Pike River Coalmine explosion

New Zealander of the Year

Persecution Today

The Cost of Following Jesus

John 15:18-25

18 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 19 If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. 20 Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘Servants are not greater than their masters.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. 21

They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

John 15:18-25 (contd.)

22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. 23 Those who hate me hate my Father as well. 24 If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. 25 But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason.’

Recent siege of Baghdad’s Syrian Catholic Cathedral

Funeral of two Iraqui Christian brothers shot in Mosul on Monday

Iraqi Christians endure repeated violence

Ever-present possibility

The psalmist: ‘Many are my enemies without cause’ (Psalm 69:4)

Jesus: ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.’ (John 15:18)

Paul: ‘Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.’ (2 Timothy 3:12)

Recent examples of persecution

Magdalene Ashraf, Christian trainee nurse, Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre in Karachi, Pakistan - raped, then thrown from a 4th floor window (July)

Three unregistered churches closed by Public Security Bureau, China, after their leaders were stopped from attending 3rd Lausanne Congress on World Evangelisation, Cape Town (October)

Asia Bibi, field labourer in Pakistan, sentenced to death for blasphemy for asking fellow-workers what Muhammad had done for them (November)

Open Doors 2010 Persecution World Watch

US State Department ‘International Religious Freedom Report’, 2010

North Korea

Iran

Saudi Arabia

Maldives

Daniel Scot (left) and Danny Nalliah, Victoria, Australia

Owen and Eunice Johns, Derby, England

What’s in a word?

‘Freedom of worship’ or ‘freedom of religion’? ‘This linguistic shift is troubling. The reason is

simple. Any person of faith knows that religious exercise is about a lot more than freedom of worship. It’s about the right to dress according to one’s religious dictates, to preach openly, to evangelise, to engage in the public square.’ (Ashley Samelson, International Programs Director, Becket Fund for Religious Liberty)

Religious freedom includes…

‘… the right to raise one’s children in one’s faith, to share one’s faith peacefully with others, to publish religious materials without censorship, to change one’s religion – by choice, not coercion, and to practice no religion at all. And it includes the rights of faith communities to come together in social service and public engagement in the broader society.’ (Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State)

‘Be on Your Guard’

‘It is understandable that in the West – a bastion of freedom and tolerance – Christians tend to think that persecution is something that happens only to believers in far-flung places. But it is becoming increasingly apparent that we too need to steel ourselves for suffering if we are going to make a stand for Christ.’ (Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director, Barnabas Fund)