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| Marked for death |
I'm disgusted -- to say the least -- about the continuing silence and indifference in the west about the horrors being visited on Christians in the Middle East.
Don't know what I'm talking about? Thank the don't-give-a-damn idiots in the media.
And let me tell you, I don't use the term "idiots" carelessly.
You see, I used to work in media relations, when I worked in Washington. I worked directly with a lot of these folks. They are hired because they can make a good presentation on the air, or to turn out copy. Not because they necessarily know anything.
I can still recall being in Arizona, crisscrossing the state for the Right to Work cause; and I met with a TV anchorman and his sidekick in one city, to explain our purpose. He needed me to tell him who the state's two U.S. Senators were. Note well: he didn't know who they were!
In Iraq, Christians are being marked for extinction. They are being driven out of their homes, their towns, where they have been since Apostolic times. Ancient churches are being burnt down.
Notice the symbol above? It looks innocuous. But it is the Arabic letter "n," for "Nazareth." The jihadists mark the homes and businesses of Christians with that sign. A reversal of Passover: they are marked for destruction.
Meanwhile, our current President? Golfing; raising money; but showing no concern for these terrorized folks. Our former President George Bush, whose war started this process underway (which church leaders predicted would happen, by the way)? No comment.
Does anyone give a d***? Do you?
All right, I've ranted enough. Here are some practical things to do:
1) Pray for our fellow Christians. They are very alone and desperate.
2) Send money.
Here are several Catholic charities providing material help. You can donate online, or else arrange to send a donation. I sent $200 of my own money to the Catholic Near East Welfare Association (because I wanted to specify it help people in Iraq), but they are all legitimate charities; please make your own choice:
Catholic Relief Services
Catholic Near East Welfare Association
Aid to the Church in Need
3) Learn more. Here and here are two pages at the US bishops site:
4) Speak up! If you are on Facebook, share your thoughts with others. Here are ways to contact the President and our members in Congress:
President Barack Obama
White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, D.C. 20500
Online: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submit-questions-and-comments
Sen. Sherrod Brown
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C., 20510
Online: http://www.brown.senate.gov/contact/
Sen. Rob Portman
U.S. Senate
Washington, D.C., 20510
Online: https://www.portman.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form
Rep. Jim Jordan
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Online: http://jordan.house.gov/contact/
Here's the text of the letter I sent to all the above:
Dear Mr. President/Senator/Congressman:
Please, please, please speak up, loud and strong, for the Christians who are being marked for extermination in Iraq and Syria, among other places!
When Jews are persecuted, America speaks up. And we stand by Israel. As we should!
When Muslims are persecuted, we speak up. And we went to war several times to defend their rights. As we should!
Why does our government remain silent and inert about this persecution?
Please do what you can to oppose this persecution, and to provide material relief. In particular, I think our country owes these folks asylum, as it was our war that helped create this situation.
Thank you for your attention to my letter.
Rev. Martin Fox
Update, 7/24/14: Welcome readers from Catholic and Enjoying it; thanks Mark Shea for the link!
I hope you will see some good ideas here for acting to help our suffering brothers and sisters. Feel free to add your own in the comments. Glad you came!
11 comments:
Nice letter. It might not incite them to action, however. The difficulty with this plea to help is that it asks outright for equal treatment for Christians and Muslims. This is trap for the politician because the two cannot be treated equally in context of each other.
There is the potential sting of the vote. With the mid-term election only a few months away the politicians are preoccupied with that, "How can I help if I am not in office?" But they are looking something positive to draw a positive contrast between themselves and the person opposing them.
There is another, more difficult issue: the Christians are also being given the option to to convert. Why is that a bad thing for the politician? Islam is equal to Christianity for the politician. He cannot risk standing against forcible conversion under Islamic Law of an Islamic State because that is a tenet of Islam and would place him in opposition to Islam. We need to find a method the politician can help the Christians that will be supported by the media.
Good Luck with that.
RCG:
Well, what will incite them to action is not the wording. They don't read the letters.
What happens (this is what people who work on the hill have told me directly) is that staffers will keep count of the letters they get on an issue, and they will further break them down, as necessary, by "pro" and "con."
So as long as the wording isn't extreme or threatening, they'll count it. It's in their own best interest to do so; they'll do it.
Whether they act? Depends on how many they get.
Actually, voter registration drives and voter education seminars sends a shiver down their splines like a cold splash of water. Someone needs to host a voter issue seminar on the topics important to us and invite a staffer to attend the seminar on that issue to ensure the congressman and senator's positions are correctly portrayed, including their voting records, because they will be a topic of discussion. Otherwise, someone will need to research it and do their best to explain it to the voters in attendance.
There is a reason that the Western media doesn't give a d**n (just my personal opinion)...they themselves-generally speaking-have yielded to the spirit of Antichrist. (cf. 1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3, 2 John 7)
It would be a big deal and the Western media would cover it if Christians in the Near East mattered to the secular Western media. They do not.
As a result, since the media do not cover, the people do not know...if the people do not know, they do not act. We have televisioned ourselves into ignorance, I fear.
Thanks very much, Father. I spend Winters in San Diego @ Mission Beach. Virtually all of the convenience stores are owned by Iraqi Christians who left during Saddam's reign of terror. They're not very Christian when they speak of that animal! They are a great people and they LOVE America. They worry constantly about family and friends who were unable or unwilling to leave. I've learned much from them.
Thank you for speaking out Father. I will contribute and will write to my Senators and Congressmen about this issue.
Unfortunately Senator Schumer will not care one whit and my Congressman is a raving communist so I don't think they will do much.
I only hope our prayers will work.
Pope Francis just met w/ the brave Christian Sudanese woman, Meriam Ibrahim. She was put on death row for not denouncing her Christian faith. There are some great photos in The Daily Mail. The baby she gave birth to while shackled is precious.
Father, this has been in the news and has been mentioned on blogs. Fox, Breitbart, many conservative pundits.
I do talk about this with people I work with, I'm told Christianity has caused most of the world's problems and,anyway, I'm "exaggerating the problem."
When I talk about what is being destroyed there,I'm told we should get out of that area anyway. Folks don't even have an adequate historical perspective on this. So sad.
Father, here is a recent message from Bishop Francis, the new bishop of the Chaldean Catholics in the U.S.:
http://www.chaldeannews.com/what-now-3/
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