#WeAreN...Let us not be silent!

Imagine being told that in your town that being a Christian was no longer allowed.  That you now have the choice of converting to a different religion, paying a huge tax (much more than you could afford), leave your town, or you will be killed.  And to make sure that others know you are a Christian household a letter "N" is spray painted on the side of your home.  Now imagine that you choose to leave, but when you get to the edge of your town, you are forced to hand over everything you own except the clothes on your back.  As you leave you find that the church you used to attend has been overtaken and is now being used for another religion.  You hear of people that you used to worship with, but who chose not to leave the town are now being murdered in unspeakable ways.  Now those same people who took over your town have their sights set on other towns to do the same thing in. 

And now imagine that the world is hearing of these horrible events, but no one is doing anything to stop them.  Imagine that news about the injury of a sports star, the ongoing drama in celebrity lives, and the continual bickering of government officials is flooding the mainstream media, but the holocaust that you are living through is being virtually ignored.

You really don't have to imagine any of this because it is actually happening!  Granted, it isn't here in the United States...yet, but it is happening in Iraq.  Our Christian brothers and sisters have been faced with that exact scenario I described and what am I seeing on the news and across the internet?  These are actual headlines I copied from the news section of AOL today:

Rare lobster rescued from grocery store

Man who filmed NYC chokehold death arrested

'Cute' creature puts third person in hospital

Now, granted there were other articles too.  A bit about the conflict happening in Israel, and other military issues around the world, but seriously...the above articles were more important than a literal HOLOCAUST happening in Iraq?  REALLY???? 


The news reports, I read (from non mainstream places of course) show situations frighteningly similar to what Hitler did to the Jews in World War II.  I remember studying that war and thinking, "How is it that the world didn't stand up for the Jews?  Why didn't they try to stop Hitler?"  It was mind boggling to me that even one concentration camp could have been built before someone stepped in and said, "There will be no more murders!"  And yet, I read the reports now and think..."So, that's how it happened."  Perhaps the world didn't step in because it didn't know...and those who did know stood by and silently watched doing nothing. 

Well, not me!  I may not be able to go to Iraq and literally stand with my Iraqi brother and sisters, but I can certainly do my part to get the word out about their plight!  Maybe my words won't do any good in the long run, but that won't stop me from trying!  SOMEONE STEP IN!!!  If it can happen there, it can happen here. 

The "N" being painted on the homes of Christians stands for Nazarene...or Christian.  So I am proudly standing with my Christian Family around the world to say #WeAreN and we will not go away.  I saw this picture on someone's twitter feed (My apologies that I can't remember whose) and I loved it. May we all stand with our Iraqi brothers and sisters.