Dear Friends,
It seems to me, we are at the beginning of another Christian genocide, similar to the Armenian genocide but exceeding it in geographical area and number effected. Another stark difference between the Armenian genocide and today, is the Turks are embarrassed about it, even to this day denying it, but those who are systematically slaughtering Christians today, with the stated goal of ridding the world of Christianity, are open about it and even televise their atrocities. The people of today are different in their reactions as well, in the past, people would have been quite shocked to hear that a whole group of human beings were being systematically exterminated, but today, it appears that very few even care, preferring to turn their heads from the horror and allow it to go on. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, not to speak is to speak, not to act is to act…
Not to speak against a crime against humanity, and not to act, is to support that crime against humanity and in fact, makes one complicit with that crime. We are a communicative species. We communicate our needs, wants, where the best food is and what tv shows are good. By communicating we help our fellow human beings and are in turn helped. Communication is more than just talking however, it can be verbal, physical or we can withhold information, which is itself a form of communication. We are exposed in our humanity or inhumanity by what we communicate or don’t communicate to others. If we tell someone about a dire threat, we are instrumental in saving them, but if we withhold communication on a deadly threat, then we are to blame if that person dies of it. Not to speak is to speak…
Not to act when you are in a position to act is to empower more of such crimes. Obviously if someone is machine gunning a Mall, we are obliged to seek shelter and our actions are very limited, if however, a monster has a little girl in a bathroom and is raping and strangling her, another man who witnesses it has a human duty to stop it. States have been passing bad Samaritan laws because people have become so selfish and callous. What does it say about a person who allows a heinous crime to go on in their presence and does nothing whatsoever to stop it? It says that person is as much a monster as the perpetrator. Not to act is to act…
We are at the centennial anniversary of the Armenian genocide. In 1915 during the first world war, the Turks decided they were at war with Christianity, so they decided to exterminate Christians from the Ottoman empire. They slaughtered Christians with glee. Millions of human beings were murdered in the most horrible ways possible. If they refused to convert to Islam, pregnant women had their babies cut from their living stomachs in front of their husbands, children were executed, young girls were crucified, people were put on trains without water in the terrible heat and sent to Syria to be killed. In the end there is no real accounting for how many Christians were murdered then. Not all the Christians that were murdered were Armenians and not all Armenians were killed, but that evil chapter of human history is called the Armenian genocide.
Today there are many places on the Earth where Christians are being systematically eliminated. The slaughter started in Darfur and our silence has empowered the spread across the Middle East, Asia and Africa. There is not a single Muslim nation on the planet where Christians are safe today. The most obvious crimes are by ISIS in the new Caliphate, because they televise the beheadings, crucifixions, and slave markets where little Christian girls as young as five are sold into the sex trade. Nigeria has Boko Haram where dozens of Christian churches have been burned full of congregants, whole Christian villages have been exterminated and little girls are routinely captured and sold into slavery. Pakistan just had a bomb attack on a church that killed many congregants while at Mass. Egypt took a step back from the precipice when El Sisi ousted the Muslim Brotherhood, and by doing so, saved perhaps the last of the Coptic Christians from Genocide. Afghanistan has exterminated Christianity.
Every day that passes without condemnation by the world powers and UN sees an increase in the rate and ferocity of the Christian genocide. Turning a blind eye has never worked in the past but even a small effort can save many. The Rwandan genocide was know by the leaders of the world, as it was happening but nothing was done to stop it. Many in Germany and Poland suspected the Holocaust was happening, but few did anything to save the Gypsies and Jews from that horror, those who did will live forever as heroes of humanity, Oskar Schindler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Raoul Wallenberg among others. The Armenian Genocide had only one hero, Mehmet Celal Bey, who in a short time saved thousands of human beings from the evil machine of inhumanity.
When genocide is ignored it gets traction, and once it has run for a little time, it gets momentum. The slaughter of Christians in the Middle East is just the beginning, Europe is the next battleground. The Charlie Hebdo attacks, the beheading of a British serviceman by Muslims on the streets of England, the mass surveillance by governments the world over to prevent violent “extremism,” and the exodus of Jewish people from Europe, even in the US, there are places Christians are not safe simply for being Christians, Islam is taught in the schools while Christianity is barred, and the government refuses even to acknowledge it, are all signs the violence and inhumanity are spilling over from the Middle East to the rest of the world. I guess most people identify with the perpetrators and not the victims.
You can remain silent and merely turn your head, by doing so you implicate yourself in the crime, you can withhold action against the crime, which makes you an accomplice, or you can speak and act, which makes you a champion of humanity, like the family who protected and kept Anne Frank’s family in their attic. We have the ability to communicate and we have the ability to act, whether we will or not, depends on our humanity. Those who are human hearted in the Muslim world are acting and speaking, putting their own lives at risk for the Christians, sadly, it seems very few Christians will lift a finger, until they are the targets, then it is too late, you will have become an accomplice in your own family’s murder. Future history will be adamant who the villains and who the heroes are. Speaking and acting makes you a hero, not speaking and not acting makes you a villain… which do you choose to be?
Sincerely,
John Pepin
