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The Persecution That We As Christians Face Today

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Today, being a Christian means getting killed in mass along with 50 others.

It means being threatened with prison time for tweeting a Bible verse, denouncing police killings in your country, or supporting pro-freedom protests against China.

Being a faithful Christian means being a part of the most persecuted religion in the world. It means getting your church burned down and your saint’s statues getting toppled thanks to media lies-filled narratives. It means that, if you live in the wrong country, you could be one of the 11 Christians killed daily for their faith.

Being a Christian today means you can see your priest get his throat slit during Mass, sentenced to death for defending your faith, being murdered after mass for denouncing guerrillas or sent into exile for criticizing human rights violations.

Being a Christian today means what it always meant. It means — as yesterday’s Office of Readings says in the words of St. Ignatius of Antioch on his way to martyrdom — to “follow the example of the Passion of [our] Lord.”

Or, to put it more bluntly, in Jesus Christ’s own words in Matthew 5, 10-12: 

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

This article originally appeared in El American’s newsletter on June 8, 2022. Subscribe for free here.

Edgar is political scientist and philosopher. He defends the Catholic intellectual tradition. Edgar writes about religion, ideology, culture, US politics, abortion, and the Supreme Court. Twitter: @edgarjbb_ // Edgar es politólogo y filósofo. Defiende la tradición intelectual católica. Edgar escribe sobre religión, ideología, cultura, política doméstica, aborto y la Corte Suprema. Twitter: @edgarjbb_

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