September 4 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

Find similar articles E-mail this page

When was the last time you were in Sunday worship and heard your pastor speaking out about the 2 million people in southern Sudan—mostly Christians—who have been killed, or about those who have been sold into slavery? When was the last time you heard about the suffering of Coptic Christians in Egypt?

Or about believers in China—like house-church pastor Li Dexian? In 1995 Li was beaten by Chinese police with a Bible in an apparent attempt to break his windpipe. They jumped him and struck him with an iron bar, breaking his ribs and causing him to vomit blood. His suffering continues: Li has been arrested more than 13 times since October 1999.

Some Christians have indeed spoken out consistently against persecution of other Christians. Chuck Colson, the late Cardinal John O'Connor, Richard Land, and James Dobson come to mind.

For the most part, however, churches and Christian leaders have been shame fully silent.

There 2 million people, mostly Christians, have been killed in the midst of a 17-year civil war. Many Americans do not realize that slavery still exists in the world, as it does in Sudan. The war that has killed and en slaved so many has been waged mostly by the extremist Islamic government in Khartoum, which has been trying to force Islamic law on the Christian population in the South.

The Sudanese government bombed a hospital in the South earlier this year, injuring several people and killing two. One of those killed was Tombek Marcello Daniel, a Christian worker with Far Reaching Ministries. Daniel was training to be a pastor, but now he is gone and his wife and children are left behind. Media reported that about a dozen bombs fell on the area and that this was an intentional attack on civilians and ...