If you were subjected to revisionist history in school, you may not be aware that America was founded primarily by people fleeing from religious persecution in Europe. Pilgrims, Puritans, Quakers, Huguenots, Catholics, all left their homes in the Old World behind, seeking refuge on these shores.
 
It was the Christian worldview, held in common by these people, that was to form the basis of our government and culture for centuries to come. We are rapidly losing that wonderful heritage. And the freedom of religion guaranteed under the 1st Amendment, is increasingly at risk.

The latest institution attempting to marginalize Christianity, Vanderbilt University, has decided that out of some 300 student groups on campus, about a dozen, including five religious groups, are in non-compliance with Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy. (How Orwellian of the college; using their own “nondiscrimination” policy to discriminate against Christians.)
These groups were all placed on “provisional” status, meaning comply – or risk being permanently suspended. ~ Professor Says Vanderbilt Suppressing Christian Student Groups Amid Shutdown Threats
 
The Christian Legal Society is one of the five groups singled out because their constitution requires that the organization’s leader be – (gasp!) Christian.

“Each officer is expected to lead Bible studies, prayer and worship at chapter meetings.” CLS President Justin Gunter (said), “We come together to do things that Christians do together. Pray, and have Bible studies.”

 
Gee – prayer and bible studies – pretty radical stuff.
 

Oddly enough, like the vast majority of American colleges, Vanderbilt University has a Christian history. According to the University’s website, it was founded 1873, and…
…for the first 40 years of its existence, Vanderbilt was under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.

 
Guess they got too smart for God.

This incident is part of a growing trend in western countries, as the secular state continues to shove Christianity out of the public square. Right Side News recaps the most recent occurrences of multi-cultural intolerance: 18 Examples Of How Christians Are Being Specifically Targeted By Big Brother
 
Read through the list. And ask yourself how long before we can no longer speak the name of “Jesus” in public – unless it’s part of a curse? (Mustn’t be “intolerant” of profanity.)
 
Yet we in the west are only witnessing the early signs of persecution. For millions of Christians in the rest of the world, oppression is already a harsh, stark, ever-present reality. They face harassment, fines, detentions, beatings, incarceration, torture – even death.
 
Last week’s To the Source newsletter reported on what is becoming a “global humanitarian crisis”: Hearing Their Cry. And a December 2010 article* at the(Toronto)Star.com, didn’t sugarcoat: Christianity arguably the most persecuted religion in the world.
 
The facts are stunning:

Virtually every human rights group and Western government agency that monitors the plight of Christians worldwide arrives at more or less the same conclusion: Between 200 million and 230 million of them face daily threats of murder, beating, imprisonment and torture, and a further 350 to 400 million encounter discrimination in areas such as jobs and housing. A conservative estimate of the number of Christians killed for their faith each year is somewhere around 150,000…

For a little perspective, that’s like an entire city the size of Savannah – or Chattanooga – being wiped out in one year.
 

Last week, the story of the two misguided Americans, freed after being held in Iran for more than two years, was front page news. An anonymous donor(s) coughed up the $1,000,000 bail for their release. But where are the international concern and resources for Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani?
 
Youcef (also spelled Yousef) was arrested in Iran almost two years ago for “protesting.” Charges against him were later changed to “apostasy”, or abandoning Islam, and evangelizing Muslims. He’s just been convicted on those charges and faces execution at the hand of the Iranian government any day. The Persecution Blog at Voice of the Martyrs has regular updates on his precarious situation. And Open Doors reported yesterday:

The hearings on Monday (Sept. 26) and yesterday lasted just 30 minutes, long enough for Nadarkhani to refuse to recant Christianity.
 
The source said Nadarkhani’s 30-year-old wife is very apprehensive about what the courts might decide this week. They have two children: Joel, 7 and Daniel, 9.
 
“The wife is under depression and worried; we can say his wife is very worried,” he said. “It is difficult for all his family, it is difficult for us.”

 
But you won’t catch any coverage of Youcef’s plight on the network news.
Because, as the “To the Source” article explains:
 

Amid the rapid growth of Christianity and persecution of believers around the globe, many American Christians are largely unaware of the extent of suffering their brothers and sisters are enduring, says Thomas Halstead, a professor and chair of the Department of Biblical Studies at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita.
 
“I believe that American Christianity is too comfortable, and concerned about affluence and leisure, rather than the Gospel,” Halstead says. “Having traveled to a number of other countries, it is sad to see the general passivity of American Christianity.

Christians facing persecution during the 17th and 18th centuries were fortunate to find sanctuary in the New World. Today we’re running out of options. If 21st century Christians don’t stand up for religious freedom around the world – and in our own cities, towns and universities – eventually there will be no refuge left.

 
To learn more about world-wide persecution of Christians, please visit these sites:
 
Open Doors
Voice of the Martyrs
Compass Direct
 
Take action: You can send an email to Sec. of State Clinton, asking her to petition the Iranian government on Youcef’s behalf, through American Family Association.
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*This article includes a statement by Michael Horowitz, “a U.S. Jewish activist”, which stands out as patently false. I’ve corrected it:
“And given the Christianity’s well-documented history of brutality by people deceptively calling themselves Christians, modern-day elites are more conditioned to think of Christian believers as the persecutors, not the victims.”