From The Calgary Sun

most cases of Christians being killed for their faith receive no attention at all.

“There are more Christians being martyred today than at any other time in history,” said Glenn Penner, communications director of the Voice of the Martyrs.

Penner says the International Journal of Missionary Research estimates that from June 2005 until June 2006, about 171,000 Christians are expected to be murdered simply because of what they believe. That’s up from 168,000 murders of Christians in the previous year.

Most of those killings will take place in communist countries — North Korea, Vietnam and China, said Penner on Friday.

Christian martyrs are unlike Muslim martyrs. “Christians who have died for their faith have done so at the hands of other people, not as suicides, but in standing up for their faith, but in no way trying to hurt anybody else or seeking the death of those who were persecuting them.”

Emphasis mine.

This excellent piece puts into words some of what I’ve been thinking the last months:

It is easy to damn the 1930s appeasers of Hitler — such as Stanley Baldwin and Neville Chamberlain in England and Edouard Daladier in France — given what the Nazis ultimately did when unleashed. But history demands not merely recognizing the truth post facto, but also trying to reconstruct the rationale of something that now in hindsight seems inexplicable.

Appeasement in the 1930s was popular with the European public for a variety of reasons. All of them are instructive in our hesitation about stopping . . . .

In response, either the West will continue to stand up now to these reoccurring post-Sept. 11 threats, or it will see the bullies’ demands only increase as its own resistance weakens. Like the appeasement of the 1930s, opting for the easier choice will only guarantee a more costly one later on.

I believe the world is morally and socially weaker now than it was 60 years ago. By far.

Is it too late to ask God to show mercy?

Thank the Lord for Abdul Rahman’s release!

But that creates another problem . . . .

Got Room?

That’s the alternate headline for this story:

An Afghan facing the death penalty for converting to Christianity was freed from prison and under government protection amid fears of more protests demanding his execution.

Abdul Rahman, released from a maximum security jail outside Kabul late Monday, was being kept at a secure location for his own protection, deputy attorney general Mohammad Ishaq Aliko said.

His case prompted an international outcry, with

Afghanistan’s Western allies putting unprecedented pressure on the new democratic government to honour freedom of religion.

The UN said late Monday that Rahman had asked for asylum outside Afghanistan. “We expect that this will be provided by one of the countries interested in a peaceful solution to this case,” said spokesman Adrian Edwards.

A Western diplomat said the sensitivity of the case was making countries think twice about accepting Rahman.

Those Western countries wanted him freed but they won’t give him assylum for fear of the Muslims?

Well, I won’t judge them for that because I have no interest in condemning myself. I’m not persuaded I would be willing to take him into my home or even my neighborhood.

Pathetic.

Not that this should affect your sleep tonight:

Four years after the September 11 attacks, investigators were able to easily enter the United States with enough radioactive material to make two so-called dirty bombs, according to a report on a government undercover investigation obtained on Monday.

Two teams made simultaneous entries at the U.S.-Mexican border and the border with Canada carrying radioactive material in their vehicles in December 2005, the
Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in the report on its investigation.

But just in case you’re still awake enough to care, the next question is:

How many bombs can be made from the materials brought in by the “bad guys” during that same time period?

(My answer: I don’t know. I don’t care. Good night.)

I must confess — this sounds like a fun project. Well, some of it, anyway.

He spent the first afternoon watching “Chicken Little,” the animated Disney film.

He lived off energy drinks, doughnuts, yogurt and Subway sandwiches.

He figures he slept four hours out of the 41 in captivity. He’d catch a few minutes whenever he could – in a Subway booth or a restroom stall…

The best place for dozing was lawn and garden…found a lawn chair, kicked back and wondered how life could be better.

…a man appeared out of nowhere, giving him pointers, teaching him how to throw a left jab and a right “steamliner.”

“One sat on the grapes, and the other pulled them off….”

“One of the shift managers came up to me and asked, very politely, if I needed anything. I could have told him where everything was.”

When he had nothing better to do, he roamed the aisles, putting away items that were out of place.

Maybe he’d move on to another Wal-Mart and produce a documentary….

Yeah, a documentary. He should have done a photo blog.

Do WalMarts offer Internet access yet?

This guy’s name is familiar to me, but I don’t know anything about him. I don’t even know if politically he’s conservative, independent, or liberal.

I suppose the fact his piece is in Time magazine says a lot about his political leanings.

Be that as it may, I think what he wrote that was published there yesterday is worth reading. Here are two paragraphs:

We’re now at the dawn of an era in which an extreme and fanatical religious ideology, undeterred by the usual calculations of prudence and self-preservation, is wielding state power and will soon be wielding nuclear power.

That will present the world with two futures. The first is Feynman’s vision of human destruction on a scale never seen. The second, perhaps after one or two cities are lost with millions killed in a single day, is a radical abolition of liberal democracy as the species tries to maintain itself by reverting to strict authoritarianism–a self-imposed expulsion from the Eden of post-Enlightenment freedom.

I expect the second scenario to be closer to what’s in store. It fits the Left Behind plot better. And it might even fit Biblical prophecy better.

Now I lay me down to sleep….

Except it’s too early in the day for that!