John Allen tries to knock down the assumption that today’s widespread persecution of Christians, perhaps the most pressing issue in global religious freedom, should be a matter of indifference to the American left:
One thinks, for instance, of the famous martyrs of the liberation theology movement, such as Archbishop Oscar Romero, or the six Jesuits and two women murdered in El Salvador in 1989. There’s also Guatemalan Bishop Juan José Gerardi, beaten to death in 1998 two days after releasing a report on his country’s civil war that heavily criticized the army and right-wing paramilitary groups. More recently, there’s American Sr. Dorothy Stang, murdered in Brazil in 2005 for advocacy on behalf of poor and indigenous Amazonians; or Indian Sr. Valsha John, slain this past year for defending members of the tribal underclass against expropriation of their land by coal mining companies.
More here. All this underlines the final silliness of describing the body of Christ in political terms. There is no right or left in martyrdom—just the cross.
January 17th, 2012 | 10:50 am
Or it could be that various factions have a hard time wrapping themselves around deaths of people they would prefer not to applaud.
January 17th, 2012 | 11:44 am
The main issue should be the promotion of religious liberty – which benefits everyone, even those with no religion.
Promoting the safety and toleration of Christians and others helps minimize religious extremism; it’s kind of a zero-sum game there.
(Note, BTW, that the linked article lumps together persecution against Christianity itself, and persecution when Christians “take stands against injustice or put themselves in harm’s way on account of the Gospel”. The latter types of persecution can apply even where Christians are the majority. The former isn’t all that common where Christians are the majority, though.)
January 17th, 2012 | 12:08 pm
“All this underlines the final silliness of describing the body of Christ in political terms.”
I think you mean *partisan terms*. The cross is about as political as things get, and the body of Christ is the body of the crucified.
January 17th, 2012 | 12:18 pm
Todd,
I think you’ve missed the point. Of course, there are factions within the church, but we try to see what unites us. First Things and NCR can get quite snarky toward each other, but here Schmitz is recommending an article in NCR.
January 18th, 2012 | 7:36 pm
Hi Michael,
Good point. I saw “tries.” I’ve always thought the NCR has been consistent on this topic. Way before Christian martyrdon was even noticed (and dismissed) by conservatives.
January 19th, 2012 | 10:03 am
[...] “The Politics of Persecution,” Matthew Schmitz, First Things [...]
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