To Suffer With Our Lord: Christian Responses to Religious Persecution
Peter Kuzmič Wednesday, 1 December 2004
It is the God-appointed duty of every government to secure conditions of peace, justice and liberty in which the Church may obey God, serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and preach the gospel without interference. We therefore pray for the leaders of nations and call upon them to guarantee freedom of thought and conscience, and freedom to practice and propagate religion in accordance with the will of God and as set forth in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We also express our deep concern for all who have been unjustly imprisoned, and especially for those who are suffering for their testimony to the Lord Jesus. We promise to pray and work for their freedom. At the same time we refuse to be intimidated by their fate. God helping us, we too will seek to stand against injustice and to remain faithful to the gospel, whatever the cost. We do not forget the warnings of Jesus that persecution is inevitable.
— Lausanne Covenant, Art. 13
Persecution and suffering are unwelcome words in America. Except for a brief period following September 11, persecution and suffering have not been prominent in the public discourse, whether within or outside the Church. Contemporary reference works on religion move remarkably easily from "Perfectionism" to "Perseverance." If such works do address persecution at all, it is usually "Persecution of Early Christians" (as if the conversion of Constantine in 312 ended the persecution of Christians once and for all). American Christians hear much more about prosperity than persecution, success than suffering, wealth and health than poverty and pain. Influenced by the general culture of optimism, many Christians—evangelicals and charismatics in particular—have developed a theology of success at the expense of a theology of the Cross.
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