Lord Alton Challenges West: Respond to Persecution!

The persecution of Christians around the world is not a new story to the Rt. Honorable Professor the Lord Alton of Liverpool. David Alton, a Life Peer in the House of Lords of the British Parliament, has been a defender of the suffering members of the worldwide Body of Christ (and of the unborn) for many years. Along with a few other shining stars in the British Parliament, such as the Baroness Cox, David Alton is the conscience of the House of Lords. His message should also sear the consciences of Western Christians, as well, both in the United Kingdom and the United States.

On Tuesday, March 18, MidEast Christian News reported on a Lenten lecture given by Alton at Brentwood Cathedral, Essex. For a Lenten series entitled “The Cost of Discipleship,” on Wednesday, March 12, Alton spoke on “Paying a Price for Belief.” He told of attacks against Christians in just one of many countries — Egypt — then remarked, “Yet, in the face of reports like these, from all around the world, the West, including some Christian leaders, seem to be in a state of complete denial about the existence of religiously motivated persecution in countries like Nigeria or Syria, Pakistan, Indonesia, Sudan, Iran, Egypt, China and North Korea.”

Alton has spent years defending Christians around the world through his co-founding with Danny Smith of Jubilee Campaign, a Christian human rights organization working to influence Parliament and other governments on behalf of the rights of the persecuted. He also serves on the board of Jubilee Campaign USA, the sister organization. (Full disclosure: I am also a board member of Jubilee Campaign USA.) It would not be surprising if the British Peer has come to the conclusion that, frankly, most Western Christians are not going to be all that concerned about the persecution of Christians thousands of miles away unless they themselves might be affected. So in his Lenten lecture, Alton connected the persecution of the global Church and disappearing religious freedom in the West.

Declaring that “the two greatest fault lines of our times are the fault lines between Christianity and secularism and Christianity and Islam,” Alton explained that it is the “religious illiteracy” caused by radical secularism that has resulted in the minimizing of religious faith and religious freedom.

Providing example after example of recent, horrific killings of Christians in Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, Sudan, Egypt, Pakistan, and  elsewhere, Alton showed the apathetic response of the suffering ones’ fellow Christians by contrasting the (lack of) response with what would take place under different circumstances:

Turn the tables for a moment and ask yourself what reaction there would be in the Islamic world if, heaven forbid, Christian gun men stormed a student dormitory and murdered dozens of sleeping teenagers; or if mosques in Bradford, Marseilles or Dusseldorf were burnt to the ground and believers praying there were car-bombed by suicide bombers.

But, said Alton, the reality is that “although religious persecution can affect people of all faiths and none, in every single country where there are infringements of Article 18 Christians face persecution.” He then spoke in detail about the persecution of Christians in three countries.

First the long-time human rights defender shared the testimony of a North Korean Christian, given just the week before at the All Party Parliamentary Group on North Korea that he chairs. Then Alton spoke of Pakistan. Founded by President  Jinnah as a place free from discrimination against people of minority religions, where all would be considered equal citizens of the country, Pakistan is now “responsible for the some of the worst religious persecution in the world.” Finally, Alton referred to the tragedy of Syria, where the world community appears to be willing to replace a repressive regime with Islamists who have performed unspeakably evil and brutal acts on the Christians and other non-Islamists.

Alton revealed that global jihad and militant Islam are a challenge to western democracies of which they are not even aware. “Our secular society in which we have in the last two centuries, enjoyed religious toleration and increasing religious co-existence is under significant threat but we seem to be sleepwalking into this danger,” he warned.

Referencing the situation in Britain, Alton said “Hundreds of parliamentary hours can be spent asserting the rights of foxes or on discussing rights associated with our life- styles but when it comes to the killing of children and students, or the torching of their homes and places of worship, or the destruction of centuries old culture, our political classes have taken Trappist vows.” He said that those who are silent deceive themselves into believing that their silence is “tolerance,” when in reality they are silent out of indifference or fear.

“Secular society has got its priorities wrong but so have western churches which too easily become intoxicated with their own introspective navel-gazing,” Alton declared. “We all know that when a faith is worth dying for, it is worth living for – and just as the stories of our English martyrs inspired my generation let us ensure that the sacrifices which others are making for their faith today are widely known so that their blood will not be shed in vain,” he said.

Finally, Alton sought to encourage his listeners to take their own stand for their brothers and sisters who are persecuted. “So often we are like Tolkien’s Frodo who said : ‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,” he said. Gandalf told Frodo he agreed, and added that “so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

In conclusion Alton quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who said, “We have been the silent witnesses of evil deeds.” and that “what we shall need is not geniuses, or cynics, or misanthropes, or clever tacticians, but plain, honest, straightforward men.” Plain, honest, and straightforward. That, says Alton, should be our response to global persecution of Christians.