Episode 160 - Religious Persecution: 5 Places You Don't Want to Live as a Christian

An enlightening report on the state of religious persecution and the five places you don't want to live if you are a Christian.  All that coming up on today's Hot Zone.

 

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Okay, Let's talk persecution:  An independent report into the persecution of Christians commissioned by the British government says persecution is on the rise and that Christians are the group most persecuted for their religion in the world.

 

The report's publication in London was marked in Rome on Monday by a meeting organised by the British Embassy to the Holy See in the Basilica of St. Bartholomew, which is devoted to modern-day Christian martyrs.

 

Details of the report, written by the Bishop of Truro the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, were summarised by Sally Axworthy, British Ambassador to the Holy See.

 

She said the report, commissioned by British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, looked at the plight of persecuted Christians around the world, concluding that a variety of factors were behind anti-Christian oppression, including aggressive nationalism and a rise of Islamist extremism.

 

The report also assesses the quality of the British Foreign Office's response to such persecution, which, according to the report, affects 245 million people, and looks at how the international community can support persecuted Christians.

 

The report recommends that Britain push for a UN Security Council resolution urging governments in the Middle East and North Africa to protect Christians and other persecuted minorities.  Let's listen to some of that meeting.

 

 

Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, Sri Lanka, spoke at the vatican last week about the victims of the 2019 Easter Sri Lankan bombings during a presentation of a Catholic aid organisation’s report on worldwide persecutions of Christians.

 

The Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) organisation highlighted the support it provided to the Indian Ocean nation, among other countries, following the suicide bomb attacks on three churches and three tourist hotels that killed at least 250 people and injured about 500 others.

 

At one point during the news conference the Archbishop paused and fought back tears after recounting a story about a father who lost his wife and three children in the attacks.  

 

Speaking Italian, he said, “For example there is a husband who lost his wife and three children. When I went to visit him he told me that before when he would come home from work, three children ran to him, and now there is no one. Only an empty house."  And that's when the Archbishop sort of lost it.  Who can blame him?  

 

Okay, now I want to play for you my list of the top five places you don't want to live if you are a Christian.

 

That's it for today folks.  Thanks for watching.  I hope you have a great weekend.  See you back on Monday right here on the Hot Zone.