The Silence of the Pulpits

I have a long-time friend who has been a missionary in an Islamic country for decades. She is the most missionaries missionary I know. She lives in this nation every day, doesn't merely pop in and out to return to the comforts of home; this IS her home. Last week, I received another eMail from her. At one point in her message, she wrote: "

"Two months ago, there was a bomb right next door, woke me up in the morning… from the loud explosion the whole house was shaking as well. Several people were injured and one lady died the next day… All houses in our streets had broken windows. But we all fixed them and then life went back to "normal". It's part of living here. Each day here is a gift, we never know if we can still be here tomorrow. Emergency bags are always packed and plans are in place what to do in 5 minutes…"

I have other friends living in persecuted nations and, frankly, I always sigh with relief when I hear from them. Today, I received the following message written by Bill Warner. What a thought-provoking piece! Read it. Pray about it. Share it with people you know, especially those in ministry. Each of us - from the top down - needs to make a true assessment of our faith in this hour.

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work (TCAW)

The Silence of the Pulpits

If you are even slightly awake about the world news today, it is no surprise that Christians are being killed, raped and brutalized throughout the Islamic world. However, there is a place where you can go and escape the dreadful and relentless details of Christian annihilation by Islam. You can just go to church. For example, this week in Nigeria Christians were killed. Nothing out of the ordinary, indeed in the world of Christian persecution, this is routine.

And so the response to the murder of Christians is found in nearly every church is …wait for it…, complete silence—not a mention or reference to it or the brutality against Christians that happens almost every day in the Islamic world. This is not a passive silence, because if you try to change it, you will fail. The silence is an active, working conspiracy that goes throughout nearly all of Christendom.

Take a simple example: prayer for the persecuted. From a Christian perspective, this falls under the heading of obvious. Try taking the idea of prayer for the routinely murdered Christians in Nigeria or Egypt to ministers, boards and any part of the structure of the church and see how far you will get. You will get rejection with a myriad of lame and evasive excuses, since they fear to recognize the suffering of Christians around the world. If you acknowledge the suffering, you might ask the question: why are these Christians suffering? Ah, there is the rub. The suffering is caused by Muslim jihadists who are following the Islamic doctrine of jihad against the Christian as found in Koran, Sira and Hadith. Islam is the cause of suffering of Christians, as well as Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists.

STOP!!! We cannot say those things! Facts are the new hate speech, so we cannot speak about the jihad against Christians. Therefore, we get no prayers for the persecuted, because it would lead to talk about why the murder of Christians keeps happening. And that truth would lead to being called an Islamophobe, so we are not going there. Result: silence.

It is ironic that the Wall Street Journal, a FINANCIAL newspaper, has run an article about the silence in the pulpit concerning the suffering of Christians. We live in a time of moral inversion when Christian leaders are chastised for their moral bankruptcy by money men. It is supposed to be the other way around.

Actually, there are few religious leaders left in America. Instead we have chief-executive-officers who manage a 501 c 3 institution that has meetings on Sunday. In too many cases, Christianity has devolved into an hour’s meeting that is supposed to make you feel good for a week.

This 501 c 3 corporate mentality is another one of the roots of the denial of the Christian suffering. If you are willing to see the doctrinal roots of the ongoing murder of Christians by Muslims, then you might have to speak about it from the pulpit and that could be seen as political speech. In spite of the fact that there has never been a 501 c 3 revoked because of political speech by a minister, the imagined loss silences ministers. Hmmm, if a minister is worried about the IRS revoking his 501 c 3 then who is the minster serving? Caesar or Christ?

Now you may not be a Christian, and so it might seem that there is nothing here for you. But in reality we all have pulpits. Are we using the suffering of Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, women, gays, and intellectuals caused by Islam as a topic of conversation with those around us? Who is comfortable with bringing up anything negative about Islam? To tell those facts about Islam is a social crime and you will be accused of being a hater/Islamophobe. So most of us remain silent about the evils of political Islam, and we are just like the ministers—silent in our own pulpits. Christians and non-Christians share the fear of being insulted as bigots and Islamophobes.

It turns out that all of those who oppose any social evil will be hated. Think about it. It takes a massive amount of power to put into place any societal doctrine, such as multi-culturalism and political correctness. The government, universities, many churches, synagogues and the media have become enforcers of multi-culturalism and political correctness. They are very powerful and believe that their dogma rules all peoples.

They are also full throated apologists for Islam. Now it turns out that their actual knowledge about the doctrine and history of political Islam is close to zero and Muslim-brotherhood-approved, but that is no problem. The Establishment just says that those who find fault with Islam are bigots and they hate us.

The silence of the pulpits is the greatest aider and abettor of Islam in the US. No one serves and advances Islam better than the silent ministers. They have abandoned their duty of courage in the face of persecution, but the rest of the flock still looks for moral leadership from them. Islam triumphs when Christian leaders do not condemn the murderous evil of political Islam.

Even worse than the silent ministers are those who go to “interfaith dialogs” and smile while the Muslims assert religious and political dominance over them. The nice, oh so nice, Christians and Jews show up to tie, while the Muslims are there to win, and they do.

Christians need to follow the example of Jesus and willingly suffer the condemnation by the Establishment and fight against the political Islam that murders Christians. Said another way, Christians should demonstrate courage and sacrifice to support their cruelly murdered brothers and sisters.

We cannot defeat political Islam until we get Christian boots on the ground. Do the math. The pulpits must become a source of courage and knowledge and stand up for Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and all others who suffer under Islam’s persecution today and for the last 1400 years.

It isn’t just about religion; it is about the survival of our civilization.