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[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
If you are a priest in Nigeria, you stand a good chance of being kidnapped or martyred.
“Our nation may collapse if the current situation lingers.” That was the assessment of the Catholic bishops of Nigeria after meeting this September. Nigeria gets the attention of media in the United States now and again — typically when something horrific happens. Currently, on the right, there is a “silence is deafening” moment going on about the persecution of Christians there.
That said, if you talk with Nigerians, they tend not to want our pity and are skeptical of what good will come from more American government attention. The way out of the road to collapse for Nigeria is in the things we all need: strong families, real faith, opportunity and the kind of hope that is rooted in the eternal.
“Hope Does Not Disappoint: Working Together for a Just Nation,” a document issued by the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria, should be required reading for anyone looking for more insight into what is going on in that country. It also contains some serious reminders for the West about how to keep a culture from destruction, and what the world needs and expects from us. It makes a plea for renewal on every front.
What’s happening in Nigeria involves more than just hatred of Christians. There are tribal wars. There is widespread corruption. There is also — and this is something that is necessarily a priority of the bishops — a dabbling in the occult, a lot of which has to do with abysmal education. A few years ago, after returning from Nigeria on a fact-finding mission of sorts, a friend who works with some of the dioceses there told me that they were looking for some modest financial support for basic Catholic instruction.
“We believe that the Lay Faithful have a major and decisive role to play in politics,” the bishops write. And is this ever applicable throughout the world. The bishops point to the importance of healthy family life and leadership “in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres of our life” as well. “They infuse these areas with the values of the Gospel, fostering the common good, working for social justice and promoting human rights,” the bishops say. “We encourage honest, qualified and God-fearing Lay Faithful to join political parties and persuade those with the talent for leadership to seek political office and be voted for as a way of advancing the common good in accordance with the social teaching of the Church.” Again, this is a message for all humanity.
Further, for us all, they write: “Hope is one of the cardinal virtues of the Christian faith. It is not naive optimism or wishful thinking. Hope is a confident expectation in the promises of God grounded in His character and faithfulness.” This is not mere positivity. “It is anchored in the certainty that God fulfils what He promises.” The African bishops urge perseverance in hope “and work towards justice in our nation in spite of our sufferings and afflictions.” Rather than feel better about occasionally pitying the Christians and other vulnerable people in Nigeria, perhaps we can learn from them and be more like them. They don’t have the same luxury of distraction that we do. Don’t wait until it’s too late to set our paths here straight, rooted in authentic faith, hope and love. Don’t wait for moral or societal collapse.
Christians still being Persecuted the only difference their not throwing them to the Lions
How about some weapons to combat the Muslim murder gangs. Hope is fine but it doesn’t really kill the Muslims.
It seem I hear every week of some group of Islamists raiding a village, killing, beheading, torturing and kidnapping the residents.
I assume these are mostly poor villagers with no means of defending themselves. That seems to be the big attraction for Muslims, no resistance. They kill people, take slaves to convert and abuse, all for the glory of allah, and expect a special reward in Islamic heaven for their murderous devotion.
Religion of peace my ass!!!
Containing the evil of Islam is an excellent point of departure. Islamic violence is spreading in the African continent. Walking around this most malignant truth where Islamic militants crush tribes and religious communities by viciously raping their women and children, often requiring children to become part of their fighting forces is to look squarely into the faces of evil.
Without a respite from this cataclysmic violence, the virtues of education sit among the ruins.
Unfortunately, the world seems to have chosen to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil all of which has allowed for the metastatic spread of Islam throughout the world.
Christian’s in Syria, Pakistan, India and elsewhere are being catapulted into Islamic tyranny by the most vicious warriors of Islam and NOBODY IS STOPPING THEM!!!
The loathsome indifference to these psychopaths is beyond worrisome and with the current crop of malevolent representatives serving at the UN, there truly are no international organizations in unilateral agreement about what Islam actually is, how it operates, the fate of non-Muslims according to their Quran, and how it must be STOPPED.
Being continuously hunted is emotionally, physically and spiritually exhausting. Would that people across the world wake up to this reality.
Islam’s stated goals are clear and unequivocal. First rid the world of the Jews, then the Christians in order to establish their governance of the world, under Islam, through their worldwide Islamic Caliphate.
Islam is not multicultural or in any way tolerant of other religions…HUMANITY NEEDS TO GET THIS THROUGH THEIR THICK HEADS.
Until this is acknowledged, pockets of Christians living outside of general public view will continue to be sacrificed upon the altar of the most evil “religion”, Islam.