I think by now you've heard about the terribly tragic shooting at a St. Louis area church last Sunday. Fred Winters was the father of 2 children, a pastor who led his church to grow from less
that 50 people to 1200 people, and was teaching in his 1st of 3 services every Sunday
morning.
Be praying for everyone there. This has to be tremendously difficult for his family, their church, & the entire community.
Those familiar with WORLD news (not just national news) know this is a regular part of life for the persecuted church in many places of the world. For example, on the same day, someone in India exploded a bomb in a church & shot their pastor.
An interesting take on the notion of religious violence Tim. No doubt, throughout history, there has been a great deal of overt anti-Christian violence.
However, shouldn’t any honest assessment religious violence also take into account the fact that a great deal of violence has been perpetrated and promoted both historically and recently by the very church (The Christian church and it’s various iterations) that you suggest is being inordinately persecuted?
Thinking about this on the level of institution; isn’t framing one’s own (local or global) church as the victim of such persecution a little like (to paraphrase Matt. 7:1-5) noticing the speck in someone else’s eye while failing to turn inward and notice the plank in our own?
Aaron, thanks for the comments! A couple thoughts…
1. I definitely agree with you there has been a lot of violence both perpetrated and suffered by Christians.
2. I definitely disagree with the implication that (a) since we both can point to examples of people who have committed violence “in the name of Christ,” (b) therefore it is unfair or hypocritical of us [i.e. Matthew 7] to point out the persecution being perpetuated against Christians today [i.e. the false arrests, imprisonments, tortures, church burnings, beheadings, etc.].
I love the conversation, Aaron!