It's Good to Get a Little Hacked Off!

There’s a stigma among cultural Christianity that the Brewer thinks is false. I call it the doctrine of “Niceism.” It’s the belief that being righteous means being nice all the time. This morning’s sip from the Master’s cup comes a little more caffeinated than usual.

I was reading this week about the Christian hostages that the Taliban has been torturing and murdering over the past few weeks. These 23 Christians from South Korea were on a mission’s trip to encourage the church and help in any way possible, when they were kidnapped on July 19th.

Reports from the area show 18 of the 23 are women, and several of them are sick to the point of death. The kidnapping of these Christians, simply because they are Christians, is the largest abduction of foreigners in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001.

The World Yawns

Nearly a dozen Taliban deadlines demanding the release of terrorist prisoners have passed since the Christians were abducted. Two male hostages have been killed so far with the latest death occurring last Monday. The first murder was of Pastor Bae Hyung-kyu, the 42-year-old leader of the kidnapped Koreans. He was found dead from gunshot wounds on July 25. His family said they will not hold a funeral before the remaining hostages return safely home. Can you imagine the grief these sweet people are going through?

The second murder was of 29-year-old Shim Sung-min. His bloodied corpse was found in the southern province of Ghazni, south of Kabul. The body was dumped in a field just off a main road, with his hands tied and bullet wounds to his head. From website reports he was an outstanding young man that wanted to make a difference in this messed up world. Nobody knows the terror that brother went through for being of a different race and a different religion; alone, in a foreign country surrounded by Muslim terrorists with no one there to help him or have mercy on him.

Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said Wednesday the remaining 21 hostages are still alive, but that they will kill more if their demands are not met. The reports are the hostages are not being fed and there is not much telling what they have to endure.

What about Paris Hilton?

An official with the Institute on Religion and Democracy wonders where the outrage is over these murders and abductions of Christians. A lady named Faith McDonnell, the IRD's director, says the persecution of Christians does not to seem matter to national media. McDonnell is disturbed by the lack of information being broadcast, while Paris Hilton and Lindsey Lohan receive wall-to-wall coverage.

Additionally, she says, this situation shows the true face of radical Islam and the news is mostly reported as “foreigners” or “Koreans” are being murdered by “Terrorists” and not as “Christians” being murdered by “Islamic extremists” or “radical Muslims”.

Because of the doctrine of niceism, Christians tend to fall in step with this crazy politically correct bunch of bologna. I know a lot of nice people that wouldn’t lift a finger to help anybody. The world is very worried about not hurting the imagined feelings of one person while not giving a rip about real people that are really being tortured and really being shot in the head by very real bullets.

I wish that Christians and decent people of other religions and even non religions would get their priorities straight in what they get upset about. Anyone with any form of humanity in them, much less the love of God, should be outraged, sickened and grieved over what these Christians are going through. At the very least they should be interested.

Christians… I want to tell you something that you might not hear in traditional church services. God hasn’t commanded you to be nice; he has commanded you to be full of life and full of the love of God. We are called salt and light to the world. Sometimes salt stings and sometimes light gives us a headache, but we are still supposed to preserve and overcome darkness for those around us. That might trouble some but it’s ok.

Matthew 10:34
“Don't think that I came to bring peace to the earth! I came to bring trouble, not peace.”
(Contemporary English Version)

Don’t forget, the best way to reach The Brewer is at FFTB@OpenDoorMinistries.org.