Jesus Is Extravagant » The Greatest Story Never Told

The Greatest Story Never Told

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at our men’s morning group (which meets on wednesdays @ 6:30am for any area fellows who would like some free peets coffee) we have a short section where my dad reads various news items that discuss the current state of the world and, hopefully, spark points of prayer for us.

today there was an interesting and saddening article that i’d like to share.

The Greatest Story Never Told: Modern Christian Martyrdom
- susan brinkmann

here are some highlights

while christians in the secular west languish in spiritual mediocrity, christianity remains a deadly serious matter almost everywhere else.

dying for Christ seems almost surreal to most westerners. we live in a part of the world where Christianity rarely makes the news unless it is to be mocked or defamed.

Even the average church-going christian is not likely to know that 45.5 million of the estimated 70 million christians who have died for Christ did so in the last century.

the true extent of christian persecution during the past 100 years is believed to be of staggering proportions.

in the past 50 years, 300,000 christians in north korea have vanished without a trace.

in bangladesh christians are being denied access to water wells and are frequent targets of physical violence and destruction of property.

the situation in india has become particularly problematic…there have already been more than 200 episodes of anti-christian violence this year…

‘christians are, in fact, the most persecuted religious group in the world today, with the greatest number of victims.’ (ninashea, director of Freedom House’s Puebla Program On Religious Freedom)