Study:Christians Under Threat Around the World
- Thread starter the iron horse
- Start date
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U2DMfan
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Christians under threat in areas where there are lots of radical Islamists?
Shocker. Next they'll tell us that the Jews are under threat in those regions as well.
Shocker. Next they'll tell us that the Jews are under threat in those regions as well.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
#SaveTheWhitePeople
Vlad n U 2
Blue Crack Addict
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Waawaawaa say the threatened white males.
cobl04
45:33
The actual article itself is a little alarming, if you take a second to read it. I know it's an area with a heavy Islam influence but to hear some are being discriminated against because they're Christians ain't cool. The replies would be justified if all it said was "Christianity is dropping in numbers".
VintagePunk
Blue Crack Distributor
The people described in the article should be felt bad for. Religious oppression against anyone is bad, and it's alive and well against Christians in the Middle East. This isn't some piece about Christians in America and Europe feeling like legalized gay marriage is taking away their rights to have religious freedom.
cobl04
45:33
Vlad n U 2
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Yeah, pretty much.
U2DMfan
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Speaking for myself, I actually did read the article.
And my reaction was more - 'am I supposed to be surprised?'
Radical Islamists are the worst of the worst.
You'll never see me shying away from saying that.
With that said, what can we do about it to any greater degree than is already being done? Are we going to react differently concerning foreign policy because Christians are being treated like Jews have been treated for centuries?
It's horrible. All of it.
And my reaction was more - 'am I supposed to be surprised?'
Radical Islamists are the worst of the worst.
You'll never see me shying away from saying that.
With that said, what can we do about it to any greater degree than is already being done? Are we going to react differently concerning foreign policy because Christians are being treated like Jews have been treated for centuries?
It's horrible. All of it.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
The focus of the article is on militant Islamist groups oppressing local Christians, so why bring up the American white majority? What does that have to do with anything?
Moonlit_Angel
Blue Crack Addict
Thank. You.
Exactly.
On my iGoogle homepage I have CNN headlines. It seems every Sunday there's a church bombing in Nigeria.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
The focus of the title of this thread is "Christians around the world." There is most certainly a disconnect between the reality in the Middle East and what western Christians want to accomplish on the back of that reality.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
Iron horse, a lot like Fox, distorted the context of the article and made up an entirely different thread title.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
The thread title does indeed imply that the Christian faith is being oppressed globally, which is false.
I just chose to ignore Iron Horse's one original contribution to the thread is all.
I just chose to ignore Iron Horse's one original contribution to the thread is all.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
Not really. Especially since Christian growth has increased by about 4,200% in Africa over the last century.
OP
OP
the iron horse
Rock n' Roll Doggie
"The study warns that Christians suffer greater hostility across the world than any other religious group."
The first sentence in the article.
cobl04
45:33
Which is absolute horseshit. Maybe in the Middle East.
Legalising gay marriage =/= hostility against Christianity.
Even if hostility and mistreatment of Christians exist in only certain parts of the world, it is still worth taking note of - especially since its been reported for quite a while now.
Here's a PBS story on this: Facing Uncertainty, Middle Eastern Christians Are Increasingly Emigrating | PBS NewsHour | Sept. 17, 2012 | PBS
The reason why I find this to be sad is because the majority of these Mideast Christian families have been in the region for centuries, long before Islam came along. And now they're being driven out from their homelands. Very sad.
I'm just pointing all this out because even though this thread was started by someone that isn't viewed favorably here (not that I'm complaining), it still is a worthy topic.
Here's a PBS story on this: Facing Uncertainty, Middle Eastern Christians Are Increasingly Emigrating | PBS NewsHour | Sept. 17, 2012 | PBS
The reason why I find this to be sad is because the majority of these Mideast Christian families have been in the region for centuries, long before Islam came along. And now they're being driven out from their homelands. Very sad.
I'm just pointing all this out because even though this thread was started by someone that isn't viewed favorably here (not that I'm complaining), it still is a worthy topic.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
The article is pretty poorly written, they make some rather large leaps of reasoning.
Now I'm not diminishing the seriousness of religious oppression, it's very real, but you and this article are being a little disingenuous with your wording.
For example:
"It cites estimates that 200 million Christians, or 10 per cent of Christians worldwide, are “socially disadvantaged, harassed or actively oppressed for their beliefs.”"
Now how do they define "socially disadvantaged"?
The article also says this is occurring mostly in Islam majority countries, so "across the world" seems a little extreme to me.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
He really needs to change the thread title to something that reflects the content of the thread. Because yeah, this is a perfectly reasonable topic of discussion.
Vincent Vega
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
The thing Western media isn't mentioning when they are writing about it is that this kind of oppression and violence in most cases is not targeted at Christians exclusively, but at people of other religions and very often also people of other ethnicities in general. Nigeria, which also isn't a country of the middle-east, is a little different, but there only 1.4% belong to a religion other than Christianity or Islam.
The way it is reported glosses over the fact that Christians are not an especially persecuted group of people. And it ignores the underlying fundamentals of the conflicts, which are more based on a religious as well as ethnic intolerance of anyone who is different.
OP
OP
the iron horse
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Arguably.
Vincent Vega
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Repeating a lazy argument doesn't make it more valid.
maycocksean
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Even if this is true, shouldn't we Christians expect as much? Jesus made it clear we were to expect persecution.
We're so un-persecuted these days that the teacher doesn't say prayer at the front of the public school classroom we act is we're all about to be thrown to the lions.
Western Christians have gotten really soft.
That said, I know that persecution of Christians in other countries is very real. However, I think it's already been pointed out that persecution of all kinds of minority groups is rampant in many parts of the world.
BVS
Blue Crack Supplier
^THIS I think the "christian" right in this country are constantly looking for persecution. They long to play the victims. Iron does it, the majority of the religious right wing party does it, and all the Jerry Falwell types do it. They honestly have no clue what persecution and oppression really is, and they have no idea of the oppression they actually themselves conduct.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
They do it because their conception is of a Christian polity. In a way it's quite a medieval outlook. Nevermind the fact that I'd imagine the USA in 2012 (13?) is by some majority Christian in orientation. It's not 100%.
