Last Sunday the weekly TV program "60 Minutes" had a piece on the Patriarch of the Eastern Catholic Church, also known as the Orthodox Church. The bishop is the world leader of Orthodox Christianity with over 300 million followers worldwide. As I pointed out in my last post on this blog on the history of the Byzantine Empire, after the Ottoman Muslim Turks conquered what was Asia Minor in Roman times, the Muslims have been on a genocide against Christians. This is the area where Christianity was born, the seven early churches of the New Testament are all here. Today, it is reported that there are 4,000 Christians left in modern Turkey.
One of my parish priest, Fr. Tom, who spent time in Turkey as a US Air Force Chaplain said that he had to get permission from the town mayor to ring the church bell. Suffice it to say, if you're Christian in a Muslim country you're the same as a lamb in a wolf's den. Among the things that the Christians of Turkey cannot do is to operate a seminary. The last seminary was closed and it is against the law to operate it.
Which leads to my question: What happened to the Christians of the world that they let this genocide continue? The United States is a close friend of Turkey. The fact that they persecute our fellow Christians is never mentioned. What about the Europeans? They're about ready to admit Turkey into the European Union. No questions about Muslim persecution of Christians - never mentioned. Can you imagine what would happen, for example, if the U.S.A. persecuted Muslims in America? The Muslims killed a bunch of innocent people and burned some towns when a Danish newspaper published a cartoon they deemed "offensive," but we do nothing when the Muslims kill and persecute our brothers and sisters. There some things in life that I will never understand; or am I in a different planet?
It does boggle the mind. We are living at a time when those in power have no moral compass. Politics is self serving. We need to pray and work hard for better leadership. 2010 is our chance to get back to basics, or at least it will be a start. Christianity is in the crosshairs of those now in power all over the world evidently. We know it is not going away, and we MUST defend It and the values all religions of good will have.
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