Friday, January 3, 2020

Black on Jewish Violence Marks the New New Anti-Semitism by Abigail R. Esman Special to IPT News

Steven Emerson, Executive Director

January 3, 2020

Black on Jewish Violence Marks the New New Anti-Semitism

by Abigail R. Esman
Special to IPT News
January 3, 2020

https://www.investigativeproject.org/8240/black-on-jewish-violence-marks-the-new-new-anti

On the Upper East Side, strangers talk to one another: on grocery lines, in restaurants, leaning over tables.
"In New York!" they say. "I never would have imagined in New York."
They are talking about the rash of attacks on Jews in and around New York City in the last days of December.
"New York was where it was always safe," they say, and nod at one another in agreement.
No more. What the Hanukkah attacks in New York City and its suburbs have made clear is that nowhere is safe, now, for the Jews.
"We are all Israelis now," says my friend Phyllis Chesler, author of The New Anti-Semitism.
Not really. Israel identified the threat to its existence long ago. In America, we've just discovered a brand new one. The book that Chesler published more than 16 years ago is now officially outdated: we have entered the era of the New New Anti-Semitism, and it's nothing like what we've seen before. True, white supremacists and Muslim extremists continue to endanger Jews wherever we may be. But the New New Anti-Semitism comes instead from black American extremists, and they are radicalizing before our very eyes.
And so not surprisingly, for many New York Jews, the moment also holds shades of 9/11: "Who are they?" "Why do they hate us?" "Are we safe, walking in the streets? At our local stores? In our synagogues and schools?"
Similarly, just as most Americans knew little of al-Qaida before that bright September day, most American Jews have little awareness of groups like the Black Hebrew Israelites that are helping to propel the hatred and the violence that have caused more than 1,850 anti-Semitic incidents in New York alone in 2019.
But the Hanukkah attacks make it clear we need to start paying more attention. Because although it isn't pretty to say so, in the words of Michael Benjamin, a black Jew writing in the New York Post, political leaders "need to address the elephant in the room — that the suspects in these heinous acts are black."
And while only the two shooters at a Jersey City kosher market who killed four people before being killed by police are known to have been connected to the Black Hebrew Israelite movement, others, such as Grafton Thomas, who knifed five celebrants at the home of a Monsey, N.Y. rabbi on the seventh night of Hanukkah, have indicated at least a passing interest in the group. And Larry Greene, aka Elijah Israel, who attacked two people leaving a Miami synagogue in October, also reportedly "self-identified" as a black Israelite. Worth noting: not a few Muslim terrorists, such as Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, similarly "self-identified" with ISIS and other terror groups.
More significant, though, is the fact that so many others have not been linked to the movement, offshoots of which have been defined by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) as "extremist," "anti-Semitic," and "racist": Tiffany Harris, who punched and cursed at three Orthodox Jewish women in Crown Heights; Ayana Logan, a homeless woman who swung a handbag at an Orthodox woman in her 30s in Gravesend, N.Y., screaming "You fucking Jew, the end is coming for you!"; Steven Jorge, who punched a 65-year-old Jewish man in midtown Manhattan on a weekday morning, crying "Fuck you, Jew bastard!"; Darryl Jacobs, who threatened to bomb Jews in Jersey City a day after the kosher market slaughter; Urias Suero, who entered Chabad world headquarters on Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn one Friday morning and threatened to "shoot up the place and kill everyone"; and more.
Yet as the New York Post observed, "Blacks comprised seven of the nine-anti-Jewish hate-crime perpetrators arrested during the third quarter." Black-on-Jew violence and harassment, in other words, has become a significant and growing threat.
Why? Are there unrecognized links between these attackers and fringe groups of the Black Hebrew Israelites? Have investigators missed connections between them and Louis Farrakhan's anti-Semitic, black supremacist Nation of Islam? Or is there something else inflaming African-American rage against the Jews?
Arguably, a combined growth of the two movements, both of which declare blacks the superior race and vilify Jews as Satan-worshippers, may have helped bring anti-Jewish sentiment to the fore within elements of the African-American community in much the same way that Trump and the rise of the alt-right have – arguably – stimulated anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic and other racist sentiment among many American whites. Both Farrakhan and the Black Hebrew Israelites insist that black people are the true children of Israel, that white Jews are responsible for the transatlantic slave trade, and that Jews continue to oppress blacks in their efforts to rule the world.
As both increase their proselytizing efforts, their audiences are growing – if not for their religion, then for their messages of hate. Add to this the incendiary anti-Israel and borderline anti-Jew rhetoric from politicians of color such as Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who have, among other things, likened Israel to Nazi Germany, and the anti-Semitic tropes that fill the occasional rap song, such as "4:44" by Jay-Z: "You wanna know what's more important than throwin' away money at a strip club? Credit/ You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it."
At the same time, none of this is entirely new. Past ADL studies, as Chesler herself has pointed out, have shown anti-Jew sentiment among blacks to be nearly twice as high as it is among non-blacks. Indeed, this animosity against Jews by blacks is woven into the fabric of America's history. As early as 1948, James Baldwin wrote in Commentary magazine:

"Both the Negro and the Jew are helpless; the pressure of living is too immediate and incessant to allow time for understanding. I can conceive of no Negro native to this country who has not, by the age of puberty, been irreparably scarred by the conditions of his life. All over Harlem, Negro boys and girls are growing into stunted maturity, trying desperately to find a place to stand; and the wonder is not that so many are ruined but that so many survive. The Negro's outlets are desperately constricted. In his dilemma he turns first upon himself and then upon whatever most represents to him his own emasculation. Here the Jew is caught in the American crossfire. The Negro, facing a Jew, hates, at bottom, not his Jewishness but the color of his skin. It is not the Jewish tradition by which he has been betrayed but the tradition of his native land. But just as a society must have a scapegoat, so hatred must have a symbol. Georgia has the Negro and Harlem has the Jew."

Few, apparently, paid much attention. In 1961, however, Commentary again noted "a revival of anti-Semitism among blacks."
Yet more than 70 years after Baldwin's courageous discourse, things have only gotten worse. True, after the Monsey bloodshed, some African American leaders began speaking out.
But is that enough? As Michael Benjamin wrote: "I'm unsure where this strain of anti-Semitism is coming from and why now. But I know that we need to call it and the perpetrators by name if we are going to eradicate it... But most of all, African Americans owe it to our Jewish neighbors, co-workers and friends — as well as to our children and their children — to stand up forcefully to the anti-Semitism that is percolating to the surface in our community."
The truth is, no one really is standing up "forcefully." And few are willing to come forward and "call it by its name." Not even the Jewish community itself.
Understood: It isn't comfortable. It feels wrong. We fear escalating the hatred against a minority group that we, as Jews, have long taken the lead in protecting.
But let's be honest. This didn't happen overnight. Over the decades, the tensions and the hatred have worsened, festering precisely because it wasn't a comfortable conversation. Now none of it can be fixed with just a statement. We need to stand up, all of us, to recognize those uncomfortable truths, and, together, change them.
Abigail R. Esman, the author, most recently, of Radical State: How Jihad Is Winning Over Democracy in the West (Praeger, 2010), is a freelance writer based in New York and the Netherlands Her next book, on domestic abuse and terrorism, will be published by Potomac Books. Follow her at @radicalstates.

The IPT accepts no funding from outside the United States, or from any governmental agency or political or religious institutions. Your support of The Investigative Project on Terrorism is critical in winning a battle we cannot afford to lose. All donations are tax-deductible. Click here to donate online. The Investigative Project on Terrorism Foundation is a recognized 501(c)3 organization.

BLOGS Thu Jan 2, 2020 - 3:28 pm EST

Dear non-Catholic Christians, we need your help in the Catholic Church like never before

Catholicism, Conversion, Evangelization, Mary, Mother Of God, The John-Henry Westen Show

January 2, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — It's great to be back from a joyful celebration of the birth of the Savior with family and friends. I pray you've all had a much needed break from work and found time for the peace and joy that the Christ-child brings.

To kick off 2020 I wanted to reach out in a special way to all of LifeSite's non-Catholic readers and supporters. Firstly, I want to thank you for all you've done in the battle for life and family. There are thousands of spirit-filled Christians across the world that have given me so much inspiration, especially those I've been privileged to work with in the battle for life and family.

It is precisely because of the great respect, love and admiration that I have for you non-Catholic soldiers for Christ that I wanted to reach out to you and beg you to consider coming home to the Catholic Church. For one thing your ardent faith and willingness to defend the truths of Christ are sorely needed in the battle for the soul of the Catholic Church that is raging today.

But more than that, you are such good and Christ-loving people. You deserve the riches of the Catholic faith much more than a sinner like me.

So I've tried to put together this show to explain from a Biblical perspective one of the most troubling aspects of Catholicism for most non-Catholic Christians... namely Mary the Mother of Jesus.

I explain in this episode with Scriptural backing why Catholics call Mary their Mother, why Catholics have statues of Mary in their Churches and much more.

Please watch this very important episode of The John-Henry Westen Show for more on the Catholic teaching on Mary. You can also read the show's transcript below. Please know that you are in my prayers. And happy new year!

The John-Henry Westen Show is available by video on the show’s YouTube channel and right here on my LifeSite blog.

It is also available in audio format on platforms such as Spotify, Soundcloud, and ACast. We are awaiting approval for iTunes and Google Play as well. To subscribe to the audio version on various channels, visit the ACast webpage here.

We’ve created a special email list for the show so that we can notify you every week when we post a new episode. Please sign up now by clicking here. You can also subscribe to the YouTube channel, and you’ll be notified by YouTube when there is new content.

You can send me feedback, or ideas for show topics by emailing jhwestenshow@lifesitenews.com.

***FULL TRANSCRIPT***

This episode is a call out to all sincere non-Catholic Christians who love Christ and want to serve Him above all else. To those Evangelical, non-denominational, Reform, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, Baptist and other Christians who love the truth of Christ in this day and age which rejects it and are willing to stand for Christ’s truth despite the rejection of the world.

Let’s begin as we always do with the sign of the cross.

Wait! To all my non-Catholic Christian brothers and sisters in Christ, wait! Before you leave this page, I want to say that the Catholic Church needs you to join its ranks now like never before. There is a war going on for the soul of the Church and those in the Church who love the immutable truths of Christ on life and family are in desperate need of reinforcements from Bible-believing Christians who know the truth of Christ and are willing to stand up for it despite the costs and despite the pressures of the world to conform to it’s anti-Christian anti-life, anti-family doctrine.

In the whole 2000-year history of the Church there has never been more internal pressure to conform to the world as there is today. Christ prayed for his future disciples prior to his death. He said, “Father may they be one even as You and I are one.” That oneness goes far beyond having differences in being able to pray comfortably together without hesitation let alone more fundamental differences such as around the breaking of Bread in commemoration of the Lord or baptism.

But for me, the deepest reason why I want to reach out especially to you good good believers and lovers of Christ. I’m privileged to know some of you whose faith, commitment, and devotion I’ve admired and tried to emulate. You are committed to Jesus, you are such good people, such generous, kind, loving, caring, willing to give till it hurts, self-sacrificing and awesome soldiers for Christ. You deserve the fullness of truth so much more than the miserable sinner that I am.

So as is typical for LifeSite, instead of starting with the easier doctrines in the Church, I want to start with what is, at least for most non-Catholic Christians, the biggest stumbling block when it comes to Catholicism, namely, Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Let’s begin with a title for Mary that causes some Christians much discomfort -- Mother of God.

This title understandably has many Christians confused. It may sound like Catholics believe that Mary is somehow superior to God being His Mother. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The greatest Catholic teacher on Mary, universally recognized as such, was Louis de Montfort, a French priest who died in 1716. In his greatest work on Mary he said this:

With the Church, I acknowledge that Mary, being a mere creature fashioned by the hands of God, is, in comparison with His Infinite Majesty, less than an atom; or rather is simply nothing, since He alone can say, ‘I am He who is.’ Consequently, this great Lord, who is ever independent and self-sufficient, never had and does not now have any absolute need of the Blessed Virgin for the accomplishment of his will and To do all things, He has only to will them.

The title ‘Mother of God’ is actually logical and scriptural. Jesus was God from the moment of His conception, not only after His birth. Have a look at Luke 1:43, it’s the account of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth after she learned from the Angel Gabriel that her cousin, despite her old age, was with child. When Elizabeth greets Mary she proclaims (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit – see verse 41): “And how has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

The Bible talks about not making graven images and worshipping them, yet nearly every Catholic Church has at least one statue of Mary in it.

In 2 Chronicles 33:6-7, we read: “He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger Then he put the carved image of the idol which he had made in the house of God.”

So what can we make of that?

Well, we also read in the Bible that God actually commanded the making of graven images for use in the temple – right on the ark of the covenant in fact. We read in Exodus 25: 18 “And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.”

You might say though that those were just meant as decoration and Catholics look at statues in Churches as much more than that, even as part of a religious ceremony. But that’s scriptural too.

Remember when the Israelites were being killed by serpents because of their infidelity? God commanded Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and raise it on a pole. In Numbers 21:8-9 you’ll read: “And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.”

Obviously God didn’t intend the Israelites to think a bronze serpent had some sort of power, but to think of Him and give Him glory for having saved them. And that’s exactly what Catholics do with statues or pictures of the saints. They see them and think of the saints and the God who made them and saved them, and expect from the saints in heaven that they would pray to God for us. Just the same way we are told in the Scriptures to ask other brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for us.

If we actually believed Mary were somehow superior to God we definitely wouldn’t be asking her to pray to God for us, but that’s exactly what Catholics do.

Catholics also consider Mary not only the Mother of Jesus but also the Mother of all believers. And believe it or not that’s totally scriptural too.

I came across this in an awesome book I’d recommend called ‘Rome Sweet Home’ by Scott and Kimberley Hahn who were at one time staunch anti-Catholic Christians but then were led from study of God’s word into the Catholic Church.

If you read Revelation 12:17 it talks about Mary in a mystical kind of way, but it is clear that it is Mary since she gives birth to Christ. Let’s go to verse 17. “Then the dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her children, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.”

Wait a minute, the serpent was angry with the woman? And went to make war with the rest of her children — not the child that she already gave birth to who went up to God — the rest of her children who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. And that's us!

So we, the Christians who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, are the Children of Mary, having Mary for our Mother just as our head – Jesus Christ – did.

He is the head of the mystical body, the Church, and we are the members of his mystical body thus we too have God as our Father and Mary as our mother, as we read in Revelations 12:17

In fact, many non-Catholic Christians sing a song of ‘Father Abraham’...why do they do this? Because of his faith, of course.

Paul in Romans 4:11 calls Abraham the “father of all them that believe.” And what faith did he have to make him the father of the faith? It was the faith that had him believing that his way-too-old-wife would bear a son and also his consent to the sacrificial death of that same son Isaac. Mary is much more deserving of the title of Mother of the Faith since she was asked to believe that she would bear a child not in her old age, but as a virgin! And she too was faced with the sacrificial death of her child, but unlike with Abraham whose son was spared at the last minute, Mary was asked to endure that sacrificial death of Her Son as she watched under the cross. She fulfilled the prophecy of Simeon in the temple that a sword would pierce her own heart too.

Catholics fulfill the Biblical prophecy made by Mary under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit when she said “from henceforth, all generations shall call me blessed.” (Luke 1:48)

To get a Biblical understanding of the type of reverence Christians should have for Mary, let’s take at look at the reverence given to the Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament. The Ark of the Covenant was sacred because God ordained it’s construction. According to Hebrews 9:4 it was the housing for a golden pot containing some of the manna from heaven, and the tablets of the Ten Commandments and the rod of Aaron. Moreover, it was called the footstool of God and meant God’s presence when it was in the temple.

Recall that it was so sacred that it was never allowed to be touched except by certain Levites. This was reinforced when Uzzah touched the Ark to stabilize it after the oxen carrying it stumbled and was struck dead since no one was permitted to touch the Ark except those whom God had ordained. You can read that account in both 2 Samuel 6:1-7 and 1 Chronicles 13:9-12. The Ark was revered in the temple. It was carried in ceremony. It was considered holy.

How much more reverence should then be given to Mary the Mother of God? She wasn’t only fashioned by Men according to God's design. She was fashioned by God, as we all are, in the womb of her mother. But also, she is the new Ark of the Covenant and she carried in herself not just the tablets of the law but the lawgiver Himself. Not just the manna from heaven but the actual bread of heaven which was prefigured by the manna, Jesus Christ himself. And He is the ruler of the world which the rod was to signify.

So, God the Father chose Mary to give Jesus to the world. He also chose to do the first miracles of Jesus through Mary. The first miraculous recognition of Jesus in the womb of Mary by her cousin Elizabeth. The first public miracle of Christ at the wedding at Cana. We read that after Mary suggests that Jesus provide more wine for the wedding feast He tells her that his time has not yet come. Nevertheless he does perform the miracle at her behest.

We are called in the scriptures to ask others to pray for us. How Much more sense does it make to ask Jesus’ own mother to pray for us? Naturally we can ask the saints in heaven to pray for us too. Remember when Moses and Elijah appeared with the Lord at his transfiguration? They spoke with Him. And our Lord told the Sadducees that God is the God of the living, not of the dead. So, surely if we can communicate across the planet with our devices, God can arrange for communication of his children in heaven with his children on earth.

And finally, I can tell you from my own personal experience that My heavenly Mother Mary has been the greatest help in bringing me to love Jesus, to serve Him, to make Him Lord of my life and recognize Him as my savior. I’m a sinner and I know it. God has given me and you a heavenly Mother to bring us to His Son. Going to Jesus through Mary is the same way God the Father gave us Jesus – through Mary.

Think of the hymn ‘The Church's one foundation’ which many of you sing. It speaks of “mystic sweet communion with those whose rest is won.” That’s exactly what we’re talking about here!

To my dear brothers and sisters in Christ who love the Lord and have made Jesus Lord of your hearts, ask Him, ask Jesus your dearest love to give you the same love for Mary which He Himself had. She was the humblest of all creatures, as we learn from her under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit why she was chosen. She would never want to detract from the glory due to Her Son, but she doesn’t at all. No painter is offended when someone admires his painting, and Mary is a beautiful creation of God who gives glory to God like no one else does. Her soul ‘magnifies the Lord’ as we again read in the Scriptures.

She’s your mother too. She loves you and wants nothing more for you than for you to love Her Son with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Catholics only quote Scripture when they say what many of you deem quite offensive. Read with me the words of God’s messenger Angel in Luke chapter one. “Hail full of Grace the Lord is with thee.” Let’s repeat with Elizabeth, “Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” These are quotes from Scripture. When Roman Catholics say ‘Holy Mary Mother of God pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,’ we are obviously asking her to pray to God for us.

My dear non-Catholic Christian friends whose love for Christ and readiness to sacrifice for Him has so inspired me I want you to have the riches awaiting you in the Catholic Church, your great love for Jesus is overwhelming and compels me to offer you what I can give – a rather poor intro to that last gift Jesus gave us on the cross – His Mother for our own.

There are many ways to learn about the Virgin Mary and the Catholic Faith. I’d recommend something called Catholic Answers, which you can search for online.

In addition, we need you soldiers for Christ in this fight for the soul of the Church right now. We need a division of marines in this war. Your heavenly mother is calling you to love Her Son and His Church. It’s where you belong. Please, please come home.

If nothing else I hope I’ve helped you to understand from a biblical perspective why Catholics have Mary as a Mother, just like the Jews had Abraham as a Father.

If this was of help to you at all please let me know in the comments section and I’ll do more on this subject.

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Ines A. Murzaku

OPINION CATHOLIC CHURCH, FAITHThu Jan 2, 2020 - 6:28 pm EST

Eastern Christians are going extinct, but the Vatican is obsessed with global warming

Christian Persecution, Climate Change, Global Warming, Islam, Jihad, Lebanon, Pope Francis

January 2, 2020 (The Catholic Thing) — A few days ago, I went to my trusted Lebanese-American mechanic for an oil change. The Christians of the East have always had a penchant for discussing theology, politics, and race — and as far as theology is concerned, the Easterners have all the theology they could want to discuss and contest. My routine car service, therefore, usually turns into interesting discussions on theology, Church history, and — most recently — the state of persecuted Christians in the East.

I guess this is one of the benefits of my being a Church historian. It happens that my mechanic was fresh back from Lebanon, which he had visited for his mother's funeral. He had a lot to tell me about the persecution and harassment Lebanese Christians are suffering at the hands of the Muslim majority and about recent protests — Hezbollah is currently the major political force in the country.

He and his family are Christians by birth, so they are officially allowed to worship freely. This is not always the case in practice, especially since the number of Christians in Lebanon is progressively diminishing and referring to Christians as a discrete minority has become the norm. According to statistics, in 1970, Lebanon was 62 percent Christian. By 2010, the Christian population in Lebanon was drastically reduced to about 36 percent. Maronite Catholics make up the largest Christian group, excluding the recent addition of Syrian refugees. Islam and Muslims have become the country's major religion and religious group, respectively.

Well, the conversation continued, and one of the main points my mechanic made was how the people of the West, and especially the Holy See and the Holy Father, have forgotten about the plight of the Christians in Lebanon and their fight for survival. Instead, the Vatican has been far more interested in climate change and other political issues than the extermination of Christians in the Middle East. He kept repeating: "We [Christians] are being erased," and the West has been turning away.

Long after I left his shop, I couldn't get over this conversation. The Church in the West has been going through sexual scandal, financial corruption, the Pachamama controversy, financial raids at the Vatican, political intrigue, controversy over the viri probati, and the ordination of women to the diaconate. Meanwhile, the situation in the Middle East has deteriorated to such a point that Christian brothers and sisters from the lands that gave birth to Christianity might be extinct in the next few years.

As the celebration of the controversial Misa por la tierra sin males (Mass for an Earth without Evils) was going on, and the Pachamama was being displayed at Saint Mary in Traspontina Carmelite Church, an important event was happening in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew on the Tiber Island in Rome — though few have heard about it.

The event did not get the same attention the Pachamama and Amazon Synod received in the media. The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need issued a new report, "Persecuted and Forgotten?," focusing on Christian persecution between 2017 and 2019. As that report amply demonstrates, Christians are the most hunted and persecuted religious community in the world.

It presents four case studies and twelve country profiles detailing Christian persecution in Burma (Myanmar), the Central African Republic, China, Egypt, India, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Sudan. The data are alarming, detailing accelerated persecution of Christians worldwide — a trend that does not seem to be changing course.

In July 2019, Islamists killed four Christians in Burkina Faso, and threatened to murder others, too, if they refused to convert. In India, "police in Uttar Pradesh's Jaunpur district charged 271 Christians with 'spreading lies about Hinduism' and using drugs to induce people to convert."

Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches, who presented the report, urged people to have the courage to call "the evil by its name" — the evil that rages in the hearts and destroys houses churches, feeding hatred and revenge.

Story after story rings alarm bells: Christians are being chased away from their lands; Christianity is being uprooted. In Iraq, for example, "the Christian population continued to decline. Christians had numbered 1.5 million before 2003 and yet by summer 2019, Christians in Iraq were 'well below' 150,000 and perhaps even below 120,000. This means that, within a generation, Iraq's Christian population has shrunk by more than 90 percent."

Why are Christians persecuted and why are they forgotten? Obviously, Christians are persecuted for the very fact of being Christians and for following the prototype of martyrdom — the Son of God on the Cross. The world, which did not recognize God, persecuted Him. The same can be said of the world today: the secular, Godless and gutless, post-Christian world turns a blind eye to their plight and persecution.

Few stories of persecution filter through to the secularized West, which has almost turned into a conspiracy of silence and silencing. It seems that everything else is more important than the plight of Christians. The secularized West is too scared to call the evil of Christian persecution by its name.

Like my mechanic, many wish that the Church leaders would pay less attention to Pachamama and long-term climate change and more attention to an immediate threat: persecuted Christians who are on the brink of extinction. The Church could spend a great deal more of its energy on giving voice to the voiceless. The evil of Christian persecution and Christianity's forced disappearance from the Faith's ancient homeland should be called by its name, even if it is politically incorrect.

Defending defenseless Christians might not be fashionable, even in the Church these days, and may even lead to tensions with other faiths and various regimes. But it is the evil that is most neglected and, therefore, most cries out for action at this moment, not only by Christians but by the whole world.

The New Under Ground Church-THE TRUTH MUST BE TOLD

Friday, January 3, 2020