When the Nazis came for the communists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I did not speak out;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out. *
– Martin Niemoller
They have new faces, a different mantra, but spew the same hate.
On June 10th of this year, when the Islamic State was declared in Mosul, Iraq, the militants promised tolerance to the Christians living there. Iraq has been the ancestral home to millions of Christians since early Christianity.
The promise of tolerance quickly dissolved. Those Iraqi Christians who had not already fled Mosul on June 10 were surprised when loudspeakers began blaring this edict from the new Islamic State:
Convert to Islam, pay a tax to the State, or face death.
Thousands of Christians have fled the city. Militants confiscate their possessions at the Islamic State checkpoints. Does this sound familiar?
This is 2014. But change the date to 1938, the place to Germany, the oppressors to Nazis, the oppressed to Jews, and you have the beginning of the Holocaust. The Nazi regime targeted the Jewish nation, Christians, and anyone else who did not fit into the ideal Aryan Nation.
Today is another time and place, with a new oppressor.
But the dark clouds of hate emanate from the same source, from an enemy whose one goal is to destroy all who worship the true God on this earth. Its grip is quickly spreading through the nations.
Once again, politicians deliberate while tragedy unfolds across the continents. It is not time to be complacent. It is time to pray without ceasing, to speak out for what is right, to reach all we can with the gospel, and to support our suffering brothers and sisters around the world.
Or one day, there may be no one left to speak for us.
Remember the prisoners, as though in prison with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you yourselves also are in the body.
– Hebrews 13:3
*http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niem%C3%B6ller
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