Home     URGENT. Social activism, religious activism needed against religious persecution, Christian persecution. Essential for true interfaith, ethical interfaith.
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Elsa of Ethical Interfaith

Universal Ethics Youtube Video

Social Activism


Talk is cheap, I have often heard. It's easy to say we care about those suffering persecution. But when it comes to religious persecution, especially of Christians, I don't see much happening.

There's a tsunami. There's a horrific earthquake. There's a huge storm in the Philippines. People react, send aid. Wonderful.

But daily I hear of children with their throats slit - in Nigeria by Boko Haram jihadis. Of churches burned. Of Christians raped and murdered for being Christian. On and on.

And I don't hear of any outcry, any large-scale social activism.

Muslims reacted against a cartoon they claimed offended them far more than Christians react to the murder of Christians for being Christians.

A Christian bishop has his face half burned off - Umar Mulinde. Which country helped him? Israel.

Wonderful.

But why isn't his name known worldwide? Why are not all people who call themselves Christian reacting with outrage? Why have not all countries with Christian majorities opened their doors to him?

A Christian church in Pakistan is devastated by a suicide bombing. Even the Pakistani church, according to the Pakistani group that is helping pay the hospital bills of the survivors, is doing nothing.

A couple of days ago, I came across a story about Christians organizing themselves into militia. Great. But I don't hear a massive Western outcry of Christians calling for support for these people.

What do I hear instead? The loudest voices are from Christians who want to make sure Muslims are not all maligned because of Muslims committing violence in the name of Islam.

And what are Muslims in the West doing? Are they organizing en masse and protesting against the persecution of non-Muslims, virtually worldwide? No. What I hear is complaints about how they are being wronged. That someone Muslim was looked at the wrong way for wearing a headscarf, etc.

I don't care to even comment on this.

Instead, I am calling for social activism to protect the persecuted.

Social activism.

For example, working for the prioritizing of immigration for persecuted Christians and Buddhists and Hindus, etc, over members of persecuting religions.

For example, working for banning the slaughtering methods of halal meat, first as it uses a killing method more horrific even than the traditional killing methods used in the Western slaughterhouse system, and second as the proceeds have been linked to the funding of groups links to terrorism.

I am sure there are thousands of other projects that can be undertaken.

For example, for small scale social activism: working to have every church, temple, synagogue, etc, in a non-persecuted area partner with a church, temple, synagogue, etc, in a persecuted area, so the safety of these people is monitored, so help can be provided if needed, and so the media is ready to be contacted if any violence happens to members of the group in the endangered area. This would establish a direct contact between people in safe and persecuted areas.


I'm sure you have noticed that I'm talking mainly about Christians. This is the group I have the most knowledge about. I've read a bit about Buddhist and Hindu and Sikh persecution - and about the ongoing demands for the annihilation of Israel coming from Middle Eastern countries, and the elimination of the Jewish population from one Middle Eastern country after another.

But I expect that others will focus more on these areas. This is meant to be a worldwide effort. I am only one person, with a limited knowledge.

May there come to be a large and powerful ethical interfaith community, with members from many pro-human rights religions.

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By the way, activism on behalf of all those being persecuted for their religion, includes activism on behalf of atheists, who have the BELIEF that there is no god, and who are often persecuted for that deeply held belief.

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A few final words, in this first writing about ethical interfaith activism. Without activism, it ceases to be ethical interfaith. We are called upon to act, not just care.

The good Samaritan, in Christian literature, does not just feel sorry for the person who has been hurt. He acts. He helps.


Social activism on behalf of those persecuted in the name of their religious and/or spiritual beliefs - a core part of ethical interfaith.


Elsa


To go to how this group, with its commitment to social activism,
differs from many interfaith dialogue groups,
click here.




To go to a video on
core issues in ethics, like,
can we establish universal ethics,
click here.





URGENT. Social activism, religious activism
needed against religious persecution,
Christian persecution.
Essential for true interfaith,
ethical interfaith.




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social activism, religious activism, religious persecution,
Christian persecution, ethical interfaith,
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Elsa of Ethical Interfaith

Universal Ethics Youtube Video




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David Kilgour - On the Persecution of Christians:

A 2011 Pew Forum (on Religion and Public Life) (http://www.pewforum.org/) study estimated that Christians today constitute about 2.1 billion followers. Approximately one-tenth of them are being persecuted in varying degrees by governments or fellow citizens in 131 of the world’s independent countries. Another source estimates that approximately 105,000 Christians are murdered annually because of their faith. In other words, about one Christian is killed every five minutes somewhere on earth.

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According to both the Catholic relief agency Aid to the Church in Need and the evangelical group Open Doors:

Some 150,000 Christians are killed for their faith each year.

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Another source - 2010:

According to the World Evangelical Alliance, over 200 million Christians in at least 60 countries are denied fundamental human rights solely because of their faith. David B. Barrett, Todd M. Johnson, and Peter F. Crossing in their 2009 report in the International Bulletin of Missionary Research (Vol. 33, No. 1: 32) estimate that approximately 176,000 Christians will have been martyred from mid-2008 to mid-2009. This, according to the authors, compares to 160,000 martyrs in mid-2000 and 34,400 at the beginning of the 20th century. If current trends continue, Barrett, Johnson and Crossing estimate that by 2025, an average of 210,000 Christians will be martyred annually.

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Still another source - 2012:

150,000 Christians killed for their faith each year: Cardinal Dolan

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And then, in CatholicCulture.org:

Every year 105,000 Christians are killed because of their faith.

This shocking figure was disclosed by Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne, representative of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) on Combating Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, at the “International Conference on Inter-religious dialogue between Christians, Jews and Muslims,” sponsored the Hungarian presidency of the European Union (EU) in Gödöllo, near Budapest.

“Every five minutes”, Introvigne said in his speech, “a Christian is killed for his faith." The figure does not include the victims of civil wars, or wars between nations, but only the people put to death because they are Christians.


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Wikipedia:

A recent study, cited by the Vatican, reported that 75 out of every 100 people killed due to religious hatred were Christian

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David Kilgour - On the Persecution of Christians:

The West should use the billions of dollars in aid it gives to offending governments as leverage to stop the persecution of minorities, including faith ones. (The U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron has recently indicated that there will be no British aid to countries mistreating religious minorities.)




     
 

Ethical Interfaith dares to tackle
core issues in ethics and interfaith dialogue.
Are there universal ethics?
How to compare religions.
Religious persecution.



To go from this introduction to more on
interfaith dialogue and
comparing religions, click here.
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