War on Real Christianity Spreading, U.S. Seen as Chief Facilitator
Could Another 'Great Awakening' Result from Persecution?
Contact: Donna Anderson, 417-723-0610
CRANE, Mo., Aug. 4, 2014 /
Christian Newswire/ -- In January this year (2014), the Pew Research Center (PRC)--a prestigious think tank based in Washington, DC (which provides information on social issues and demographic trends shaping the world)--published its report, "Religious Hostilities Reach Six-Year High."
In this important document, the worldwide public-opinion surveyors chronicled the steady growth of religious persecution around the world and found that social hostilities involving religion are currently most frequently directed against people of Christian faith. A January 8, 2014, Breitbart news feature with the headline "A Report from the Non-Denominational Group Open Doors" supported the PRC findings, saying the Number of Christians Martyred around the World for Their Faith Nearly Doubled in 2013.
Besides the Middle East, the Pew findings detail an escalation in the United States from the lowest category of government restrictions on Christian expressions as of mid-2009 to an advanced category in only three years, where it appears poised to continue upward at this time. If recent activity is any indication, it may not be long before "one nation under God" joins those red-listed countries where Bible-based believers find themselves under the most severe discrimination. Indeed, National Review Online posted a critical review by Raymond Ibrahim, a Shillman fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, who cites the 2014 World Watch List (which ranks the fifty nations where Christians are most persecuted) to determine that the U.S. has become "the chief facilitator of the persecution of Christians around the world today." While Ibrahim's assertion mostly reflects American involvement in foreign conflicts, examples of repression in the US against people of Christian faith are growing. This includes a dangerous culture war that is dividing churches and pitting "Christian against Christian" over issues like gay marriage, ecumenism, and even Obama's healthcare policies (where, despite a recent Supreme Court ruling [the "Hobby Lobby" case], polls show a whopping majority of Americans by a margin of two-to-one disagree with the Supreme Court and want federal mandates against Christians in such cases).
But could the increase in persecution of true believers around the world today presage an imminent, latter-day awakening…a revival in the purest sense of the word?
