21st Century Martyrs

There is no pit so deep that God is not deeper still.~ Betsie Ten Boom

In a continued effort to broaden the conversation we are having in our church community in Healdsburg, I’m writing a short series of blogs with a missional focus based on the Sunday learning session.Yesterday, October 11, we heard from Rick and Sue Hahn who are community voices for an organization called Voice of the Martyrs. Rick stated there were more Christians martyred for their faith in the 20^th Century than all 19 prior centuries combined! His statement got me thinking and doing a little research and I’ve compiled some interesting data. (If you want to skip the research and just read my personal thoughts, scroll down.)By the numbers:A quick hour of research on the Internet (admittedly, not always the most reliable source of research, but the only one available to me in this moment!) reveals the difficult nature of counting martyrs. The numbers swing from about 1,200 Christian martyrs per year (http://world.time.com/2014/01/08/deaths-of-christian-martyrs-doubled-in-2013/) all the way up to 100,000 Christian martyrs per year (http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24864587) which then gets mitigated down to about 10,000 Christian martyrs per year. Christianity Today agrees that neither ends of the spectrum as regards the numbers of Christian martyrs is accurate (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/september/counting-cost-accurately.html?start=2).At the end of the day, numbers matter because truth matters, and as CT puts it (quoting Ann Buwalda), “truth changes policy.” So, to the extent we are interested in changing policy, we must concern ourselves with the numbers, but ANY number of Christian martyrs necessarily drives us to prayer for our brothers and sisters and Voice of the Martyrs offers tools for prayer.  Numbers aside, here are a few more thoughts about martyrdom:Definition:The word “martyr” comes from the Greek word “martys” which means “to witness”. The early Christians who were witnesses of Christ’s resurrection were so often killed for their witness, that the word shifted to mean someone who witnessed to Christ’s death by their own death. Today, the best definition of Christian martyrs is

“Believers in Christ who have lost their lives prematurely, in situations of witness, as a result of human hostility.”

This definition has five major components to it:

1. Believers in Christ – meaning all those who believe in Christ regardless of their affiliation and including those in the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and other Independent denominations. Using this metric, today, there are 2.4 Billion Christians.
2. Lost their lives – Christian who have actually been put to death
3. Prematurely – martyrdom is sudden, unexpected
4. In situations of witness – the person is either actively proclaiming their faith at the time of death or living daily in such a way as to have been proclaiming their faith over time.
5. As a result of human hostility – this excludes any earthquakes, accidents, crashes, or other “acts of God”, illnesses, etc.

I found the following very interesting and pass it along for reflection:Five Factors Impacting Martyrdom today:http://www.gordonconwell.edu/resources/documents/TheDemographicsofChristianMartyrdom.pdf

1. The world is less religious in 2010 than in 1910 but more religious than in 1970.

In 1910, over 99% of the world’s population was religious. By 2010 this had fallen below 89%. But this analysis hides the fact that the high point for the nonreligious was around 1970, when almost 20% of the world’s population was either agnostic or atheist. The collapse of Communism in the late 20th century means that the world is more religious in 2010 than in 1970. Here I would recommend God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics  (Norton, 2011) by Monica Duffy Toft, Daniel Philpott, and Timothy Samuel Shaw.

2. Migration is increasing religious and ethnic diversity around the world.

200 million people are on the move today, carrying with them their cultural and religious backgrounds. At least 860 million have now settled permanently outside of their culture’s main country. I recommend Ian Goldin’s book Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped our World and Will Define the Future (Princeton University Press, 2011). As the authors point out, never have so many people been on the move, and never have they been so unwelcome! Faith on the Move, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, focuses on the religious affiliation of international migrants, examining patterns of migration among seven major groups. “Migration, Religious Diasporas, and Religious Diversity: A Global Survey” by Todd M. Johnson and Gina A. Bellofatto (Mission Studies, July 2012) focuses on the 859 million settled in diaspora.

3. Christianity is fragmented.

Christians are now found in nearly 43,000 denominations. These range in size from millions of members to fewer than 100 members and are listed for each of the world’s 232 countries in the World Christian Database. The individual Christian is located in these on this slide. The next slide shows three huts in which a man stranded on a desert isle has a home, a church, and the church he used to attend! Note that the vast majority of denominations are in the Independent and Protestant traditions. By 2025, there will likely be 55,000 denominations.

4. Christians and Muslims together could soon be 2/3s of the world’s population.

In 1800, 33% of the world’s population was either Christian or Muslim. Today, together they represent about 55% of the world’s population, or four billion people. By 2050 this percentage is expected to rise to 62% and by the end of the century it could be over 66%. 

5. Christians are out of contact with Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists.

Recent research reveals that as many as 86% of all Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists do not personally know a Christian. This has to be viewed negatively in light of the strong biblical theme of incarnation that is at the heart of Christian witness.Personal Reflections:As Rick spoke during church about Christian martyrs, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to current events in our own country…people being shot in the head simply for identifying as Christians, churches being burned, and so on. Like the instinctive recoiling of my hand upon touching a hot stove, these images instantly made me want to retreat into a bunker with all my Christian friends and wait out the storm that is undoubtedly headed our way. I could feel fear rising inside me. What would I do if someone asked me to declare my faith with a gun pointed at my head? I felt anger rising as I contemplated whole groups of people from other religions or political systems who have been identified as “killers”. What could I do to seek justice?As soon as I identified the fear, I could hear Jesus’ words ringing in my ears, “Do not fear” and “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Can I relinquish my fear to the one who conquered death…and is with me even now? Can I face the “killers” without fear because of the presence of the Prince of Peace? At the moment when the gun is to your head, this moves out of the realm of theory and into reality. In order for me to live fully present in this world of fear, I need to not retreat to the bunker, but be completely faithful in the midst of fear. Jesus calls us out of the bunker to be in the world and he promises to be with us! Wow…As to justice… yes, justice needs to be served, but not revenge. There’s a difference. “Vengeance is mine,” says the Lord. Can we work for justice with a strong sense of peace? What does that look like?In the end, I am moved to do (at least) three things in my context. First, I will pray for those who are persecuted. Thanks to Voice of the Martyrs for pointing us first in this direction. Second, I will not allow fear to bully me into a stance of withdrawal. Third, I will follow Jesus into an incarnational stance to intentionally bring shalom to people who are part of a group that has been identified by Voice of the Martyrs as "persecutors".  I think what Jesus meant by “love your neighbor” was to love everyone, even the ones we see as dangerous, creepy or weird. Isn’t that what Jesus did? He stepped into our world to love the very people who ultimately killed him. As Jesus-followers why would we expect our path would be any different?I’ve tried to come up with a happy ending, you know… “put a bow on top”…but perhaps it’s premature. I am going to leave the conversation at this point and invite more reflection. Any thoughts?