During a recent speech that did not receive much attention from the mainstream media, Vice President Mike Pence addressed the first ever World Summit in Defense of Persecuted Christians, a four-day event hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Over 600 people from 136 countries attended the Summit in Washington, D.C.
Specifically, the vice president spoke about the great atrocities being committed against Middle Eastern Christians, saying, “I believe that ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith, and it is time for the world to call it by name.”
Later in his remarks he added, “The practitioners of terror harbor a special hatred for the followers of Christ, and none more so than the barbarians known as ISIS.” He continued, “Since the founding of our nation, America has stood for the proposition that the right to believe and the right to act on one’s beliefs is the right of all people at all times.”
The vice president’s address comes on the heels of a new report by the Center for Studies on New Religions that says Christians are now the most persecuted group in the world. According to the study, one-third of the Christians killed for their faith in 2016 were murdered at the hands of Islamic extremists.
On December 9, 1948, The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. As part of that Convention, Article 2 defined “genocide” as committing any of a list of crimes “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.” The list of crimes includes killing members of the group and causing serious bodily or mental harm to members.
Statistics suggest an average of 322 Christians each month are martyred for their faith, 214 churches are destroyed, and 772 acts of violence are committed against Christians. And yet, for reasons that remain largely unknown, the press is reluctant to call the current persecution of Christians genocide.
One thing Vice President Pence made clear?–President Trump won’t tolerate Christian persecution.
After referring to the 45th President as “a champion of the freedom of religion and the freedoms enshrined in our Bill of Rights,” the vice president went on to say that President Trump is committed to defending Christians, and specifically those who suffer for their faith.
He said the President “sees these crimes for what they are: vile acts of persecution animated by hatred, hatred for the gospel of Christ.” Further, the president is “fully committed to bringing relief and comfort to believers” worldwide. “This president knows that terrorists will not stop until we stop them, and under President Donald Trump, we will stop them.”
The vice president spoke of the more than 215 million Christians currently facing intimidation, imprisonment, abuse, and death for believing the gospel of Jesus Christ. He referenced multiple attacks on Christians in Iraq and Syria, and he spoke of the recent attack by terrorists on churches practicing the Christian faith in Egypt on Palm Sunday. Specifically, he spoke of the palms Egyptian Christians carried into the church on Palm Sunday being trampled on the ground and marked with the blood of the injured.
From start to finish of the vice president’s address, his words were an abrupt departure from the previous administration’s handling of ISIS. Former President Barack Obama was frequently criticized for refusing to denounce radical Islam. News networks purportedly wearing the badge of political correctness have followed in the former president’s footsteps, addressing with kid gloves the current treatment of Christians worldwide.
Despite some initial criticism for the vice president’s use of the term, Rev. Franklin Graham was pleased with the vice president’s address, telling “America’s Newsroom” he felt it important to say the word, “genocide,” and he was thankful the vice president did so. He is hopeful that the use of the term will open the door to everyone–including major news networks–calling Christian persecution what it is–genocide.
In words that rang with the character conviction of President Ronald Reagan, the vice president said, “You are here from across this land and from distant others because America was and is and ever will be that shining city on a hill where men and women of faith throughout our history have been able to walk and openly worship their faith in God to the glory of God, and it will ever be true in these United States of America.”
~ Christian Patriot Daily
