Robert Hutchison
Honors English II
4/27/11
Why do Christians get persecuted?
I--What I Already Know
Religious persecution is a worldwide occurrence. It’s been happening for as long as history has been written. It started with people like the Jews, or the Muslim people. Today, the most persecuted group is the people of the Christian faith.
Christian persecution goes back to as far as to after the Crusades. A failed conquest to retake the “Holy Land,” it bred what was to be hatred between the Muslim people, and the Christians. Leading up to today, this has caused a “war” between the two religions. In many middle-eastern countries, those who follow the path of Christianity are constantly under assault by those of the Muslim religion.
Even today in the United States, a country that was built upon a Christian foundation, Christian people are persecuted today. It is done in different ways today, though. Today, Christians are looked upon as crazy freaks. Most of the time, they are viewed as insane by those who follow no religion at all. Many view Christians as foolish and irrational for believing a higher power created the planet.
II—What I Want To Find Out
I want to know what human instinct calls to me to ask: Why? Why are Christians facing this unwanted persecution? Did they bring it upon themselves early on, or does it come from misunderstanding of what really occurs? I also want to know why people of no faith choose to look down on the Christians.
More than that, I want to know the origins of this worldly conflict. Why do other countries not accept Christians? Why do they hurt, enslave, or kill anyone of that faith? I want to know how far back this hatred has brewed. I’d like to see it through a person with historical knowledge’s eyes.
Since in still happens today, why are certain groups more persecuted? Where in the world are Christian’s more persecuted? There are many questions to be answered about Christian persecution. The big question is: Why are any Christians treated like this?
III. Book:
The book CHRISTIANITY: CHRISTIANITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST is a book that gives all the facts of Christians, and what has happened to them in the middle east. Giving information from how many Christians live in the middle east, to their origins, and all the way up to today’s whereabouts.
Something it mentioned that I found interesting was the part of emigration of Arab Christians. It talked about how the Arab Christian population is slowly decreasing more and more, due to them emigrating from the countries. Now the question is: why are the emigrating?
They leave because of the wars they’ve been in. For years, Christians have been in wars with different religious groups, and many are killed. Those not killed flee the countries, and try to be free from the persecution they could soon face.
IV. Magazine:
Taken from the National Geographic magazine, June 2009 edition. Article The Forgotten Faithful. An article that talks about the Arab Christians that are becoming a rare breed in their own homeland of Jerusalem, where their faith started.
Jerusalem is considered the Holy Land by most religions, due to many great events in their faiths occurring there. So many religions try to keep a spot for it. Especially the Christians. This was where there religion was born, and is now the largest religion world-wide. The problem with that is, most Christian’s are not accepted in Jerusalem.
Arab Christian’s have a hard and dangerous life to live in Jerusalem. They are forced to live away from everyone else. They have to live in ghettos, and are secluded from everyone else. Not only that, but many are killed or assaulted on sight.
One man was interviewed about it, and made this comment: We’re mostly persecuted because we are affiliated with Western Christians. This adds to what my interview with Mr. Dan Zuberbeir was saying about “Guilt by Association.” Many of these Christians are so hated, so mistreated, because they are seen as being like the ones in the United States, who most of these countries are not fond of.
V. Interview:
I sat down and interviewed a Mister Dan Zuberbeir. He is a History teacher for Youngker High School, and knows quite a bit on religious history. We sat down, and I first asked him where the origin of Christian Persecution is. After much thinking, he answered, “I don’t think there is a set start for it. It’s just something that’s always been there.” My next question was much more simple: Why are Christian’s persecuted in the world? He turned to his computer, and showed me a power point. In the power point, it showed multiple things that the United States did to Middle Easter Countries. In the past century, the United States has done a lot to really mess things up in the Middle Easter areas. Those same areas that have the greatest amount of Christian persecution occurring. He then made a comment about how things like that led to the 9/11 attack. He then mentioned how that was when the world started to view any Arab as a terrorist. They were guilty by association.
That’s when he made me realize what the problem was: Christian’s are so heavily persecuted by the world because of “Guilt be Association.” Christian’s are tied to the Western countries, specifically the United States. It’s safe to say that Middle Eastern Countries are not too fond of the United States. Because of that great dislike, and the tying Christians with the United States, Christians are hated and abused. This applies to Arab Christian’s, who even though have no ties to the Untied States, are put inside of ghettos because they are Christian, and “Guilt By Association.”
Another point that was touched up on was separation. Christians in other areas live exclusively from others. They live in little groups, and in such, are seen as odd. The same thing happened with the Jewish people for ages. He brought up that Jews were blamed for the Black Plague because they lived so isolated from others, and is what happens with Christian’s in these primarily Muslim countries.
VI. What I’ve Learned
I learned a lot about Christians. The main thing to understand is that they are persecuted not because of there beliefs, but because they are tied to the wrong people. They are hated because of who they are related to.
From the Christian’s at home, to the ones in the middle east, if you’re compared to the wrong group, you are labeled as crazy as them. In the United States, Christians are looked down upon because of one group that ruin everything. The protesting ones at military funerals. The ones that say the death of a certain person means the end of days, or is done as God’s wrath. Those Christians only speak for one group of people, and don’t really speak for every Christian. The world does not see that. They soon label every Christian to be like one of them.
This applies to Christian’s in the middle east as well. These are the smallest group religiously. They are secluded from other groups. They are already viewed as different. Then, enter the United States. The U.S. really messes things up, and causes a lot of hatred for themselves in the Middle East. Well, the United States is generally a Christian based country. That means that all the U.S. is Christian. That means all Christians are evil. That’s what the middle east sees. So we attack the Christians over here, because they are like the U.S. ones.
That is how the world works. We see how one person is, we assume anyone that shares his title is the same. It will be like this always. It’s a sad truth. I see now that the world is filled with assumptions. That’s wrong. People…Groups… Families… whole civilizations are killed because we assume.
Bibliography:
Belt, Don “The Forgotten Faithful Arab Christians.” National Geographic. June 2009: 84-89
Pacini, Andrea. "Christianity: Christianity in the Middle East." Encyclopedia of Religion. Ed. Lindsay Jones. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2005. 1672-1677. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 May. 2011.
Zuberbeir, Dan. Personal Inverview. May 6th, 2011
