A senior legal communications officer at Christian advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has warned that public expressions of Christianity are increasingly under threat.
Writing for The Spectator, Lois McLatchie Miller took aim,not at the usual suspects of North Korea, China and certain Muslim nations, but at Britain, America and parts of Europe.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk, she argues, was the most dramatic form of censorship: “He spent his short life teaching students that men and women are not interchangeable, that children deserve protection, and that faith can transform despair into hope. He called people to marry, to build families, and to serve causes bigger than themselves. For this, the darkness claimed his life.”
Similarly murderous techniques, if not so well known, are deployed in Nigeria. Despite being at least 50 per cent Christian, Nigeria currently claims the distinction of having more Christians killed per year than any other country. According to Open Doors, this year alone 7,000 Christians have been killed in sectarian violence, committed mostly by Muslims.
Miller cited the case of a Nigerian student, Deborah Yakobu, who was beaten and stoned to death by her classmates after thanking Jesus for her exam results in a WhatsApp group. Compounding the crime, Rhoda Jatau, a local mother was sent to jail for 19 months for “blasphemy”, but in actuality for condemning the murder. She was later acquitted after receiving legal assistance from ADF.
Closer to home, Miller pointed to more insidious state-backed forms of censorship. In one case that has attracted the condemnation of the US State Department, Scottish grandmother Rose Docherty was arrested yet again last week for holding a sign in an abortion zone that read “Coercion is a crime. Here to talk, only if you want.”
Miller writes, “Rose wasn’t standing with an influential message. She was giving people the choice: walk on or stop and chat. But choice, it seems, now belongs only to the abortion lobby. Rose, with two hip replacements, was dragged away by police officers for the crime of compassion.”
Despite the apparently bleak picture, Miller noted that throughout history, even going back to the days of Acts, persecution and attempted censorship often helps spread the Christian message.
The assassination of Kirk has reportedly lead to a surge in young people attending church, by way of example.
As Miller puts it, “If the past 2,000 years teach us anything, it is this: the darkness does not win. Opponents of faith beware. Suppression provides the most fertile ground to spread the faith.”
