THE ANTI-CHRISTIAN NEW INDIA

IT TOOK the video of a horrific attack on two women to bring the world’s attention to the persecution endured by many of India’s Christians.

Demonstrators hold a banner during a rally in solidarity with the Christians of Manipur state, in Ahmedabad, India, Sunday, July 23, 2023.

The video captures the harrowing ordeal endured by the women in Manipur state in the north west of India on May 4. They were paraded naked while a mob of 80 to 100 men molested and beat them mercilessly. The younger of the two, aged only 19, was gang-raped in front of the enraged mob.

FROM SAFE REFUGE TO PERSECUTION

Ongoing Persecution At one time Pakistan was seen as a safe refuge for Christians. No longer. Today Pakistan is one of the leading persecutors of Christians in the world. According to Open Doors, Pakistan is seventh on its Watch List. Christians in Iran and Afghanistan face less persecution than the Christians of Pakistan.

Nine were killed when Muslim militants attacked Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta

Cases such as that of Asia Bibi, who was sentenced to death under Pakistan’s notorious blasphemy laws, are well known. Mostly unreported in the West by a media which has little interest in persecuted Christians, prejudice and persecution are endemic throughout Pakistan.

HOW JESUS GOT IT WRONG

We shake our heads in bewilderment at a world where everything seems turned upside down. Wrong has become right, equal opportunity has become racism and justice has become unjust. At one time liberals accused Christians of believing in a ‘sky fairy’ of our own imaginations. Today progressives deny science and believe that men can become women by wishful thinking. 

DON’T DRAW BACK

Christians have to confront the issue of transgenderism which, especially in its more extreme form, is the latest front in the culture wars surrounding us. We should be clear that this movement, which is very influential and has the power to shape society, is utterly unbiblical and is harmful to both adults and children. 

Transgenderism has even overtaken and dominates the other parts of the LGBTQ etc movement with otherwise staunch feminists and lesbians being dismissed and attacked as TERFS or trans-exclusionary radical feminists. The recent Pride month is replete with examples of transgender activists excluding homosexuals and lesbians from their marches because they believe the science and understand that you cannot change your sex. 

We should realise that whenever we publicly reject the ideology of this movement we will find ourselves under attack. There is no need to draw back from confrontation as despite being powerful it is vulnerable to reason and the Bible.

THE CHURCH THAT DIED

The church must ‘change or die’, or so say progressive Christians. The core of their argument is that if the church resists the demands of the modern world it will be doomed to irrelevance.

This might have some force if the evidence bore it out. However, those denominations which have gone the furthest with the progressive programme have seen a fatal decline in numbers of worshippers and clergy, along with a distortion of liturgical practice.

A CHURCH DIVIDED

The Church of England has serious problems. Within the worldwide Anglican communion it is being increasingly sidelined and at home faces internal disintegration with accelerating tensions between incompatible theological streams.

There are no pure denominations where everyone holds fast to the ideological purity of the credal documents. Outliers always exist, and how a denomination reacts to those with divergent understandings of the gospel tells us much about its health and strength.

WHAT IS PERSECUTION?

There has been discussion on this and other outlets about persecution of Christians in the UK. There is a variety of opinion in the church: some such as Andrea Williams of Christian Concern argue that persecution already exists, others such as Simon Calvert of the Christian Institute say Christians are challenged but not persecuted. Still others including Rowan Williams think Christians should ‘grow up’ and stop talking of persecution.

WILL WE STAND AGAINST THE DEMONIC?

Life in a moral wasteland

The increasing marginalisation of Christianity may be welcomed by opinion-formers but it presents a fundamental challenge for society. With the decline of Christian teachings and godly values there has followed an abandonment of those moral principles which provide the glue holding society together.

Ours is a world where an MP, someone who helps make laws shaping our society, is suspended by his party for allegedly sexually harassing young women and boasting about taking prostitutes into Parliament. A world where the fourth largest group in parliament are MPs suspended by their parties and sitting as independents. A world where a new female MP was given a list of 30 other MPs to avoid being alone with because of their reputation for sexual harassment.

PUSHBACK AGAINST ‘SOCIAL WASHING’

The giant US retailer Target is the latest company to suffer a public backlash after attempting to cash in on the woke trend.

It released a new line of clothing to celebrate Pride month, formerly known as June, which includes female swimwear featuring ‘tuck-friendly construction’ and ‘extra crotch’ coverage, intended to disguise male genitalia, and has introduced children’s books instructing them about the use of transgender pronouns.

The result has been a catastrophic drop in the firm’s share price, with Twitter CEO Elon Musk warning that Target is likely to face lawsuits for ‘destruction of shareholder value’.

REVOLUTIONARY MEDIA

Shared social fabric

A society can be characterised by what we share: the beliefs, values and traditions which shape the attitudes and actions of those who live within the society. This shared perspective enables individuals to live together and co-operate despite having differing personal dreams and goals. We are able to recognise the common good and work within it without losing our individual personality.

Every society, if it is to survive, must adapt to changing circumstances or atrophy and die. We face different events, encounter outside influences and learn from the success and failure of past endeavours. Change, however, must be gradual and grow organically from a shared desire to develop.