HATED WITHOUT A REASON:
The remarkable story of Christian persecution
over the centuries
By Patrick Sookhdeo
Isaac Publications. 272 pages. £10.00
ISBN 978 1 732 195 240
In his interim report on the persecution of Christians, published on 3 May, the Bishop of Truro likened the current persecution of Christians to genocide, as 245 million Christians are persecuted worldwide in 50 countries, an annual rise of 30 million.
The Truro report is a current snapshot. In Hated Without a Reason Dr Patrick Sookhdeo reviews the whole history of persecution suffered by Christians from the very beginning when 11 of the 12 apostles died a martyr’s death. Martyrdom was the experience of many churches in the first millennium (Chapters 4-8). Some of these churches engaged in significant mission work, although they are disregarded by some evangelicals today.
Accordingly (apart from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs published 450 years ago) such stories have not been a part of the Protestant diet. Sookhdeo’s tour de force of information records the volume of Christian martyrdoms through the centuries and seeks to redress the balance.
Modern abuses of Christians
Sookhdeo identifies seven 20th-century ideologies behind the persecution of Christians: Communism, Maoism, Fascism, Hindutva (in India), Buddhist Nationalism, Islamism and Secular Humanism.
In particular, he notes that Western Christianity has become a subject of contempt and mockery by secular humanists. Their strategy has been first to urge society to tolerate behaviour contrary to Christian norms; then to put such behaviour on a par with previous standards, which they now portray as evil; and finally to make those standards illegal. This trajectory goes one way.
For example, in Lithuania, after less than 30 years of Soviet rule: ‘Before the introduction of atheist education in Lithuania, juvenile thieving, robbery, homicide attempts, sexual profligacy were very rare, now they are constant phenomena … atheist education is incapable of fostering strong moral principles.’
Brutal honesty about the past
Yet the darker side of the Christian history is not ignored. Sadly, it sometimes happened that the persecuted Christians became the persecutors themselves. In the fourth century, Christendom developed ‘where every citizen was subservient to … a Christian emperor, and where new laws were created to ostracise, torment or even kill … [the] heretic, Jew or pagan’.
Warfare between Christians followed in North Africa (Trinitarian) and Southern Europe (Arian). These conflicts weakened the church and paved the way for Islamic conquest in the seventh century. When Augustine of Hippo (in modern Algeria) died in 430 there were 700 bishoprics on the North African coast. By 1053 two were left.
Despite the fact that Christians have been persecuted by adherents of most world religions, Sookhdeo persuasively argues for religious freedom for all. For him, freedom of religion is rooted in the dignity and choice that God gives all humans whom he created to act on their own judgement in responsible freedom. But this freedom neither overrides laws for stable and peaceful society nor includes freedom to be murderous.
Such truths should not be forgotten.
