Activism Change

Pray for Christians in Indonesia (forced conversions)

Question:

Sad that Indonesia is a favorite fundraising source for the passing administration. This sounds as dreadful as the Christian persecutions in China, a favored trading partner.  Had the US government become anti-Christ bigoted to turn their backs on such atrocities and grant favored nation status to a country who’s government actively puts Christians to the holocaust? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – TO: FELLOW PILGRIMS 22 DEC 2000 May the story of these victims touch your hearts as my heart was touched as I listened to the interviews. The interview was taped and is being translated and will be provided to news agencies and government officials. Victims Tell of Their Forced Conversion Christina Sagat, a thirty-two old unmarried woman described in detail in a telephone interview her circumcision to escape death. Christina along with a thousand other Christians escaped death during the November 23 and 24 attack upon their villages on the island of Kesui. The number killed in those attacks is unclear but definitely a number were killed and at least one was beheaded. A jihad leader was seen returning from attacking a Christian village carrying the head of Linus R. a paralyzed man. The jihad leader brought back a head as proof that the Muslims of Kesui had carried out the commands of Al Fatah Mosque to finish off the Christians of Kesui. Friday morning representatives from two western nations and Indonesian Protestant and Catholic leaders gathered for a long distance telephone interview with rescued victims of Muslim attacks upon the Maluku islands of Kesui (Kasui) and Teor. The hour and half interviews produced shocking reports that confirm gross violations of the human rights of the Christians of Kesui and Teor. After the initial attacks upon their villages the surviving Christians were gathered into several mosques where they were forced under the threat of death to perform conversion rituals. Initially the victims were forced to take a ritual bath of cleansing and to repeat three times a Muslim declaration (prayer). They were asked if they were doing this willing and with fear in their hearts they all answered their attackers, "yes". Some had witnessed the death of an elementary school teacher who refused to convert. Constantinus, Vincent and Christina shared how that on December 3 and 4 both men and women were forced to be circumcised to prove that they were really converting to Islam. Without painkillers or antiseptic all the men were circumcised with one razor blade. Several of the men have developed infections from the circumcision. Word of the women being circumcised was initially met with skepticism and hopes that the ritual was only symbolic. Christina bravely shared the intimate details of being led into a small room and seated on a piece of white cloth while her genitals were washed and then the clitoris cut off with a knife by a Muslim woman. The white cloth smeared with blood was proof that she had been circumcised. As with the men the women were not provided with painkillers or antiseptic. The women did bathe in the ocean to cleanse their wounds. Christina and Constantinus and Vincent in the interview requested help in rescuing the 856 Christians left on the island of Kesui. Hundreds were left behind because the ship was not large enough to carry all of them and those who boarded the ship were threatened that their relatives left behind would be killed if they left on the ship. Many disembarked in order to protect their family members. The Indonesian government has no plans to rescue these nine hundred people until after the big Muslim holiday of Idul Fitri, 27 and 28 December. Will they still be alive? What will they suffer in the mean time? A video has been produced by Southern Baptists about the tragedy of Maluku with the title, "A Silent Scream".  The screams of the victims are not being heard. Will you scream for them? Will you cry out against this injustice? Call your member of congress! Call your newspaper! Call your local television stations and CNN, Fox News, NBC, ABC, CBS, BBC! May your voices be heard. If you do not speak out the screams in Maluku will remain silent, unheard by the world. May the Lord of this universe hear your prayers as you and your church pray for Christina, Constantinus, Vincent and the thousand other victims of Kesui. Intercede for these helpless people. Cry out for justice! Cry out for the repentance and forgiveness of perpetrators of these attacks! Pray for the faith of these victims; may it grow and prove to be genuine. Pray that they will accept the confiscation of their property because they know that they have better and lasting possessions. Pray for the healing of their bodies and minds. Pray for them to have a place to live in peace. They are currently being housed in several refugee centers. Pray that the joy of Christmas will fill their hearts. Charles W Cole

– May God Bless You, Michael Character Counts.  It is not hypocritical to set a high goal and occasionally fail.  It is hypocritical to set a low goal and occasionally succeed.

Response:

     "Had the US government become      anti-Christ bigoted to turn their backs      on such atrocities and grant favored      nation status to a country who’s      government actively puts Christians      to the holocaust?"      Such things ought not be surprising in      Post-Modern, Post-Christian America.      If this country ever was a "Christian      Nation" …it ain’t now !      Will be interesting to see the government      of "Christian" George W. Bush.      The DataRat

Response:

Indonesia does not need the Marines or the USA. Indonesians need Jesus Christ and they need to rely on Him to deliver them. Pray that God will send His Spirit to those oppressed Christians in Indonesia to strengthen them to stand in the face of oppression. I don’t know what all they face over there, but I will pray for them that they will stand in face of all the devil can bring to bear on them. What greater thing can a Christian do then to confess Christ in the face of the enemy? This is not a task for the USA or the UN, it is the task of every Christian everyone to join in prayer for their deliverance in the face of oppression. We want every Indonesian saved. DOLF BOEK RESPONDS: And there I was thinking that the story of the cross was all about the empty tomb, not who could retell the best crucifixian story as testimony to its power in their lives. If as Heidegger suggests, history is what we are, then it would appear that some, in the present sense, whilst claiming decadence, profess malevonence. The stem word ‘dokh’ deployed within ‘dokimazo’ means ‘watching’. http://www.users.bigpond.com/dolfboek/philadelphia.html#TITLE As an adjective both of persons and objects, it therefore denotes ‘tested in battle’, ‘reliable’, ‘trustworthy’, ‘a man who is tested, significant, recognise, esteemed, worthy.’ [Kittel 1995 II:255] In reality, these aspects of New Testament religion have their origin in the Old Testament. The thought of the probing judgment which concludes world history is presupposed in the thesis which underlies the Old Testament view of history [Psalm 33:1-22], namely, that the history of the people is its judgment. [Kittel 1995 II:257] That our present situation, the situation in which we discern whatever truths we do, is steeped in the historical tradition is also contended by Heidegger: "History is not dead and gone, history is what we are. Hence the contrast between systematic philosophy and the history of philosophy is spurious. The history of philosophy essentially concerns the present. We need to study it to free ourselves of the inadequate categories that it has bequeathed to us. Conversely, we need to engage in systematic philosophy too, to equip ourselves with a fore-having, a fore-sight, and a fore-conception, if we are to make sense of the history of philosophy. This applies to history of any kind. I need some prior view of the past if I am to appreciate a historical source, such as a document or a coin. Historical remnants alone do not make us historians: we must be equipped to see them as evidence of some past event. This prior equipment belongs to the present." [Michael Inwood,

Filed under: Human Rights

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