Tens of thousands of Pentecostal Christians in Mbarara – Western Uganda have in unity taken to the streets with songs of praise and thanks to hold a common celebration seen as a way of dedicating people’s lives to Christ and preaching the gospel across the entire district.

Many traveled from surrounding districts just to be a part of that celebration, to match in intercession, thank God and to celebrate His faithfulness.

Bishop Nathan Ibrahim Turyamureeba, the lead pastor of Daystar Cathedral Mbarara says the ‘Jesus March’ held 25 January 2018, is an event “uniting believers in the Kingdom mind.”

“I thank God for what He is doing in our time. Africa shall be saved,” he remarked.

“It was started by Daystar Cathedral and later embraced by all Pentecostal churches in Mbarara,”

The celebration was topped off by several renown preachers in the district including Akyiza Edson, Evangelist Chris Tusiime, Dr Joel Baziira, Pr Jimmy Henry and Pit Porter from USA, and endorsed by among others Pr Wilson Bugembe, Bishop Franklin Mondo Mugisha and Pr. Cindy Kiganda.

“It’s an event where we put aside the names of our churches, pastors and leaders and unite together under God’s Kingdom. Irrespective of denominations and following, we believe in the bible, our Lord God and his son Jesus Christ. So, we thought it important to always find time to worship and glorify our good Lord together and thus the birth of Jesus March,” Bishop Nathan, whose Cathedral has a sitting capacity of 10,000 worshippers recently remarked. Adding: “We are guided by the Holy Spirit to organise this match so we can’t say it’s annual, [In 2017], before this march we announce fasting for 40 days so this march climaxes our fasting. That’s why it’s a more respected and holy event in the lives of Pentecostals here.” Bishop Turyamureeba says the march from Daystar Cathedral Mbarara, goes through the streets , of Saveyo, Mile 2, Kisenyi, Kijungu, Kiswahili and Biafra, the suburbs which are said to be crime zones. “Through this event many people have given their lives to Jesus, including sorcerers and those practicing witchcraft denouncing their evil ways,” The celebration came following a Mega youth gala at the Church from 21-25 January, under the theme ‘Press on with Assurance.’ (1 Tim 4:12) “This is undeniable that people all over are hungry and thirsty for God. This fire shall keep not only today but forever,” said Evangelist Chris Tusiime.

By Paul W Dennis.</s>Preaching the gospel in Bolivia, a country in South America, is the fastest way for Christians to get a prison sentence.

Church leaders report that a new law has been passed and it states that anyone caught telling others about their faith could face five to 12 years in prison.

The law titled Article 88 says, “whoever recruits, transports, deprives of freedom or hosts people with the aim of recruiting them to take part in armed conflicts or religious or worship organizations will be penalized five to 12 years of imprisonment.”

This is according to a translation by Evangelical Focus, a media initiative of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

which went into effect on December 15, 2017, affects approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in Bolivia.

ALSO READ: You get arrested for preaching the gospel in China

has been met with some resistance and criticism particularly because the Bolivian Constitution specifically protects religious freedom and freedom of worship.

The National Association of Evangelicals in Bolivia (ANDEB) issued a statement. It read: “It is deplorable that Bolivia becomes the first Latin American country to persecute the rights of freedom of conscience and of religion, which are protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the declaration of San José de Costa Rica, and our Constitution.

“Christian evangelical churches in our country are institutions aiming to rehabilitate the human being, improve the moral, spiritual, ethical and social conditions of our citizens. Now, we have been put in a situation in which practicing the Gospel has been criminalized.”

An additional statement said the code “is imprecise, ambiguous, badly written, contradictory and its punitive power can constitute state abuse.”

Pastor Miguel Machaca Monroy, President of the coalition of evangelical churches in the capital city asked, “Will they denounce us if we bring a group of people to a Christian camp? Will I no longer be able to preach the Gospel on the streets?”

On January 21, a national day of prayer and fasting was observed by Bolivia’s evangelical leaders.

This was their attempt to protest against their socialist government.</s>Close to 2,000 Christians in India came out to protest and block roads in Tamil Nadu state, demanding justice for a pastor who was beaten, tortured, and hanged following disputes with Hindu radicals. Police claim the pastor committed suicide.

UCANews reported that the Christians gathered for the protest on Monday, days after Pastor Gideon Periyaswamy was found hanging from a rope in a home close to his church.

Police inspector Amal Raj argued that "prima facie it appears to be a case of suicide but we are looking at all possible angles."

Members of Periyaswamy's congregation who found his body said that he displayed signs of being beaten and tortured, however, and was missing a gold ring from his finger.

The pastor had filed a complaint with police following trouble with Hindu hardliners, who did not want him preaching.

The 43-year-old unmarried pastor was known as a "prayer warrior" for his deep devotion and long five- to six-hour prayer sessions.

Pastor Azariah Reuben, a close friend of the victim, explained that local Hindus "were not happy with growing Christianity."

"They had several times tried to stop the ministry," Reuben said.

Pastor Immanuel Prabhakaran, who had also worked with Periyaswamy, said that local leaders also did not want him speaking about the Gospel with lower-caste people in the area.

"Not a single Sunday service in the past six months passed off peacefully without disturbance," Prabhakaran said.

Lawyer Gini Immanuel added that Periyaswamy, whom he helped file the complaints, had many issues with the hardliners.

"Once the church water supply was cut and the church's roof was demolished. I intervened in the matter and represented the issue to the district authorities," Immanuel revealed.

The Rev. Joel Sekar of the Synod of Pentecostal Churches said that believers will continue protesting on the streets until a fair post mortem is carried out and until the pastor receives justice.

Wilson Chowdhry, chairman of the British Asian Christian Association, pushed back against police claims that the pastor took his own life.

"The circumstances of his death especially the removal of his gold ring, the lack of a suicide note, the visible bruising and numerous threats and previous incidents, all point in the direction of foul play. Intolerant local police are shamefully choosing to ignore tangible evidence," Chowdhry argued.

"Exhibited police insouciance and apathy when investigating crimes against Christians serves to embolden radicals who gain a sense of impunity, for as long as this continues we can only expect more crimes of this nature in India," he added.

Chowdhry warned that India is slowly regressing toward the kind of "anarchy" that has consumed Pakistan, where Christian victims of religious-based violence often do not receive help or justice from local authorities.</s>Last month, we focused on hostility toward religion in America. This month, I would like to talk about hostility towards Christians worldwide.

A recent report by Aid to the Church in Need documents that persecution of Christians today is worse than at any time in history. "Not only are Christians more persecuted than any other faith groups. But ever-increasing numbers are experiencing the very worst forms of persecution."

In some countries the situation was already so severe, it is hard to imagine how it could be any worse. Other countries (like China) have seen intolerance on the rise, as evidenced by a clampdown on dissent clergy and the destruction of churches.

Most of the countries where persecution against Christians is the most intense are Muslim countries (though North Korea and China are notable exceptions). Former Representative Frank Wolf has been on Point of View many times and recently called for the United State to take "bold action" to prevent Christianity in Iraq from disappearing altogether. Of course, ISIS remains a threat to Iraq's minority groups but they also face threat from a Baghdad-sanctioned Shiite militia.

Earlier this year, the World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians was held in Washington, D.C. More than 600 victims and advocates from 130 countries gathered to raise awareness of the plight of persecuted Christians.

Franklin Graham said that he "spent time this week with two men whose brothers were among the Coptic Christians marched out on the beach in Libya and viciously beheaded by ISIS for refusing to deny Christ." Some were surprised to hear the story of one of the men who actually was from Chad and had NOT been a Christian prior to the day of his beheading. As the terrorists gave each Christian a choice to deny Jesus or die, they came to this man from Chad. He answered, "Their God is my God." He was moved by the faith of these Christians and chose to die with them.

Vice President Mike Pence spoke at the summit. He observed, "The reality is, across the wider world, the Christian faith is under siege. Throughout the world, no people of faith today face greater hostility or hatred than the followers of Christ." He also added that he believed "ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of Christian faith and it is time people called it by name."

During the summit's final session, the organizers put forth a declaration that called for all believers to declare their allegiance with those who suffer for Christ's name. They pledged to promote awareness of persecuted Christians as well as pray and urge other believers to pray for those being persecuted. It also called for churches and individual Christians to provide practical assistance to the persecuted church.

Whenever I do a radio program on the plight of persecuted Christians, I notice two things. First, the number of people who call into the program drops significantly. Second, a number of those who do call the program complain that we should be more concerned with what is happening in America.

I thought of this phenomenon when I read a commentary by Dennis Prager that asked: "Why Don't Christians Help . . . Christians?" He is asking a good question. He tells the story of how as a young American Jew he traveled to the Soviet Union and became the national spokesman for the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry.

He spoke before synagogues of every denomination, Jewish federations, and Jewish groups on college campuses. For decades, virtually every synagogue in America has a "Save Soviet Jewry" sign in front of it. By contrast, he never saw a sign in front of a church that said "Save Soviet Christians."

Today Christians are being murdered and churches are being destroyed. We hear very little about it. Some of the attacks have made the news. More than 60 people were killed at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad. Since that massacre, an estimated 100,000 Christians have left the country.

In Nigeria, armed men and bombers killed over 40 in a Christmas Eve attack. More than 200 Muslim rioters burned homes, churches, and police stations when the Nigerian people elected a Christian as president.

In Egypt, terrorists detonated a bomb at Saints Church in Alexandria as worshippers left a New Year's Eve service. The attack killed at least 23 of those attending Mass as the Coptic Christian church.

Recently we had Johnnie Moore on Point of View to talk about his new book The Martyr's Oath. He begins the book and began our interview by talking about attending a Bible school graduation ceremony. The students repeated this martyr's oath in which they pledged their lives and death to Jesus. He felt like he was standing in the book of Acts, witnessing "a raw, first-century Christianity" that he had been shielded from in America.

He has since asked himself, "Why are so few of us in America willing to live for Jesus when others are so willing to die for him?" He noted that seeing Jesus through the eyes of the persecuted church has transformed him.

How Should We Respond?

As a church there are many ways we can respond. We can encourage church members and missionaries to go to these persecuted Christians and minister to them. We can set aside time in church to pray for persecuted Christians. Since 1996, the World Evangelical Fellowship has coordinated efforts of churches and Christian organizations to institute the first International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

The Scriptures admonish us to pray for those who are being persecuted. Hebrews 13:3 says, "Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." And Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:26 that, "When one member suffers, all members suffer with it."

What should you pray? Here are four prayer targets:

First, pray for courage. It takes courage to stand for Christ in a country that is hostile to your beliefs and actively persecutes you.

Second, pray for faith. Pray that these persecuted believers will grow in grace and increase in faith as they face persecution.

Third, pray for hope. It is hard to find reasons for hope in a world of persecution. Pray that they would be empowered and press on.

Finally, pray for help. Many of these persecuted Christians need food, medicine and finances to survive.

Kerby Anderson is the Host of Point of View Radio Talk Show and also serves as the President of Probe Ministries. He holds masters degrees from Yale University (science) and Georgetown University (government). He serves as a visiting professor at Dallas Theological Seminary and has spoken on dozens of university campuses including University of Michigan, Vanderbilt University, Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Colorado and University of Texas.

Engaging views and analysis from outside contributors on the issues affecting society and faith today. 

CP VOICES do not necessarily reflect the views of The Christian Post. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author(s).</s>It was one of President Trump’s most supportive voting blocs in 2016: 80 percent of white evangelicals voted for him, according to exit polls. Just 16 percent voted for Hillary Clinton.

Many on the left and in the media were shocked then by Trump’s evangelical support, and they are shocked now, after some faith leaders have brushed off credible new allegations that the president had an extramarital affair with a porn star years ago, then paid her to stay silent.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins told Politico, “We kind of gave him — ‘All right, you get a mulligan. You get a do-over here.’ ” Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, told CNN that Trump is a “changed person.” He rationalized, “These alleged affairs, they’re alleged with Trump, didn’t happen while he was in office.”

There are two ways to view this: Either evangelicals like Perkins are rank hypocrites or, in the spirit of their faith, are simply very, very forgiving.

Many lean toward the former interpretation, and I get the temptation.

But it willfully leaves out a lot of recent history. As the left and liberal media try to “figure out” Christian America during this latest, complicated moment, it’s instructive to understand where they’ve recently been.

Two years into Barack Obama’s first term, I wrote a book on the liberal war on Christianity. When “Losing Our Religion” came out, folks on the right got it immediately. “Of course the left is attacking Christians,” was the general refrain.

Many on the left, however, were incredulous. One far-left radio host had me on to tell me he had no plans to read the book, but that my premise was absurd on its face. Christianity’s the biggest religion in the country; it can’t possibly be an oppressed class, they insisted.

OK, ask one — just one — evangelical Christian why they voted for Trump.

Perkins spelled it out. Evangelical Christians, he says, “were tired of being kicked around by Barack Obama and his leftists. And I think they are finally glad that there’s somebody on the playground that is willing to punch the bully.”

It wasn’t just Obama’s condescension toward the faithful, who he famously said “cling to guns and religion” when angry or scared. It was eight years of policies that trampled on their religious values, from expanded abortion rights and decreased regulation, even in the face of horrific cases like Dr. Kermit Gosnell’s, to continued efforts to chip away at religious employers’ rights.

It was a smugness from the liberal media, which talked about Christian America as if it were a vestigial organ of some extinct, diseased dinosaur.

Liberal television hosts mocked Sarah Palin for banal things like praying, and reporters wrote that her faith — Pentecostalism — was fanatical, kooky and bigoted. Liberal networks and newsrooms were windowless cocoons of secularism that only deigned to cover Christianity to dismiss its relevance or spotlight its perceived backwardness.

And it was decades of concerted cultural elitism that marginalized Christians as not cool enough to cater to. Movies like “The Passion of the Christ” and “The Chronicles of Narnia” were blockbuster hits in spite of dismissive Hollywood film critics who refused to believe there were enough Christians to go see them. Celebrities called them fanatics; comedians made fun of them.

Many evangelicals I talk to say they grew tired of turning the other cheek. In Trump, they finally found someone who was willing to voice the anger and resentment they had been holding in.

They could overlook his personal foibles — after all, let he who is without sin cast the first stone — and his evangelical illiteracy, in exchange for getting someone who would tell off all their past tormentors.

It’s worth noting, there’s also Trump’s record. From tapping Neil Gorsuch for the Supreme Court to acknowledging Jerusalem is the capital of Israel to following through on his pro-life rhetoric, the president has delivered on a number of promises he made to evangelicals. But that’s not why they voted for him.

So while the willingness to forgive and even defend Trump’s alleged sins seems anathema to many, the fact is evangelicals, like many Trump voters, had good reason to pull the lever for him — and now to stand by him.

This column first appeared in the New York Daily News.</s>A Kenyan-German short film called "Watu Wote," which depicts the real life story of Muslim passengers risking their lives to save Christians on a bus when Islamic radicals attacked in 2015, has been nominated for an Oscar award.

The full list of Oscar nominations was released earlier this week, with "Watu Wote" up for Best Live Action short film at the 90th Academy Awards, which will take place on March 4, as noted by the Clarion Project.

The Christian Post reported on the story that inspired the movie back in December 2015, when Al-Shabaab terror group radicals ambushed a bus in Kenya that was carrying close to 100 people, both Christians and Muslims alike.

The radicals, which earlier that year had killed 152 people at Garissa University College while hunting down specifically Christian students, again attempted to separate the Muslim passengers from the Christian ones, with the intent to kill the latter.

The Muslims stood up for the Christians on the bus, however, with the women sharing their hijabs in order to help them hide. Others directly told the radicals: "If you want to kill us, then kill us. There are no Christians here."

Two people still lost their lives in the attack, including one Christian man who tried to run away, and the driver of a truck behind the bus. A much larger slaughter was prevented due to the united actions of the passengers, however.

Christian leaders, including His Exc. Mgr. Joseph Alexander, the bishop of Garissa, praised the Muslims.

"It is a very good thing; a concrete sign that Kenyan Muslims are against violence," Alexander said at the time.

"The Shabaab now know that they do not have the support of the Muslim community," he added. "We hope that we continue in this direction because a year ago there was a similar attack that caused a massacre."

The terror group, based in Somalia, continues carrying out attacks in Kenya, with a number of violent incidents reported in 2017.

The news of "Watu Wote's" nomination has been greeted with praise in Kenya, with the country's Film Commission stating on Twitter:

"Truly deserved ! Congrats @Watu_Wote crew, cast and producers from all of us at Kenya Film Commission. We are proud of you."

Voice of America reported that a German film student produced the film, with Katja Benrath directing the short as part of a graduation project at the Hamburg Media School.

"We felt very good being nominated because this is a huge achievement being nominated, for us, for Germany and for Kenya," Benrath said. "It's just great."

The director shared her hopes that the film can open up minds.

"I think prejudices are not the right way to live, so I think maybe this movie could help to start again, to look at the next person as a human being and not as a religion you don't like or a culture you don't like," she said.

One of the actors, Abdulahi Ahmed, who played the role of one of the radicals, said that the film offers an important message.

"It was hard acting as a terrorist, but the thing is I really wanted to spread the message that Muslims are not allowed to kill Christians and our religion doesn't teach us to kill Christians," said Ahmed.

"In our Quran, we are told that our religion does not allow us to kill even an innocent ant without a reason," he added, referring to the Islamic holy book.</s>Patty Kirk, John Brown University’s resident writer and professor of English and creative writing, heralds in the Christmas season with her book, “The Gospel of Christmas: Reflections for Advent.”

The short collection of essays recalls Kirk’s Catholic youth, her loss of Catholic faith during adolescence and her journey to faith in Christianity. Kirk recollects what she and other Christians should strive and long for during Advent: recognition of the hope and joy Jesus Christ’s birth brings.

Due to Kirk’s experiences as a JBU professor, she is now an etymological expert on Christmas words: “manger” means trough, a common feature at Kirk’s farm home in Westville, Oklahoma. The Christmas story is lost on her students, often removed from the pastoral setting common to Kirk. “You have to wheedle and scheme and feed them sweet feed to take them beyond their habitual classroom expectations, beyond words and ideas they’re sure they already know to the real meanings hidden, like newborn bunnies in wads of hay their mothers have secreted in their tangled warrens beneath the pasture,” Kirk writes.

The students in her Gateway class, “Writing From Faith,” didn’t understand that Jesus’ birth receptacle was a trough; the word manger obscures the birth from realities forgotten in modern life. Kirk illuminates the term beyond the average student’s “syllabi and study guides and PowerPoint outlines.”

As families worldwide pack their homes with presents, Kirk unpacks God’s longing for us and our longing for Him—opting for carols more “theologically correct” than “jolly.” Kirk ponders those demurer songs and her Catholic upbringing, saying, “I’m unhappy about singing about the Crucifixion.”

“Why not about the Messiah who we’re supposed to look forward to?” Kirk asks. “The Crucifixion is a sad thing. The Angel says the coming of Jesus is good news and great joy. There is no mention of the Crucifixion. In my opinion, it’s creepy and twisted in Christ’s celebration.”

Kirk’s book emphasizes the hope in the coming of Christ rather than His death—hope that Christians should have when considering Christmas. Instead, Christians often focus on the festivities, the gifts and the food. Jesus’ birth, rather, should inspire longing as Christians await His return. The annual Advent chapel service at JBU expresses this waiting for the coming Christ, and the joy that it brings. Kirk enthuses the event: “Heaven is often described as a place where we’re going to sing. I look forward to it because everybody gets to sing together. Even non-believers are singing songs that everybody knows the words to. The songs that are about Jesus.”

“First Snow,” a chapter Kirk dedicates to the initial fall of the fluffy white wonder, links Advent snow with “a sense of rebirth, renewal.” Through the approach and exit of Advent, Kirk feels a sense of rebirth in preparation for next year. She sees Advent as a chance to recognize that Jesus experienced the same suffering and pain mankind also feels. Through this, she observes that God’s love shines with an extra special intensity during the Christmas season.</s>Without urgent action on the part of the United States, Christianity in biblically historic lands, such as Iraq, Syria and Turkey, will be clinically dead before the year 2030.

The current administration in Washington has expressed, in words, that this situation cannot be tolerated. It is time now for deeds, as well, to reverse the previous administrations’ virtual abandonment of Christians in the Middle East to the fate of persecution at the hands of Islamists.



In spite of Senator Obama’s having addressed the growing threat to Christians and other ethno-religious minorities in Iraq, their situation would only deteriorate during the eight years of his presidency. While President George W. Bush may have opened the gates of hell for Iraq’s Christians, President Obama not only widened them, but unleashed the demons on Syria. The following give some idea of this downward spiral:

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, after earlier underreported exoduses of Christians from the country, there were 1.4 million Christians in Iraq, making up 5.4% of its overall population of 26 million. Today, 15 years later, Iraq’s Christian population stands at less than 250,000, a drop of 82%, and a mere 0.65% of Iraq’s general and much larger population of 38 million.

In 2011, there were 1.8 – 2 million Christians in Syria, who made up 8% of the country’s total population of 23 million. Today, less than seven years later, no more than 500,000 Christians, out of a total population of 18.2 million can be found in their war-torn homeland — a drop of more than 72%.

The classical Christian populations in the Middle East consist of Copts, Greeks, Armenians and Arameans — the latter being the indigenous people of Southeast Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. As a stateless Semitic people, who live in a global diaspora, the Arameans include the traditionally Aramaic-speaking churches of the Syriac Orthodox, Syriac Catholics, Chaldeans, Nestorians (also known as Assyrians), Maronites, Melkite Orthodox and Melkite Catholics.

Their incessant pleas and cries for help from the international community seem to have fallen on deaf ears for more than a decade; these Middle Eastern Christians feel abandoned and betrayed by both the United Nations and America. Statements emerging from the Trump administration, however, have given rise to new hope.

Addressing the “In Defense of Christians” summit in Washington at the end of October, Vice President Mike Pence delivered a message that “help is on the way.”

Declaring that the U.N. “has too often failed to help the most vulnerable communities… [and] too often denies their funding requests,” Pence promised that “from this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted [Christian] communities through USAID.”

This is why persecuted Christians greeted Trump’s election last year with cautious optimism, anxious to see whether he would follow Obama’s example and ignore their plight, or take action on behalf of his coreligionists abroad. Statements Trump made, both before and after his inauguration — such as tweeting, “Christians in the Middle East have been executed in large numbers. We cannot allow this horror to continue!” — indicated that he might actually come to their aid.As an Aramean (Syriac Orthodox), whose family originates from Southeast Turkey — where the indigenous Arameans have been reduced to fewer than 2,000 people struggling for survival — I felt encouraged. As the head of the World Council of Arameans (Syriacs), an NGO with special consultative status at the U.N., I can testify to the truth of Pence’s statements. Our organization frequently has brought the needs and challenges of the Christians and other threatened minorities to the attention of the international community — mainly through the Human Rights Council of the U.N. Human Rights Council and its Commission of Inquiry on Syria — to no avail.

When Trump entered the Oval Office, cynics argued that Trump’s words were hollow. In an op-ed in the Washington Post in January 2017, Daniel Williams, author of Forsaken: The Persecution of Christians in Today’s Middle East, called Middle Eastern Christians “Trump’s pawns.”

Yet Trump’s actions, so far, have involved putting the genies of Bush and Obama back in the bottle. Trump ended the covert CIA program of 2013 to arm the “rebels” in Syria; he spoke out against “radical Islamic terrorism” during his first address to Congress; he visited the heart of the Muslim world in Riyadh, where he urged leaders of Islamic states to “drive out the terrorists from your places of worship;” and he contributed to the defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

All of the above are fulfillments of his campaign promises, and thus bode well for the fate of the remaining Christians in the Middle East. Much work needs to be done to help them, however.

To this end, the White House urgently needs to develop a clear vision of how to help Christianity survive — let alone thrive — in its homeland. At the moment, there seems to be no foreign policy based on this vision. Trump might launch an international conference — similar to one held in Budapest in October — to address and engage the lay and religious Mideast Christian leaders, with the participation of world representatives.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration should pressure the U.N. Security Council to recognize the genocide, committed by ISIS, which uprooted many tens of thousands of Aramean Christians, Yazidis and others from their ancestral lands. It is not enough to defeat and punish ISIS and other terrorist groups; their victims must be acknowledged and provided help. America also could demand that the U.N. declare an International Day of Solidarity with the Threatened Christians of the Middle East.

America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. Almost all U.S. presidents, including Trump, and members of Congress, have identified themselves as Christian. Yet Christians, members of the largest religion in the world, have become the most persecuted faith group but lack a political voice. In addition, as a result of failed U.S. foreign policy, Christians have vanished in record numbers from the lands where the traditional and still main religion of America (and Europe) was born. In view of its Christian roots and identity, America has a moral obligation to the cradle of Christianity from becoming “Christenrein” (“free of Christians”).

Christians in and from the Middle East should be viewed as reliable partners and allies in securing America’s interest in a more viable and prosperous region, where Jews, Christians, Muslims and others are able to coexist peacefully on equal footing.</s>In our politically polarized society, discussions rarely result in accepting the opposition’s opinions as a valid perspective while remaining true to one’s own beliefs in a calm and civil manner. Taking offense to something that is said, or another person’s belief, is unfortunately the norm. Some see any form of discussion on the basis of their beliefs as an attack on their very being and react accordingly. When people like myself engage in a discussion on hot button topics with people of differing beliefs, the goal is to promote dialogue and informed discussions to better educate all parties present in the conversation, while potentially changing some minds in the process.

Applying this principle to religious discussions, the interfaith movement at Concordia has been hard at work promoting dialogue about various faith traditions to change people’s biased understandings of varying religious traditions. Personally, I used to dislike the interfaith movement at Concordia College. Because interfaith dialogue is never looked at as a form of conversion, I thought that any Christian engaging in this dialogue would be forsaking what Jesus commanded his disciples to do in the Great Commission, which is to make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Why else would you engage in this type of dialogue, if not to potentially convert the other person?

Currently, interfaith dialogue has a completely different connotation in my mind after having a massive realization. Christians aren’t forsaking the Great Commission when engaging in interfaith dialogue, but are indirectly fulfilling it through the sharing of their testimonies, while empathizing with and expressing neighborly love for the other person, regardless of what they believe. It is through this neighborly love that the Holy Spirit can begin to positively work to soften the hearts of those who do not ascribe to the Christian tradition. Coupled with intentional prayer for these individuals, this is the best way for Christians to go about bringing God’s love to all who need it.

After further contemplation, discussions with many other students, and applying this understanding to the broader interfaith movement, I finally came around to really supporting interfaith dialogue for what it is: an opportunity for individuals of differing faith backgrounds to share their life experiences and faith journeys with each other, and to build a mutual understanding and empathy for one another. It is an opportunity for not one, but both parties involved to share their personal testimonies with one another, which involves deeper discussions and vulnerability to build a deeper understanding of each other’s faith traditions and upbringings. Who’s to say that Christians cannot also learn a thing or two about other faith traditions? Through this intimate sharing of experiences and hardships, both parties involved can potentially inspire each other to continue living more purposeful lives.

There are two main takeaways from this article that I want to convey to everyone. First, it is impossible to convert others through logical arguments alone. That is not what God calls Christians to do. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit, as a result of hearing personal testimonies and experiencing genuine neighborly love that individuals are more likely to have an open mind towards Christianity and freely choose it. It is also incredibly ignorant and irresponsible of Christians to live out the majority of their lives in a Christian bubble. Jesus interacted on a daily basis with people who adamantly opposed who he was and the kinds of things he was preaching. We as Christians have to venture out and converse with other people with whom we disagree with if we are to live a life that best resembles the life Jesus lived.
Tens of thousands of Pentecostal Christians in Mbarara, Uganda take to the streets with songs of praise and thanks to hold a common celebration seen as a way of dedicating people’s lives to Christ and preaching the gospel across the entire district.