Book Review: The Global War on Christians

Well, that's an evocative title, isn't it? There's a "war" on everything in recent years: we've got wars on terror, wars on education, wars on poverty, and we've even managed to have a war on Christmas! So what about this title, "The Global War on Christians?" It's a bit overkill, isn't it? There's not really a war with Christians as their target. Christians get asked to keep quiet in political situations. We might be the butt of a joke on television from time to time, but there's really not a "war" on Christians. 

Author John L. Allen, s senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter and Vatican analyst for CNN thinks otherwise. He writes,

 "The United States, with roughly 225 million Christians is conventionally described as the largest Christian nation in the world. Yet the United States represents only 10% of the 2.2 billion Christians in the world, which means 90% of the Christians on the planet aren't necessarily like Americans." (284)

Allen reminds us of something that we, as American Christians, often forget: we are the exception, not the rule.

The International Society of Human Rights (Germany-based nongovernmental organization founded in 1972) estimates that 80% of all acts of religious discrimination in the world today is directed at Christians. (33)

Allen tells story after story of Christian persecution throughout the global South: Africa, Asia, Latin America as well as the Middle East and Eastern Europe. 

Former U.S. Senator Hiram Warren Johnson said, "The first casualty when war comes is truth." Allen seeks to bring some of the myths related to the global persecution of Christians to light as he devotes a chapter to breaking some of the most commonly accepted myths. The myth:

• that Christians are at risk only where they are a minority
• that no one saw this coming
• that it's all about Islam (it's really not, despite what media outlets might want us to think)
• that it's only persecution if the motives are religious
• that anti-Christian persecution is a political issue

Though numbers are nearly impossible to assimilate, numbers from various advocacy groups vary slightly, it is estimated that there are between 100,000 to 150,000 new Christian martyrs every year. STOP. Go back and re-read this again.

Unlike so many other writers, Allen's approach is not a gloom and doom story. He proposes several effective ways to take action on behalf of our brothers and sister in Christ around the world. 

Allen recounts a story from Rwanda:

After the genocide began in Rwanda in 1994, Munzihirwa (a Catholic missionary ultimately killed for his resistance to the injustices of his nation) became an outspoken protector of the Hutu refugees who flooded his diocese. His martyrdom was not unexpected, at least not to him. Munzihirwa had written in an Easter meditation: "Despite anguish and suffering, the Christian who is persecuted for the cause of justice finds spiritual peace in total and profound assent to God, in accord with a vocation that can lead even to death."

Why have we not stopped and paid attention? Why is no one listening? 

At Munzihirwa's funeral someone recalled his favorite saying: "There are things that can be seen only with eyes that have cried." (49)

John Allen's eyes cry for us so that we cab a glimpse of this global war on Christians. 

Find out more about The Global War on Christians here:

• Authors Website
• Read Chapter One
• Author Bio

** In the spirit of full disclosure, I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review. However, I would never recommend a resource to you unless it were, in my opinion, worth your while and useful for your spiritual growth.