Coptic Bishop: Christians Are Experiencing Their Worst Time in Recent Centuries

Earlier this month Egyptian forces drove over Coptic Christians in military vehicles at a rally in Cairo.
The Copts were protesting violence against Christians in Egypt.

This weekend Coptic Bishop Anba Stephanos told Aid to the Church in Need reporters that Coptic Christians are experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. Stephanos also said that all Coptic Christians are “prepared for martyrdom, as at the beginnings of Christianity.
ACN website reported, via Free Republic:

Bishop Anba Stephanos (Orthodox Coptic) of Beba and Elfashn

Coptic Bishop: “Christians are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries”

Christians in Egypt are currently experiencing their worst time in recent centuries. This statement was made by the Coptic Orthodox Bishop Stephanos of Beba and Elfashn to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Christians are being violently killed under the eyes of the international media. Also, for the first time in many years, churches are being systematically burned and destroyed. The police are taking no action and nobody is punished for it. In the Egyptian media, “the facts are systematically covered up in order to keep the international media from reporting the truth and bringing pressure from outside,” he complained. However, video films showing the massacre of demonstrators on 9 October were broadcast by the three television stations operated by the Coptic Church and have thus also found their way into the international media. This time the attacks on Copts “have been better documented”.

Problems are also experienced in day-to-day life because calls are often made in the media not to buy from Christian merchants or to sell anything to Christians. Businessmen are therefore faced with a struggle for economic survival. Christians are indirectly excluded from employment, for example by job advertisements specifying “a female employee with headscarf”. Attempts are being made “to drive the Christians out”.

The Bishop warned against placing too much hope in the elections that are planned to take place in Egypt at the end of November. The future is “absolutely unclear”, he said. Nevertheless, in his view the Copts can “play a major role” because they are “numerically strong”.

Bishop Stephanos underlined the need for mutual solidarity among Christians. Jesus Christ said that we are all of one body. When one limb suffers, all the others suffer with it. Asked about his hopes for the future, the Bishop said: “We pray for freedom and peace, not only for Egypt but for the whole world.” If peace existed, the consequence would be that such problems would no longer arise. Nevertheless, all Coptic Christians are “prepared for martyrdom, as at the beginnings of Christianity.” From childhood onwards they hold close ties to their Church, which they regard as “their mother”. They would “support their country and their Church without any hesitation.”

Please keep these people in your thoughts and prayers.

1 2 Newer Comments >>
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#1 October 30, 2011 at 8:24 pm
MrGoodWench commented:

Nevertheless, all Coptic Christians are “prepared for martyrdom, as at the beginnings of Christianity.”
++++
Ammmmerrricassss chickensssss….are coming home to roooooossst
Right Hussein ?
#2 October 30, 2011 at 8:44 pm
atticcellar commented:

******ALERT!!
RON PAUL WINS IOWA ONLY STRAW POLL WITH A WHOPPING 82%
#3 October 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Black Sabbath commented:

Nice that the church leaders volunteered their followers for martyrdom. Will the leaders be engaging in martyrdom? You bet your sweet ass they won’t! Just like the Muslims!
#4 October 30, 2011 at 9:05 pm
chaz commented:

MrGoodWench commented:

Nevertheless, all Coptic Christians are “prepared for martyrdom, as at the beginnings of Christianity.”

——————–

That’s exactly what those islamofascists want them to do: lay down and die.

Yes… they may go on to their eternal reward for faithfulness…

…but it will accomplish exactly nothing for the rest of us here fighting for our lives.
#5 October 30, 2011 at 9:09 pm
Christopher Taylor commented:

Persecution is growing more and more for Christians around the world. Its an awful time.
#6 October 30, 2011 at 9:15 pm
regularguy commented:

Persecution will last only so long as people put up with it. The hounds of hell smell blood, and will pursue it so long as people are unwilling to see the Enemy for what it is and who they are. They don’t pick on badasses. It’s time to show them we are badasses.
#7 October 30, 2011 at 9:16 pm
jainphx commented:

And in the end times you will be persecuted because of me, some will be put in prison, and others to death.

Sort of makes these words stand out. Have no fear your salvation is at hand.
#8 October 30, 2011 at 9:19 pm
MrGoodWench commented:

Christopher Taylor commented:
Persecution is growing more and more for Christians around the world. Its an awful time.
+++
Yet the US government is giving out thousands of visas to jihadies from all over the world and bringing them in as refugees to Cloward-Piven the welfare system,
but not a single Christian is being given refugee status / asylum in USA .
This regime is just letting them die , if it is not actvely killing them as in Ivory Coast and Uganda and Egypt
#9 October 30, 2011 at 9:38 pm
Hobbitually conservative commented:

Black Sabbath commented: and put a big foot in his mouth. Christians are nothing like Islamists you idiot.
#10 October 30, 2011 at 9:59 pm
Black Sabbath commented:

Hobbitually, maybe you should read my comment again before firing off. The Christian leadership has done NOTHING to help the flock. They hold interfaith dialogues, conferences, etc. But NEVER do they rally the troops to defend themselves nor do they take to the airwaves en masse to demand attention for the persecution they get.
Where they are similar to the Muslims is that just like the Muslim leadership, they are more than happy to let their flock know that getting themselves killed is good for salvation, but you’ll never see any of the leaders taking a bullet for the cause.
My complaint is not with Christianity, which in of itself is excellent. My complaint is with the leadership which is a useless, corrupt, lazy, worthless beaureaucracy.
This is why the Christians are losing their flock in droves. This is why they are under attack from all sides. The leadership is weak and ineffective. The enemy sees this and moves fast to exploit it.
#11 October 30, 2011 at 10:16 pm
C-Christian Soldier commented:

do not hear the Christian ‘leaders’ here in the US speaking out -with out-rage- at the muslims’ torturous treatment of our Sisters and Bothers-in Christ!
Come on Christian ‘leaders’ get a set!!!
Carol-CS
#12 October 30, 2011 at 10:20 pm
Black Sabbath commented:

Once again, so that this thread does not devolve into a screaming match…

My gripe is with story after story of Christians being massacred and absolutely NO response from the Christian leadership other than to dismiss it as ‘a new crop of martyrs’. Or talk about interfaith dialogue and ‘reaching across divisions to forge alliances between our differences’. Or, in most cases, you don’t even get that much. You get… no response at all.
But if you so much mention that US Marines are spitting in the direction of Mecca while fighting in Afghanistan, the Muslim leadership is in an uproar.
Why does this happen? Because when the Muslim leadership is in an uproar, the Christian leadership fall all over themselves to placate them. When it’s the other way around, the Muslims tell them shut their mouths or they’ll be lucky if they live to see the dawn – and they RARELY fail to follow through on those threats.
It’s time for the heads of the Christian churches to let the flock know that they can expect to be martyred by the millions while the leaders sit on their hands. Or, the Christian flock can demand that they get leadership with guts to stand up to this Islamic menace who daily are lying, cheating, stealing, raping the women, taking land, and killing Christians – and anyone else not Muslim.
You can yell at me all you want, but I don’t run the churches. I just try to stay a safe distance away from them.
#13 October 30, 2011 at 10:25 pm
Hobbitually conservative commented:

Sorry, you are wrong on every point. The leadership does not send out the flock to be martyred. They are called by Jesus to be meek.

The Israelites, knowing that they would be receiving a Messiah, thought that God would send a warrior, ready to exterminate their enemies. Instead, they got his Son, the Lamb of God, who came not destroy but to love and serve the Lord and his neighbors. Jesus also taught us not to be aggressors but to be like Him. Jesus showed His anger only when Gods temple was being used for things other than worshipping God.

To say that the leaders of the Christian church should have their followers rise up and fight their enemies only to save themselves goes against Jesus teaching. It may be beyond comprehension but that is part of a personal relationship with Christ. Turn the other cheek is what Jesus said. That being said I cannot say that I am willing to lay down and die, I would want to fight.

The Koran and the leadership of Islam commands that they kill and take prisoner of all non-islamists. That sentence is the difference between the love of Christ and the hatred and intolerance of mohamed. To make general similarities between the two is ignorant. I will not apologize for calling you out on it.

So little news comes out about what is happening to the Coptic Christians I’m surprised you can feel justified in your fleeting comments.
#14 October 30, 2011 at 10:27 pm
Hobbitually conservative commented:

#11 C-Christian Soldier commented:

“do not hear the Christian ‘leaders’ here in the US speaking out”

Therein lies a major problem with Christian leadership.
#15 October 30, 2011 at 10:29 pm
lizzy84 commented:

Can someone explain to me why NONE of the GOP candidates are zeroing in on plight of the Coptic Christians and the outrageous actions of oBama’s top Muslim adviser blocking the Middle Eastern Christians’ access to White House? Their silence on this issue is beyond me! How often have we seen an American pResident fail to meet with the Christian Patriarch of the Middle East while falling all over himself in full support of a movement that dictators, commies, islamists and nazis are also backing? Pathetic– that the GOP is not all over this and in oBama’s face on this issue and Americans should have NO tolerance at all for the GOP’s silence in this matter.
#16 October 30, 2011 at 10:33 pm
Hobbitually conservative commented:

#12 Black Sabbath commented:

I agree with you on that comment except that I think that the Christian leadership that placates to Islamists are more like the Emerging Church variety that is also out spoken on social justice. Many of our political and military leadership also speak out wrongly in the name of Christianity.
#17 October 30, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Hobbitually conservative commented:

lizzy84,

We just have a weak bunch of Republican candidates. We basically have a weak bunch of Republicans.

We also have a weak bunch of Democrats who are allowing the hard left to intimidate them into doing whatever they want.
#18 October 30, 2011 at 11:48 pm
lizzy84 commented:

Sadly, HC@#17… I agree with your assessment. These are dark times we are living through and I find myself praying and praying hard that our Country will survive for it seems our so called Leaders are failing us miserably.
#19 October 31, 2011 at 12:13 am
Molon Labe commented:

Cellar dweller announces Ron Paul wins with massive 83% in only Creedmor straw poll! Mothership to follow.
#20 October 31, 2011 at 12:15 am
Molon Labe commented:

People do not appreciate their freedoms till they are lost. Nations do not die, they commit suicide. America is doing this. The Copts have more faith than most Americans who tolerate the most perverse and crass behavior in the name of tolerance.