Remember all those "Je suis Charlie" T shirts and signs held up by protesters following the killing of 11 employees at the Charlie Hebdo shooting in January of this year? Thousands took to the streets to protest this massacre by two young Moslem extremists (terrorists, really), expressing solidarity with the victims and the right to free speech. Charlie Hebdo is a satirical publication, and they had published images of Mohammed, which the terrorists took objection to (along with millions of Moslems around the world).

Last week at Umpqua Community College in Oregon, a very troubled young man killed 9 people and wounded several others. The gunman asked students if they were Christians, and if they said they were, he replied, "Good, because you're a Christian, you're going to see God in about one second." Then he killed them. Those who said they weren't Christian were shot in the leg or elsewhere, leaving them wounded.

I think the shooter was correct: those he killed are indeed with God, as they are martyrs for their faith. I can only imagine the courage it took for students #2, 3, 4, etc. to affirm their faith, after seeing the consequences.

This is an obvious case of persecuting Christians, but there are many others throughout the world, not to mention the subtle bullying that routinely happens on college campuses. Tens of thousands of Christians have fled Iraq because of persecution by ISIS, for example, not to mention over 600,000 fleeing Syria. Beheadings and other forms of execution are routine. "The number of Christians in the Middle East -- in countries like Egypt, Israel, Palestine, and Jordan -- has dropped to roughly 4 percent of their respective population from a high of 14 percent."
- http://www.christiantoday.com/...ps.sharply/60044.htm

More Christians die for their faith during these times than at any time in history -- over 100,000 per year, according to the Vatican. More than 200 million of us live under persecution, most throughout north Africa and the Middle East.
- http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...ually-because-faith/

Pope Francis called attention to the persecution of Christians during his recent visit to the U.S. As a recent article in the Washington Post puts it, "Has the world 'looked the other way' while Christians are killed?" It seems that President Obama avoids the topic:

quote:

As evidence, Curry pointed to President Obama’s Friday statement on the attack at Garissa University. Despite reports that the attackers targeted Christian students and an al-Shabab statement calling the attack an “operation against infidels,” Obama’s remarks make no mention of religion.

“I think some people would say that they’re fueling Islamophobia [by saying Christians were targeted], but that’s not really what we’re talking about,” Curry said. “We’re talking about identifying the ideology of extremists.”

He added: “That’s a major part of this story. At some point we so have to say that [religion] is part of this conflict.”

It’s not the first time this criticism has been leveled at the president. When the 21 Egyptian Christians were killed in Libya, many commenters — mostly from conservative outlets — criticized Obama for not identifying the victims’ faith in his statement on the beheadings.

There's no evidence yet that the young man (I won't dignify him by using his name) who killed those 9 Christians at Umpqua Community College was a Moslem extremist, so it would be easy enough for President Obama and other commentators to have spoken up about this without running the risk of alienating Moslems. Instead, he chose to talk about gun control, of course! But can you imagine if those 9 had been killed because they said they were Moslems? Do you think the President and the media would have made note of this fact and condemned the bias? Unquestionably!

Je suis Christian!

I am awed and humbled by those students who professed their faith in the face of certain death.