Feb 22, 2017 Eric Metaxas is an
Evangelical speaker and bestselling author.
Almost nobody knows what's
happening to the Christians of Nigeria — but even fewer care . Here's why we should.
In Nigeria, which is Africa's
most populous country, Christians don't have time to worry about culture wars.
They're too busy facing a real one instigated by their Muslim
neighbors and by a government that has studiously decided to look the other way.
The scope of the violence is so vast as to be almost beyond belief, so let me
first give you a snapshot of what's happening on the ground.
Deborah, now 31 and living in a
camp for the internally displaced, was captured by the Boko Haram terrorist
group and held captive for a year and a half. The Islamists came to her village
and slaughtered her husband and family before abducting her and "marrying" her
off to a 20-year-old Muslim terrorist, who complained of her argumentativeness
while raping and impregnating her. After Deborah was recaptured following an
escape, she received 80 lashes as punishment. She told journalist Douglas Murray
that she no longer fears death.
"What sort of death would I be
running from?" Deborah asks. "I have already died once."
You could repeat Deborah's basic
story countless times in Nigeria. Operation World estimates that Nigeria, which
is an officially secular state with a Muslim president, is 51 percent Christian
and 45 percent Muslim. Since 1999, the West African nation of about 158 million
people has been convulsed by ongoing attempts at imposing Islamic law in eight
northern, mostly Muslim states, as well as in four other states where Christians
predominate or where the numbers are fairly even.
Things are particularly bad in
the north right now. Unarmed Christian villages there are sitting ducks for
Muslim Fulani tribesmen, who have been armed with weaponry provided by elements
in the national military. According to The Spectator, it's religiously motivated
genocide, although outside agencies dismiss the violence as tit-for-tat.
"The locals daren't collect the
freshest bodies," the magazine reports. "Some who tried earlier have already
been killed, spotted by the waiting militia and hacked down or shot. The Fulani
are watching everything closely from the surrounding mountains. Every week,
their progress across the northern states of Plateau and Kaduna continues. Every
week, more massacres — another village burned, its church razed, its inhabitants
slaughtered, raped or chased away."
Open Doors USA, as part of its
annual World Watch List, says the killings have jumped by a whopping 62 percent
in a year. And while Nigeria is No. 12 on the World Watch List of Christian
persecution globally, it's in the top 10 in terms of overall violence.
And yet it's not all gloom and
doom in Nigeria. As Tertullian reminded us, the blood of the martyrs is often
the seed of the church. Operation World says the country now boasts a strong
prayer movement, dynamic church growth, and a growing missionary movement, with
more than 5,000 cross-cultural workers — many of them in Nigeria or in other
African nations.
So while much of the world has
forgotten about Nigeria's persecuted Christians, surely those of us in the West
cannot. They are our brothers and sisters, and they're doing great things in the
midst of severe trials. Let's hold them up in powerful, prevailing prayer.
Let's also speak up to the new
administration in Washington, which says it will stand up for persecuted
Christians around the world. Let's remind them of their promises and make sure
they follow through.
The Christians of Nigeria need
us, and since we are members of the same worldwide Body of Christ, we need them .
Come to BreakPoint.org and click
on this commentary for organizations that assist the persecuted, and for
information on contacting the White House and State Department.
Read
more at:
http://www.christianpost.com/news/nigerias-forgotten-christians-175511/#blqylYa1GJ8vHQQa.99 
