Shame on the Jerusalem Post!

What we have here is a blatantly cowardly attempt to vilify predominantly Muslim countries in order to justify crimes of acquisition against them -- and merely on the say-so of evangelical, end times busybodies!

JPost: 1 in 12 Christians worldwide persecuted, report shows
The list’s number one cause of Christian persecution is the spread of radical Islam. In the African states of Ethiopia, Kenya and Central African Republic, Islamic oppression is rampant ...

Just "rampant" is it?  That's not very precise. The report doesn't "show" anything concrete except an extreme bias against Islam.

Take a look at the report itself. All it does is list a slew of countries, in order of levels of "persecution" that an evangelical missionary organization wants the world to believe exists against them. No examples are given; nothing to credibly demonstrate what "Open Doors" considers to be "persecution".

In fact, Muslims are the world's most persecuted - not to mention the most slaughtered or uprooted - people in the world nowadays - judging by the number of "regime changes" the mostly Christian US has deemed necessary to gain economic control.

Western Evangelicals have stylized themselves as victims of Muslims and the Jerusalem Post has leapt to validate the mirage. Shame on them! Anybody with half a noodle in their skull knows that it's Islam on the chopping block, not Judaism, not Christianity.

Ever hear of the Crips and Bloods?  At times they've distrusted each other and at other times they've joined forces against somebody else. Too bad Officer Krupke was in a different show or, at the very least, he'd have these guys up on weapons charges.

This is the most patently prejudicial, cynical, self-serving, juvenile attempt to mislead the reading public that I've seen in some time.

The JPost ought to hang its head in embarrassment. Instead, although they mention that "Israel is not on the list" of Christian haters (no kidding, eh?), they feel the need to further muddy the waters by stating as vaguely as they possibly can:

• While Christians in the Palestinian Territories face a low level of violence against them due to their religion, the 67,700 Christian believers face an enormous amount of pressure despite laws that protect religious freedom.

See, they don't want to outright lie, but neither can they risk having people think that Palestinians might actually be reasonable human beings -- so they're hoping we, ourselves, will interpret the word "pressure" as coming from Palestinians against Christians.

But if you peer a little further into the Open Doors, you can read this:

• Most of their [Christians'] persecution comes from the Israeli side, including visa restrictions and harassment of church leaders by Jewish extremists. Evangelicals are a much smaller group, and they face denominational resistance from historical churches, as well as the same pressure on the Israeli side.

The key word there is "evangelicals". There are Anglican Christians in Palestine, and they get along just fine with the Muslims. I know because I've met some of them along with their Muslims friends.

Muslims actually bring their kids to Anglican schools because they can trust that they won't be evangelized.

Anglicans are not proselytizers, but Evangelicals are -- aggressively and trickily so. They deliberately try to break up families by wooing children, and that's the cause of their "oppression" if any at all.

Note that the Open Doors report does not record any Christian persecution in the US or Canada. That's because, in the so-called Christian countries, it's mostly Jews and Muslims who experience hostility -- although there is a decided animosity toward various "missionaries" who knock on doors to win converts.

What goes around comes around. If you're going to stick your nose in someone else's business (or country) just because you think you have the best religion, you have to be prepared to not be as warmly welcomed as you feel you deserve to be.

In truth, all of these "missionaries" are indeed prepared -- and they actually welcome opposition because it is a harbinger of the longed-for, long-awaited "end times".

When they list the offending countries, they are, in essence, bragging about what they've accomplished for Jesus! Can we possibly assume that their glee has not caused them to embellish?

It's prophesied in the Book of Revelation (the product of one man's hallucination) that in the "last days" Christians will be persecuted. And if they're not, then they have failed in their efforts to help fulfil prophecy.

The more they achieve persecution, the sooner Jesus might finally keep his promise to return and take them up to heaven, leaving God to torture and slay the "heathens" that are left on earth -- including "unsaved" Jews and Muslims, as well as Christian "backsliders".

The actual scenario gets fiddled with and re-jigged once in a while, but that's it, basically.

So, if it's necessary for them to leave their mostly Christian environs to win brownie points with God under the transparent guise of do-gooding, then that's what they'll do.

If you don't believe me, check it out:

• Satan will convince the world that it is God's commandment[-]keeping people who have brought destruction upon the world and we will become targets for great persecution (Rev. 13:15)

See? North America is basically Christian, so even though N.A.Christians bicker amongst themselves, it's not possible for them to do wrong elsewhere by bringing "the gospel" to people of other persuasions. If they seem to be doing wrong, that's just Satan messing with your mind. Capiche?

I guess Satan's after me because I doubt very strongly that Open Door Christians are gratuitously persecuted in Muslim countries. It's much more likely that they are merely provoking the same hostile reactions that the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses encounter when they knock on doors in North America to spread their own brand of "the gospel". (N.A.Evangelicals do their stuff via TV.)

Ask any North American what they think of Mormons and J.W.'s bothering them in their own home. A large number of them don't mince words in telling them to get lost -- while "born-agains" might invite them inside to enjoy subjecting them to a list of "stumper questions" in an effort to make their visitors look ignorant and foolish.

Evangelicals feel threatened by Mormons and J.W.'s, so they aren't inclined to show them the loving kindness of Jesus. And if any of them ever has the gall to run for President, he may well rue the day.

Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Evangelical Christians alike refer to their own busybodiness as "witnessing" but it's mostly just an attempt to expand their own numbers and win favour with an extremely demanding God.

In the process of luring people into their world they break up families; they try to indoctrinate children, and they threaten adults with hellfire and brimstone. And they expect people of other persuasions to accept this good-naturedly - yea, even to be grateful for the "good news" they have brought.

In my opinion it's analogous to hanging around street corners and school yards, whispering "Pssst, wanna feel good; I've got what you need." No doubt petty drug dealers feel persecuted as well.

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More Reading:

Salon: Celebrate religious freedom — the way the Founding Fathers originally intended
We arrive once again at Religious Freedom Day on Jan. 16, when the Christian right will claim that its “freedom” to oppress others is under horrendous assault.

Globe&Mail - Perception vs. reality: Why negative views of Islam should be challenged
... nearly half of Canadians believe that "the presence of Islam in their country's public life is damaging." No other religion faces such widespread contempt [...] Yet the perception of Islam is so different from the lived reality of Canadian Muslims.

Everything is all about marketing. Using Evangelism Techniques to Sell Stuff

Image: The power of peer evangelism for kids
... a for-kids by-kids product that intentionally leverages the idea of “who better to speak to kids than… kids themselves?”

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