The Persecution Has Begun

Maybe it was just personal - but I suppose that is how it starts. I was talking to my dad the other day and he asked me if I had gathered with a bunch of "moonies" in Scotland.

I looked it up on the internet, and this is what it said:

"...Unification Church member Gary Fleisher wrote, "Calling us 'Moonies' is just a technique of making it easy to hate us, because Moonies aren't human. It is easy to hate and persecute robots. The word Moonie has the same purpose as nigger, kike, spik, mick, or Polak. It is to make a group of enemies, that it is acceptable to hate and misuse...."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonies

Maybe it was just the antidepressants that he is taking - but even with that, it has to be coming from somewhere. This is happening in the mid-west, in a professing Christian family.

Please pray for him.

Hi Heartsong,

Another perspective...

In all honesty, I think your dad was either being insulting or just displaying a lack of understanding of what the difference between a moonie and a Christian is.

Either way it's just typical disapproval, arrogance, and skepticism towards Christians. It's not persecution.

I really am not looking forward to the next year. Why? Because things are going to be hard? No...because we are so soft that hardship brings out the apocalyptic hysteria in us. I'm not looking forward to all of the doomday cult scenarios that I am going to have to suffer listening to from my fellow Americans.

Today on the front page of our city newspaper they are moaning because the city has to make budget cuts. Yesterday they were moaning because the city was overspending. So whether we overspend or cut back, we can count on everyone moaning about it. Moaning is becoming the American response to everything.

Let's face it...to many of us, knowing only the comforts of a temperature controlled civilization our forefathers built without health insurance and credit cards, just about everything in life scares us silly.

edit: Not that your dad's comments weren't insensitive...but do you know what I'm trying to say? Even while recognizing that people can be a fount of bigoted and hostile opinions, If they aren't killing us, torturing us, or taking away our property, liberties, or families, I don't think it is right to claim persecution. :-(

MC

Hello MC,

Thank you for the encouragement.

Unfortunately my dad knew what he was saying. He has a cruel streak, and when he makes a "joke" it is meant to inflict pain. I have seen him unleash his prejudice against others, but this is the first time that I have been in the cross-hairs. It is likely that others in the family are talking about me and this is his way of distancing himself from the "problem" - they don't like people that are different.

The Lord has been drawing my dad, but he is very stubborn and has had much pain and bitterness in his life. Unfortunately my step mother is the same way and they feed on each other. But I have prayed for them both, and I know that the Lord is faithful in answering prayer. I am willing to pay the price, whatever it may be, that they may come to know Him.

Thank you again for your kindness.

"bigoted and hostile opinions" are the seeds of persecution. This dialogue is filling the Main Stream Media and spilling into the 'vacuum tubed minds' of the general population. Hitler campaigned on the 'Change' motto.

Ask the Christians living in Muslim majority countries about persecution.

Fill yourselves with the Lord's Holy Word for that is our hope and salvation. Even if, this week, they do not start killing us for our faith it will come, soon enough.

Be kind to one another, these are difficult times.

white stone

One thing is certain,
these things only serve to draw us closer to our blessed Saviour.

I found this on a blog last month and was very disturbed by it. This was written by someone who claims to be a Christian. I would provide a link to it, but it has since been deleted. (If that makes it inappropriate to post it here, moderators please delete it)

Gay Marriage: Christians Choose Hate Over Love

November 13, 2008

I’m ashamed of my fellow Christians who killed gay marriage in California. One might expect hate- and fear-mongering from the cult of Mormonism. But Christians who have been persecuted through the ages should be above turning the sharp blade of tyranny on someone else. Perhaps they are afraid. After all, most churches include a few queers - even if they’re closeted. Perhaps they’re afraid of losing their music directors? Shame on you anyway, Christians, for your intolerance. It will tell on you in coming decades when you need all the allies you can get. Socialism has little room for religion. As the socialist state emerges and grows there will be efforts to stamp out Christianity. Don’t expect the queers to stand up for you. It’s funny. Christians and Mormons will be the first to tell you this is a free country. They’ll fight to keep it free, they claim. Yet they jump at the chance to stomp the hopes and dreams of another class of citizens. One of these days it will be the Christians in the lion’s den, and America will remember that the public work of Christianity over the years has been mostly negative - against this or that person’s right to live free - and has had little success (witness abortion) except when the opposition is weak and vulnerable. Such a brave religious guy, beating up a gay person! Who will stand up for Christians, when their time of persecution comes, if they are seen more or less as a hate group? Those Christians who killed gay marriage in California, and will soon be trying to trample someone’s basic right to happiness in your home state, are not worthy of the name or any support in the coming trials. God is love, not hate and oppression. If Christians refuse to remember this basic creed of their religion, they’ll regret it one of these days.

This from something Greg posted earlier today:

Corrie Ten Boon says “If a bird is flying for pleasure, it flies with the wind, but if it meets danger it turns and faces the wind, in order that it may fly higher.” Resentment of conflicts will eventually cause the very things you fear the most to destroy you in the end. The bird knows to use the same winds that beat against its chest, to rise above the danger. These storms are designed to take us to His higher, safer destinations.

EDIT: Just wanted to clarify that I do not think that anyone is necessarily displaying resentment here.

Your have a soft heart HeartSong. :-)

Ask the Christians living in Muslim majority countries about persecution.

Which is essentially why, on the whole, I think "persecution" is too strong a word for the mere cultural hostility we encounter here in the US.

Be kind to one another

Always a welcome word.:) edit: I'm sorry to hear Heartsong's father was so hurtful. Persecution or not, many of us have been ridiculed and even disowned for our faith by those we respect and love. I value White Stones admonishment to be kind to fellow believers because the world certainly will not be.

MC

Reply to HeartSong

Let us all be counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of our Lord Who being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.

Acts 5
39. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
40. And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

They can not overthrow what is of God!

Eddie

Thank you Eddie.
May He bless you for the timely word.
Oh, praise the Lord!