Could the silence of the US on the plight of Christians in India be because of geopolitics and an anti-China stance, since ultimately the US does not care about them?
To that, what about the situation of Christianity in Iran? Christians are a minority of the population at about a half-a-millionpeople, but the Catholic and Armenian Orthodox Churches have operated there for centuries without serious problems. Why is it that the “Christian persecution” in Iran always seems directed toward the “underground churches,” which just seem to be ever-so-frequently tied to American-backed Evangelical Protestant missions, yet almost never involve Catholics or Eastern Orthodoxy?
In Russia, there is talk of “Christian persecution,” and while it is true that Catholics and Lutherans have suffered some real persecution at the hands of Orthodox nationalism (of which the term itself is an oxymoron, since the Orthodox separations are inherently nationalistic using “tradition” as a justification for insubordination), it almost never involves the Orthodox, Catholics, or Mainline Protestants with a historical basis in Russia (such as Lutherans and Mennonites), but almost always American-funded sects such as Baptists, Pentecostals, and other cults?
Christian persecution is real, but it is also political. There is a very distinctive pattern suggesting that Christians are either the target of terrorism and persecution for political actors, or that in some cases, schismatic forms of Christianity are promoted for political reasons devoid from the objective truth of Christian teaching.
One may recall the case of “Pastor” Saeed Abedini, a “persecuted Christian” in an Iranian prison. His now ex-wife, Naghmeh Abedini, said that one of the reasons why she divorced him was because he was watching porn in prison.
Since when has one ever heard of a persecuted Christian in prison for Christ in a foreign nation that is supposedly highly abusive and tortures Christians regularly, watching porn while in jail?
The story doesn’t make sense, and neither does the life of Saeed or Naghmeh on further review.
What was actually happening in that situation? Could if have been a “Pastor Brunson” type situation such as what Shoebat.com has written about before (see here, here, here?
Right now and based on the current evidence, we do not know. However, there is certainly enough evidence to suggest there is more than what appears.
Many people ask “why doesn’t the government do anything more about Christian persecution,” but perhaps this is the wrong question. If the governments have been shown to be behind much terrorism and there is evidence to suggest they may have been behind other acts, what would having them “do more” accomplish other than to cause more terrorism?
So continue to watch carefully the situation with Christian persecution, but remember that much of this persecution involves not only the persecutors, but the sources that enabled the persecution, just has how it was not only the Turks who murdered the Christians of Armenia and Assyria a century ago, but also the American and German weaponsmakers and bankers who financiallyprofited from the blood of the martyrs.