25,000 Evangelical Christian Youth rally against promiscuity and corporate culture

[PsychoKat 0]

I find it funny how some christians (minority) always claim to be persecuted. it's like they look for any excuse to be persecuted and almost love doing it.

Everyone's gotta be a martyr. lol

When Christians can't maintain public churches, when they start losing jobs because of their faith, when the court takes the kids away from them because of their faith, when they can't be married by a pastor of their faith because it "isn't recognized" by the state, when a Christian soldier's family is told that they can't have a cross on his tombstone....... THEN they can complain about persecution.

Lets just add, when their children are suspended for wearing a cross at (public)( school, or drawing one on their notebook too.

[ace13 0]

It is happening. Trust me. It may not be this extreme in the US, but this is no joke.

Christians are persecuted more today than they than at any time prior to the 20th century. They are also currently the most persecuted religious group in the world, and persecution has intensified during the past several years. Torture, enslavement, rape, imprisonment and killings are among the atrocities perpetrated upon believers around the world, many of them stemming from two sources: communism and politicized Islam.

Persecution is most severe in such countries as China, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Cuba, Laos and Uzbekistan

China, for example, has been designated for the fourth straight year as a “country of particular concern” by the United States Secretary of State under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In its 2003 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) characterizes the Chinese government as “a particularly severe violator of religious freedom. Persons continue to be confined, tortured, imprisoned, and subject to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief.”1

The government requires Christians to worship in atheistic government-controlled churches. Refusing to do so, some 60 to 100 million risk their lives and liberty to worship in underground “house churches.” Some Christians have been savagely beaten to death by police for their religious affiliations. Meanwhile, thousands of others are being “reformed by labor” in China’s vast religious gulag, the subjects of inhuman, intense, spirit-breaking physical work.

According to the USIRCF, this crackdown against religious believers “was authorized at the highest levels of the government, according to reportedly official documents obtained by human rights nongovernmental organizations.2

Sudan has aptly been characterized as “the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief.”3 Since 1983, the government has waged a jihad, or holy war against Christians and other non-Muslims in the southern part of the country. As part of its “scorched-earth policy,” the Sudanese government has encouraged militias and some tribal groups to conduct slave raids on undefended villages in the south and the Nuba Mountains.4 In government refugee camps, Christian mothers have been made to choose between converting to Islam or watching their babies starve. Christian boys are taken from their families, put in military camps, forcibly converted to Islam and sent into war to be sacrificed as cannon fodder.5

In Saudi Arabia, according to a recent U.S. State Department report, “Freedom of religion does not exist. Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims.”6 Christianity is effectively banned, and police seek out and raid secret worship services taking place in private homes. Thousands of foreign and national workers are in prison for their faith; some have even been beheaded under fabricated charges.7

In Egypt, the indigenous Coptic Christian community, “while generally able to practice its religion, is threatened in various degrees by terrorism from extreme Islamic groups, by the abusive practices of local police and security forces, and by discriminatory and restrictive Egyptian Government policies.”8

One incident that captured worldwide attention in 1998 is telling. Following the murder of two Coptic Christians, apparently by five Muslim men, police rounded up and tortured almost 1,200 local Copts. The police wanted to portray the murders not as inter-religion strife, but as a matter between Copts—and they were determined to find Christian suspects to prove their point. Their efforts knew few bounds.

Reporting on the incident, Freedom House, a widely respected human rights organization noted, “Many, including women and children, were tied to doors, beaten, whipped, suspended, tied in painful positions and subjected to electric shocks with clamps attached to all parts of their bodies, …. An eleven-year-old child was bound, tortured and suspended from a rotating ceiling fan until he lost conscious. Women and girls were threatened with rape, and some tortured in front of their fathers, sons and husbands.”9 The national government and local government harassed and even jailed those spoke out against these brutalities.

As the beacon of hope for the ideals of liberty and freedom, America must be a strong voice for and a protector of religious freedom.

[Jenn! 918]

It is happening. Trust me. It may not be this extreme in the US, but this is no joke.

Christians are persecuted more today than they than at any time prior to the 20th century. They are also currently the most persecuted religious group in the world, and persecution has intensified during the past several years. Torture, enslavement, rape, imprisonment and killings are among the atrocities perpetrated upon believers around the world, many of them stemming from two sources: communism and politicized Islam.

Persecution is most severe in such countries as China, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Cuba, Laos and Uzbekistan

China, for example, has been designated for the fourth straight year as a “country of particular concern” by the United States Secretary of State under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In its 2003 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) characterizes the Chinese government as “a particularly severe violator of religious freedom. Persons continue to be confined, tortured, imprisoned, and subject to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief.”1

The government requires Christians to worship in atheistic government-controlled churches. Refusing to do so, some 60 to 100 million risk their lives and liberty to worship in underground “house churches.” Some Christians have been savagely beaten to death by police for their religious affiliations. Meanwhile, thousands of others are being “reformed by labor” in China’s vast religious gulag, the subjects of inhuman, intense, spirit-breaking physical work.

According to the USIRCF, this crackdown against religious believers “was authorized at the highest levels of the government, according to reportedly official documents obtained by human rights nongovernmental organizations.2

Sudan has aptly been characterized as “the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief.”3 Since 1983, the government has waged a jihad, or holy war against Christians and other non-Muslims in the southern part of the country. As part of its “scorched-earth policy,” the Sudanese government has encouraged militias and some tribal groups to conduct slave raids on undefended villages in the south and the Nuba Mountains.4 In government refugee camps, Christian mothers have been made to choose between converting to Islam or watching their babies starve. Christian boys are taken from their families, put in military camps, forcibly converted to Islam and sent into war to be sacrificed as cannon fodder.5

In Saudi Arabia, according to a recent U.S. State Department report, “Freedom of religion does not exist. Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims.”6 Christianity is effectively banned, and police seek out and raid secret worship services taking place in private homes. Thousands of foreign and national workers are in prison for their faith; some have even been beheaded under fabricated charges.7

In Egypt, the indigenous Coptic Christian community, “while generally able to practice its religion, is threatened in various degrees by terrorism from extreme Islamic groups, by the abusive practices of local police and security forces, and by discriminatory and restrictive Egyptian Government policies.”8

One incident that captured worldwide attention in 1998 is telling. Following the murder of two Coptic Christians, apparently by five Muslim men, police rounded up and tortured almost 1,200 local Copts. The police wanted to portray the murders not as inter-religion strife, but as a matter between Copts—and they were determined to find Christian suspects to prove their point. Their efforts knew few bounds.

Reporting on the incident, Freedom House, a widely respected human rights organization noted, “Many, including women and children, were tied to doors, beaten, whipped, suspended, tied in painful positions and subjected to electric shocks with clamps attached to all parts of their bodies, …. An eleven-year-old child was bound, tortured and suspended from a rotating ceiling fan until he lost conscious. Women and girls were threatened with rape, and some tortured in front of their fathers, sons and husbands.”9 The national government and local government harassed and even jailed those spoke out against these brutalities.

As the beacon of hope for the ideals of liberty and freedom, America must be a strong voice for and a protector of religious freedom.

People all over the world are persecuted for their religion, not just Christians.

Your post seems nothing more than anti-muslim propoganda to me.

[Fuzzness 2]

ummm, actually i was talking about christians in north america and other "developped" countries.

and just to be fair, I see more of this "I love being persecuted" attitude with pagans. but that's a whole other thread.

but i do still see a lot of this attitude, especially here in the south, with christians. stuff like "they done took prayer out of our public, govt funded schools" ...no they didn't, they just aren't forcing kids to pray a christian prayer. the children can still pray silently (God can hear our thoughts, what does he care if we say it loudly or not)

[ace13 0]

It is happening. Trust me. It may not be this extreme in the US, but this is no joke.

Christians are persecuted more today than they than at any time prior to the 20th century. They are also currently the most persecuted religious group in the world, and persecution has intensified during the past several years. Torture, enslavement, rape, imprisonment and killings are among the atrocities perpetrated upon believers around the world, many of them stemming from two sources: communism and politicized Islam.

Persecution is most severe in such countries as China, Sudan, Pakistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Egypt, Nigeria, Cuba, Laos and Uzbekistan

China, for example, has been designated for the fourth straight year as a “country of particular concern” by the United States Secretary of State under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In its 2003 annual report, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) characterizes the Chinese government as “a particularly severe violator of religious freedom. Persons continue to be confined, tortured, imprisoned, and subject to other forms of ill treatment on account of their religion or belief.”1

The government requires Christians to worship in atheistic government-controlled churches. Refusing to do so, some 60 to 100 million risk their lives and liberty to worship in underground “house churches.” Some Christians have been savagely beaten to death by police for their religious affiliations. Meanwhile, thousands of others are being “reformed by labor” in China’s vast religious gulag, the subjects of inhuman, intense, spirit-breaking physical work.

According to the USIRCF, this crackdown against religious believers “was authorized at the highest levels of the government, according to reportedly official documents obtained by human rights nongovernmental organizations.2

Sudan has aptly been characterized as “the world's most violent abuser of the right to freedom of religion and belief.”3 Since 1983, the government has waged a jihad, or holy war against Christians and other non-Muslims in the southern part of the country. As part of its “scorched-earth policy,” the Sudanese government has encouraged militias and some tribal groups to conduct slave raids on undefended villages in the south and the Nuba Mountains.4 In government refugee camps, Christian mothers have been made to choose between converting to Islam or watching their babies starve. Christian boys are taken from their families, put in military camps, forcibly converted to Islam and sent into war to be sacrificed as cannon fodder.5

In Saudi Arabia, according to a recent U.S. State Department report, “Freedom of religion does not exist. Islam is the official religion, and all citizens must be Muslims.”6 Christianity is effectively banned, and police seek out and raid secret worship services taking place in private homes. Thousands of foreign and national workers are in prison for their faith; some have even been beheaded under fabricated charges.7

In Egypt, the indigenous Coptic Christian community, “while generally able to practice its religion, is threatened in various degrees by terrorism from extreme Islamic groups, by the abusive practices of local police and security forces, and by discriminatory and restrictive Egyptian Government policies.”8

One incident that captured worldwide attention in 1998 is telling. Following the murder of two Coptic Christians, apparently by five Muslim men, police rounded up and tortured almost 1,200 local Copts. The police wanted to portray the murders not as inter-religion strife, but as a matter between Copts—and they were determined to find Christian suspects to prove their point. Their efforts knew few bounds.

Reporting on the incident, Freedom House, a widely respected human rights organization noted, “Many, including women and children, were tied to doors, beaten, whipped, suspended, tied in painful positions and subjected to electric shocks with clamps attached to all parts of their bodies, …. An eleven-year-old child was bound, tortured and suspended from a rotating ceiling fan until he lost conscious. Women and girls were threatened with rape, and some tortured in front of their fathers, sons and husbands.”9 The national government and local government harassed and even jailed those spoke out against these brutalities.

As the beacon of hope for the ideals of liberty and freedom, America must be a strong voice for and a protector of religious freedom.

People all over the world are persecuted for their religion, not just Christians.

Your post seems nothing more than anti-muslim propoganda to me.

The previous posters were stating that Christians aren't persecuted. I was letting them know that wasn't true. I am sure other religions are also persecuted. Never said they weren't. I pray for them,too.

Anti muslim propaganda? Uh, no. Anti-Christian Persecution, yes!

ummm, actually i was talking about christians in north america and other "developped" countries.

So, just because these people don't live in North America they don't count? And you don't think that these same people who are doing the persecuting would LOVE to do the same on our soil? Hatred knows no boundries or stays in "undeveloped" countries as you put it.

[PlatyPius 5]

ummm, actually i was talking about christians in north america and other "developped" countries.

and just to be fair, I see more of this "I love being persecuted" attitude with pagans. but that's a whole other thread.

Aye, I agree - you see it almost exclusively with Wiccans. New Wiccans most of all. "Remember the Burning Times!!!!111" and all that.

I don't claim to be persecuted. Just inconvenienced. As for Christians being persecuted in other countries.....I can't say one way or the other. It isn't one of my interests, so I don't exactly go searching for information on it. All I will say is that not every country has religious freedom. That's just the way it is.

[PsychoKat 0]

ummm, actually i was talking about christians in north america and other "developped" countries.

and just to be fair, I see more of this "I love being persecuted" attitude with pagans. but that's a whole other thread.

Aye, I agree - you see it almost exclusively with Wiccans. New Wiccans most of all. "Remember the Burning Times!!!!111" and all that.

You hear more of this with Wiccans because this belief system is growing and becoming stronger. They still though are persecuted but they are standing up against it, to ensure what happened in the past won't happen again. That's really not much different than people reminding others of the holocost, keeping people aware of what happened in hopes that knowledge will prevent it from happening again.

Regarding Christians finding themselves more and more persecuted, you COULD view this almost as karma, what goes around comes around. I hear more and more that Christians are being persecuted. In the early years of Christianity, those professing this belief were indeed horribly persecuted. Later though as time went on and Christianity became a stronger force, rather than learn from what they went through, Christians instead, horribly persecuted those who were not Christian, tortured them, burned them and tried to force them into Christianity through pain and fear, there are some who claim to be Christians who still do this to non-believers. Christians are being persecuted in some areas more frequently, but some professing to be Christians are also still persecuting others.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

There is a BIG difference in Europe and USA. Not only is church attendance down in Europe, but Atheism especially in Eastern block countries like the old East Germany, Latvia the amount of people who say they are Atheist has skyrocketed. I read some crazy fact and I find it particulary hard to believe and if true very sad that some 70% of old E. Germans are atheist. Is that really possible? How dark and how sad.

1) Check your sources

2) Try to look a little deeper at what other causes but lack of faith may be in play

Maybe then you can make somewhat educated statements about a people and a region that you, quite obviously, know little to nothing about at this point.

Now that you have taken your "I am great" badge off, I asked if that could be true. Since you seem to know everything could you enlighten the rest of us O Great One

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._63/ai_92284226

Here it says 54% atheist and 14% aren't sure if there is a god. Slightly better but still quite sad. I will look for the one that said 70%...

O Great One? Who spat in your coffee this morning? East Germany happens to be the place where I was born and raised and a place and a people that I know a thing or two about. That may be hard for you to grasp but it remains a fact nonetheless. You can swing all the statistics you want, you still don't know a first thing about the people and the region.

[PsychoKat 0]

Addition to my previous post, you can't have your cake and eat it to cliche involved here. Although we have seen more tolerance by Christians of other belief systems in recent times, we also see them still trying to force everyone to live by their rules and values. Simply look in the news, you won't have to look far to see that faction working very diligently to have laws implimented forcing everyone in the US to live by the values they dictate.

[Sister Fracas 5]

I read some crazy fact and I find it particulary hard to believe and if true very sad that some 70% of old E. Germans are atheist. Is that really possible? How dark and how sad. I pray for them.

oh dear me... Why doesn't it occur to you that atheists are perfectly fine the way they are? Do you REALLY believe that atheists are the root of all evil or something?

I'll never get this idea of well they must need me to pray for them, to save them, when they don't even believe in it. It's like the post the other day where someone said atheists must hold a grudge against God. WHAT???? They don't believe in God. So just as they don't believe in God, I'm sure they would agree that they don't need your prayers of salvation.

[Jenn! 918]

I read some crazy fact and I find it particulary hard to believe and if true very sad that some 70% of old E. Germans are atheist. Is that really possible? How dark and how sad. I pray for them.

oh dear me... Why doesn't it occur to you that atheists are perfectly fine the way they are? Do you REALLY believe that atheists are the root of all evil or something?

I'll never get this idea of well they must need me to pray for them, to save them, when they don't even believe in it. It's like the post the other day where someone said atheists must hold a grudge against God. WHAT???? They don't believe in God. So just as they don't believe in God, I'm sure they would agree that they don't need your prayers of salvation.

Frances, I totally understand what you're saying. But at the same time, I think believers tend to feel so blessed that they have faith and want others to feel that as well. I don't see anything wrong with that.

As for me, a lowly non-believer. Go ahead and pray for me. I, of course, don't feel that it will do any good. But if you do think it will do good, then go ahead by all means. I'd much rather you pray for me than preach to me. If you're right about God, the praying might help. If you're not right about God, then no harm done! Preaching is just gonna P### me off!

[rclouse 0]

I read some crazy fact and I find it particulary hard to believe and if true very sad that some 70% of old E. Germans are atheist. Is that really possible? How dark and how sad. I pray for them.

oh dear me... Why doesn't it occur to you that atheists are perfectly fine the way they are? Do you REALLY believe that atheists are the root of all evil or something?

I'll never get this idea of well they must need me to pray for them, to save them, when they don't even believe in it. It's like the post the other day where someone said atheists must hold a grudge against God. WHAT???? They don't believe in God. So just as they don't believe in God, I'm sure they would agree that they don't need your prayers of salvation.

You took the words right out of my mouth. I'll just add that this is exactly what kind of intolerance I'm talking about. ace13 is saying if you don't believe as he does, you're going to hell ("how dark and how sad"). Doesn't God love all his children, even those that don't believe in him? Who are you to judge? Just because someone doesn't believe the way you do doesn't make them a bad person. What a person does makes him a good or bad person. Nothing else.

[ace13 0]

I read some crazy fact and I find it particulary hard to believe and if true very sad that some 70% of old E. Germans are atheist. Is that really possible? How dark and how sad. I pray for them.

oh dear me... Why doesn't it occur to you that atheists are perfectly fine the way they are? Do you REALLY believe that atheists are the root of all evil or something?

I'll never get this idea of well they must need me to pray for them, to save them, when they don't even believe in it. It's like the post the other day where someone said atheists must hold a grudge against God. WHAT???? They don't believe in God. So just as they don't believe in God, I'm sure they would agree that they don't need your prayers of salvation.

Frances, I totally understand what you're saying. But at the same time, I think believers tend to feel so blessed that they have faith and want others to feel that as well. I don't see anything wrong with that.

As for me, a lowly non-believer. Go ahead and pray for me. I, of course, don't feel that it will do any good. But if you do think it will do good, then go ahead by all means. I'd much rather you pray for me than preach to me. If you're right about God, the praying might help. If you're not right about God, then no harm done! Preaching is just gonna P### me off!

Exactly right and thank you. I pray that the Holy Spirit comes upon you. It is then up to you

[Sister Fracas 5]

Frances, I totally understand what you're saying. But at the same time, I think believers tend to feel so blessed that they have faith and want others to feel that as well. I don't see anything wrong with that.

As for me, a lowly non-believer. Go ahead and pray for me. I, of course, don't feel that it will do any good. But if you do think it will do good, then go ahead by all means. I'd much rather you pray for me than preach to me. If you're right about God, the praying might help. If you're not right about God, then no harm done! Preaching is just gonna P### me off!

Yeah I understand what you are saying about feeling blessed, it just takes something away from the non-believer somehow. I dunno how to explain it. It's the "I'm right, you're wrong" aspect of it. I think prayer does something for the person doing the praying (much the same way meditation can be positive for the meditator), so if they feel better...good for them.

[rclouse 0]

Oh yeah:

Who will be eaten first?