I do not know when the idea that we are to embrace martyrdom was first understood that we cannot defend ourselves, but I’ve never seen it that way or been taught that it should be so. Plenty of Christians stand up, as they should, and we should support our brothers and sisters in the East who are going through so much oppression as they have been for the past 1400 years under Islam. I would say that the examples of modern martyrs like Bishop Faraj Rahho and Father Rageed Ghanni of the Chaldean Church in Iraq are excellent, as they were confronted with martyrdom and would not renounce the cross in the face of it. Equally, I would say that the example of the recent Coptic protests also ought to be followed:
Al Arabiyya:
Sunday, 01 June 2008
Mallawi, Egypt • Angry Egyptian Christians demonstrated in the southern town of Mallawi yesterday against what they said was government inaction in the face of repeated attacks by Muslims against their community.
At least 300 Coptic Christians gathered outside the main church in Mallawi a day after gunmen stormed a historic monastery and kidnapped three monks sparking clashes that left one person dead and four wounded.
“We have been quiet for too long. We regularly have problems and always forgive but we’ve had enough,” one of the demonstrators, Hanna Ibrahim, said.
“If there is no action by the state, or the people responsible (for the monastery attack) are not brought to justice, we will not remain quiet much longer,” he shouted.
Surrounded by hundreds of black-clad security forces, protestors chanted: “With our blood and soul, we will defend the cross,” and appealed to President Hosni Mubarak to intervene because “Coptic hearts are on fire.”
Notice how they stood up and asserted themselves without burning down any embassies or whatever…HMMM…other religions could learn from this!
There are, of course, more radical people out there (e.g., the Patriotic Revolutionary Organization of Bethnahrin, a militant Assyrian nationalist organization), but if I were a Christian in Iraq right now or Lebanon in the 1980s, I’m not sure I’d have the luxury of sitting back and debating these things intellectually. Our Saviour also told His disciples to be as shrewd as serpents when going out into the world. We are to beware of people who would scourge us. It is a delicate balancing act, for sure, but our faith is worth fighting when we have no other options.
As is sung in one of my favorite Assyrian songs by a singer named Skandar Denho (
Listen to it here):
Michael, the martyr who died for our cause and guarded our lands, your shed blood will not be forgot but forever echo in our minds / By your martyrdom we swear that we will walk in your path and carry your rifle / For the holy land Mesopotamia of our forefathers we shall fight back / …] Our loved martyrs, your are still alive and are the light and spirit of the nation, we swear to you that we will keep your memory alive / We swear by your blood that we will no longer stand silent when we are attacked, but demand our rights under all circumstances.
Sometimes this type of stance is necessary. The Orthodox Ethiopians fought the Muslim terrorists directed by Ahmed Gragn in the 1500s not because they didn’t know how to love their enemies, but so that the Ethiopian Orthodox faith would remain on the land on which it was born hundreds of years before Islam. They fought for their way of life against a force that sought to completely destroy them, and were it not for their fighting back would have most likely done so. Even as though was eventually repelled, Gragn basically gutted the EOC, and the effects of this savagery continue today. Before his jihad, 9 out 10 Oromo were Christian; today, 9 out of 10 are Muslim, and it is by this majority among the largest single Ethiopian ethnic group (~40% of the country) that Ethiopia today has a Muslim majority.
I don’t want to ever face that sort of situation, and it kills me that so many of my fellow Christians do still face it. To say we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us is absolutely true, but says nothing about not looking out for ourselves even as we follow our Saviour’s command, just as we should look out for others when they are persecuted.
