Christianity Save Yourself - You Are Indispensable to the World's Future

The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Gap and Embrun in the southeast of France - just north of Nice and the Côte d'Azur - has just made a bold decision. French dioceses receive no financial help from the Vatican or from the French government. They raise funds to cover priests' salaries and retirement, church maintenance and construction, as well as charitable work, through a system of donations called "Donner au Denier" - Give to Help." What did the bishop do? He asked famous French actors and entertainers, churchgoers or not, to let him use a photo of their choice with their handwritten note in his annual appeal for funds. The posters with celebrity photos and their handwritten messages are now on buses, in churches, and in other key places. ~~~~~ The French celebrities wrote such things as "To give is to enrich your heart" - "Giving is what saves us" -  "Never did Jesus and His Mother have more need of you to save their House" - "Listen to your heart's whisper" - "The little bit you give to others represents a big part of yourself" - "To give is to receive much more in return" - "Give so that peace may descend over the world" - and "We need the Church and the Church needs us." ~~~~~ Bishop Jean-Michel di Falco Léandri wrote in his Donner au Denier appeal letter to all parishioners that everyone belongs to the great family of God and the doors of the Church are always open to all, as a witness of God's love for everybody. The bishop said : "Yes, we need all of you to help us to to carry out our mission." ~~~~~ Bishop di Falco Léandri has already had one big success. French media are telling his story and showing the posters. The idea has caught on. ~~~~~ Celebrities are often hesitant to speak about religion, probably so as not to alienate anyone. But, 76% of the French are Catholic. And all over Europe the percentage of Catholics is high -- 97% in Italy, 88% in Spain, 90% in Portugal, 94% in Poland, 72% in Austria, 75% in Belgium. Even in the countries that cradled the Protestant Reformation, there are many Catholics -- 32% in Germany, 31% in The Netherlands. I have often said that Europe is a Christian civilization, for even though many Europeans don't go to church regularly, they are baptised, married and buried in it. ~~~~~ But, what may surprise you is that while Catholics make up just 23% of the American population, that represents 65 million American Roman Catholics -- more than in any European country, indeed more than the total population of any European country except Germany, whose total population is 82 million. And 63% of people in the Americas are Catholic, compared to 3.5% in Asia. ~~~~~ How many Christians are there? About 2.3 billion, or 1/3 of the Earth's people. This compares to 1.5 to 2 billion Moslems, the next largest religion. But, Christians are also the most persecuted religion in the world. Many experts on religious persecution were in Washington this week to tell a House committee about their experiences. Boston Globe Associate Editor John Allen traveled widely to collect the horrific facts for his book, "The Global War on Christians" : "Two-thirds of Christians in the world today live outside the West. They ive in Africa, in Asia, in the Middle East and other places where they are targets of convenience for anybody who is mad at the West, mad at Europe, mad at the United States. It's tough to take that out on the American consulate. It's very easy to take it out on the Christian church down the street." Archbishop Francis Chullikatt, the Vatican's UN nuncio and a witness to Christian persecution in Iraq, told the committee about the plight of Christians in the Middle East and Persian Gulf region : "Arab Christians, a small but significant community, find themselves the target of constant harassment for no reason other than their religious faith," he told US congressional lawmakers. Representative Chris Smith pointed out that there used to be 1.4 million Christians in Iraq. But the harassment against them has been so intense, most have fled. There are only about 150,000 Christians there now. Elliott Abrams, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, offered a bit of a rebuke for Congress : "Persecution of Christians is growing around the world and Congress needs to pay more attention to it. It needs to be a higher priority issue in our relations with all these countries where this persecution takes place." The impression many have is that radical Islam has perpetrated most of the persecution. But Allen pointed out that's not entirely the case since so many groups take their anger out on Christians : "It is a fact that radical Islam is the leading manufacturer of anti-Christian hatred. But it is equally a fact that radical Islam could fall off the planet tomorrow, and Christians would not be safe." Take, for instance, India. Tehmina Arora fights for the legal rights of Christians in India as an attorney with the Alliance Defending Freedom. She said the rise of a violent brand of radical Hinduism in the world's second most populous nation has meant trouble for the much smaller Christian minority. "We've seen increasing attacks against Christian workers, pastors, even sexual attacks against women," Arora said. "But concern also is over the impunity that is being enjoyed by the forces that are doing this." Allen agreed with Arora : "In India, they are victims of radical Hinduism. In Myanmar and Sri Lanka, they're targeted by radical Buddhism." In opening the congressional hearing, GOP Representative Smith pointed out Christians today face violence, displacement, or discrimination in 110 nations of the world. ~~~~~ Dear readers, why should we spend time thinking about what is happening in a corner of France? Because it is happening now. French dioceses, as well as most Catholic and Protestant churches everywhere, have needed money for the last century. It has been met with indifference in the Christian world. But, now, we might argue that, active or not, truly believing in every tenet or not, Christians are being challenged for their survival. That may be hard to understand with a Pope who draws millions when he travels, for a Roman Catholic Church that numbers 1.2 billion, for Christianity that is the largest religion in the world. Perhaps the indifference stems from two things -- the belief that the Christian Church and its civilization would always prevail, and the former relatively isolated pockets of radical anti-Christian sentiment. Today, that has all changed. Anti-West, anti-Christian attacks are being videoed and pushed in our faces. Radical Islam threatens to take Rome and New York and defeat us. Westerners and Christians everywhere feel the pressure and detest the unspeakable persecution and massacre. Yet, our fundamental Christian and Western democratic beliefs tell us that we must not respond in kind. And, Christian demographics are shifting and so are the persecution points. By 2050, only one-fifth of the world's Christians will be non-Hispanic whites. And these changes will be more than demographic. Studies show that Christians living in Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia are far more conservative, theologically and morally, than Western Christians. As Christianity becomes more 'Southern,' it will become more biblically orthodox. While some theologians and church leaders insist that Christianity must abandon its historic beliefs to survive, it is precisely these historic beliefs that attract our new brothers and sisters. Christianity's explosive growth is one of the great untold stories of our time -- and it repudiates those who say that Christians must compromise their beliefs to remain relevant. The opposite is true. Biblical orthodoxy is winning converts, while churches that have abandoned fundamental Christian teachings fail. Note the increase of evangelical churches in South and North America and the pull of Pope John Paul and Pope Francis who preach conservative values. It is time to save ourselves so that we can be there for our new Christian brothers and sisters. So, the Bishop of Gap and some French celebrities are responding to support and re-inforce Christianity. Congress at least recognizes the problem. In our Christian need to protect the needy and minorities, have we Christians forgotten to prorect ourselves? We must defend ourselves in order to save Chtistianity, because without it, the world will fall back into generalized barbarity.