What can we do to help Christians who are persecuted

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Le_Bonvivant

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Brothers and sisters,

A thing that’s really been bothering me is that in the country where I live, Holland, (and I’m afraid it’s the same in other western countries) there is hardly any attention in our churches for all those millions of Christians who are leading more difficult lifes than even the Christians in Rome when the Roman Empire wasn’t Christian yet.

Our brothers and sisters and being crucified, set on fire alive, scourged and tortured in other horrible ways in countries like Libanon, Iran, Saoudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt among others. Even in sophisticated countries like Turkey or Morocco being a Christian is extremely difficult.

These people are giving their lives for Christ and I think will receive great rewards in heaven. Probably more than we will, if you consider how easy we have it here. Shouldn’t we pray much more for them than we do at the moment. Is it not something the Pope (even though not all persecuted Christians are catholics but also orthodox) should adress way more?

I read that in not a single moment in history more Christians have been tortured and murdered worldwide. We are all the same body of Christ, their pain is our pain so shouldn’t there be more action?
 
I agree.

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In the end the Crusades were a spectacular failure, and the Fourth Crusade fatally wounded the Byzantine Empire, thanks to the Sack of Constantinople.

So even if what you were suggesting wasn’t evil, repugnant and worthy of nothing more than revulsion and repudiation, you’re inspiration actually ended up helping the damaging of Christianity in that region. So really, apart from the wickedness of your suggestion, it’s also extraordinarily stupid.
 
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The Crusades were nothing more than Christians taking back the land that was taken from them by the sword to begin with. So sick of people using the crusade argument. Muslims only spread by the sword and instead of being squashed like other false prophets like Manichaeism, we live in a world with this disgusting heresy.
 
Ah, this must be an example of this Christian love I keep hearing about
 
Le_Bonvivant said:
thing that’s really been bothering me is that in the country where I live, Holland, (and I’m afraid it’s the same in other western countries) there is hardly any attention in our churches for all those millions of Christians who are leading more difficult lifes than even the Christians in Rome when the Roman Empire wasn’t Christian yet.
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First, we need to pray for them. Pope Francis has talked about this and urged prayer.

Second, there are many Catholic relief and aid agencies helping out in any way they can. As an example, I went to Catholic World Report’s website and googled Persecuted Christians Worldwide and a list of articles came up describing persecuted Christians and the Catholic Church’s efforts to help and assist many of these Christians.

I also lament the lack of mention of this crisis in many of our local congregations. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if national Bishops’ conferences, such as the USCCB, aren’t already providing aid and other Catholic Charity groups.

As an aside, I remember reading recently that the United States Government plans to do more to assist Christians in the Mideast.

Here is a link to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) website with a
Prayer of Intercession for Christians in the Mideast:

http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-act...e-intentions-for-those-who-are-persecuted.cfm

Here’s a link to USCCB website re Global Issues:
http://www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/global-issues/
 
Yet as we can see, the Crusades are still a sore point for both Muslims and atheists today. European Christians uniting to defend civilization is something that I can always get behind.

Deus vult.
 
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Yeah, the Fourth Crusade was such a stab at the heart of Islam, and the sacking of Constantinople such a show of unity in the defense of Christianity.
 
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We can thank Trump for redirecting the State Dept to provide them with aid.
The UN was completely failing to protect these people.
 
Orthodox princes tried to ensnare some good old Catholic boys in their nasty plots and then not pay them their fair wages. They got what was coming to them. Empire was already dead, the crusaders just put the nail in the coffin.

Anyway, what better way to redeem our earlier failures and heal old wounds than retake Anatolia and hand it over to the Patriarch as a token of ecumenical brotherhood?

Reform the Knights Templar, recruit some good Catholic ex-military to train them, put out the call for healthy Catholic males, and watch the young men come flooding back to the Church.
 
ChunkMonk said:
Orthodox princes tried to ensnare some good old Catholic boys in their nasty plots and then not pay them their fair wages. They got what was coming to them. Empire was already dead, the crusaders just put the nail in the coffin.

Anyway, what better way to redeem our earlier failures and heal old wounds than retake Anatolia and hand it over to the Patriarch as a token of ecumenical brotherhood?

Reform the Knights Templar, recruit some good Catholic ex-military to train them, put out the call for healthy Catholic males, and watch the young men come flooding back to the Church.
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It’s like reading Anders Breivik’s manifesto here
 
The neo-pagan weakling who killed more Norwegians than any Islamic terrorist ever has? Don’t lump me in with that freak.
 
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I have said it before. The Templars would be the only Catholic order that I would consider joining.
 
Le_Bonvivant said:
Libanon, Iran, Saoudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt among others. Even in sophisticated countries like Turkey or Morocco being a Christian is extremely difficult.
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I’ve heard Lebanon is slightly better off considering 40% of the population identify as Christians.
The problem is our governments don’t actually care. They care about the money that can be made in those places. For example, many in Europe don’t want the Iran deal to end because many of their corporations are starting to benefit from doing business with Iran again. Our governments are willing to allow weapons to be sold to the Saudi dictatorship because tens of billions are made in each deal, some of the same weapons that end up being used to make the lives of any Christians and other minorities as miserable as possible. Places like Dubai are still frequented by tourists and those who complain about injustice are among them. Many don’t have a problem with flying with airlines controlled by the oppressive regimes.

Another problem is the public forget easily. There needs to be an effective media strategy.

Invading those countries won’t do a thing. If anything, Christians there would face even worse conditions. The region is very tribal and ‘turn the other cheek’ isn’t popular with the masses there assuming it’s even known by them.
 
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ATraveller:

Lebanon has a large Christian population indeed. But in recent years terror group Hezbollah has taken over large parts of the country. This is a terror group backed by Iran, whose primary goal was to cause trouble for Israel. However, they have now also joined the battles that are going on in Syria and Iraq and they also have an official political party which is starting to control the Lebanese government. It’s an extremely violent group and as a somewhat democratic party with a violent militia it’s comparable to the nazi party with their SA and SS.

And you are absolutely right that our governments, at least the parties in command, don’t really care about helping people unless there is money to be earned.

I see this also turned into a debate about the crusades, but I didn’t think about a violent solution at all. What I did think of later is that I know that when the state of Israel was founded in 1948, the Israelis did everything to get their Jewish brothers and sisters home from countries where they were still being killed. Huge operations took place to save Jews from arab countries. Why can’t we do the same to save our brothers and sisters?

Tigerlily: Thank you for that link!
 
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