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Time for Action on Behalf of the Persecuted Church
Nov 18 | Pastor J.D. | 62 Comments |
I am writing with an urgent request and a call to immediate action.
Sayed Mossa is a new believer in Afghanistan who is in jail in Afghanistan because he decided, of his own free choice, to follow Jesus. In this letter he managed to smuggle out through the hands of a Westerner, he describes daily beatings, torture, and sexual molestation. He stands to be executed for his decision to follow Jesus next week. He has a wife and 6 children, one of whom is disabled.
Part of me flushes with anger when I consider the price America has paid to help Afghanistan escape from the Taliban, and think that this is how the new government treats its own people. Is this what we sacrificed to produce? Is freedom of conscience and freedom of speech not a fundamental right of human beings everywhere?
Here is what I am asking you to do:
- Pray. Like the early church for Peter in Acts 12. Summit Church, this is our brother. This is a father with children. He is being imprisoned and faces execution for doing what we do freely each Sunday. Pray that Sayed will be released and that he will not falter under persecution.
- Write your Congressman or Senator. Put feet to your prayers. President Obama and our government can put pressure on President Karzai to release him. That was worked before. As this article explains, all it will take is a nod from President Karzai and he would be released. You can contact the White House or write to your state representative. This past Sunday was the national Sunday to pray for the persecuted church; this is a good way to put that into action.
- To my Muslim friends who may be reading this blog, can I ask that you do what you can to call for a stay on this execution and full religious freedom in Afghanistan? I was with several of you last week at the Global Faith Forum in Keller, Tx, where you were clear that you cherished the freedom of religion we all enjoy in America. You said that you wished that majority Muslim nations enjoyed the same freedom. I believed you when you said that. Now would be the time for you to do something about that. It is one thing for Christians to call for a stay on this execution; it would be even more powerful if you would do it. His life is in your hands.
62 Responses to “Time for Action on Behalf of the Persecuted Church”
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Thanks so much for posting this J.D. I emailed the White House and my representative, David Price, about Sayed’s persecution. More importantly I am praying for Sayed. Thank you for your leadership on this issue and staying focused on the Cross in all you do.
God bless,
Blair
Durham, NC
Dude is running of time. Congressman David Prices has an office in Durham located at 411 Chapel Hill Street in the Mutual Life Insurance Company Building next to the Durham Police Department. Why not pay his office a visit?
@Sue-I respectfully understand your concern, but that’s where faith comes in. If people never tried things for fear of failure or because they thought it would never work, we’d never get anywhere. As the saying goes, “It’s better to have tried and failed than to have never tried at all.” Only God has the ultimate power and if His will is to have Obama speak up about this, then it will happen. There is no limit to His power.
I sent an email to the President. Thanks Craig for the template. I cannot imagine what Sayed must be going through, but while I hope and pray that his life is spared and he is set free, having spent the last year studying Revelation, I know that if he is martyred, his reward will be great. For that, I rejoice, and I pray that if I am ever in the position that Sayed is in, I will be as strong and I will persevere as well. I am thankful for his example. I am thankful to live in a country where I am free to worship God without fear of persectution.
I just noticed that this article is dated November 18 and it stated that Sayed would be executed the following week. Well, it has been almost 10 days since the article was posted.
What is the update? Is Sayed still in jail or has he been executed?
I just emailed the president and my representative. praying now!
I Live in Argentina. I wish I can be in Washington DC and protest day and night with horns and fasting!!! So Many soldiers died for what? Come on America!!! The gospel is not a spiritualoide thing… Is for real!!! We must raise our voices as members of a democratically free world. We must fight this with the filter and power of Grace. Let’s advance. Let’s take the world for transformation.
Reading some of your opinions made me sick.
Do some of you not get this? Sayed is going to die.
Shut up and pray for what JD asked. Put aside your theological differences and obey what this man is telling you to do.
While it is true that this is a terrible event and ought to move believers to pray, the feelings of outrage seem to be a bit out of place. This is exactly what Jesus SAID would happen, and what the disciples REJOICED over (that they were counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s sake.)
The appeal to human rights is something that I also feel to be an unbiblical assertion; as believers in Christ we have NO rights, because we recognize who we were in Adam and who we are now in him, saved not because of ourselves but because of his great mercy. We surrendered our rights the moment we rebelled against our God and RIGHTFULLY deserve nothing but his wrath. As believers we know that this life will end in death, and what better way to experience that end than in dying for our Lord.
So rather than praying solely for his release, I think that both Sayed and the cause of Christ in Afghanistan and the world would be more benefited by us praying the way Jesus told us to: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.”
Praying, hoping… contacted someone who may be able to help. Please pray for the contact.
Praying, and wrote the White House & my congressman.
I hesitate to pose this comment/concern, but I feel it important for a couple of reasons. First, let me say – and be clear – that I am concerned about Sayed’s situation. What is the current situation? It’s my hope that things have turned around for him; I’ll be in prayer for him and his family, for violence of any sort, done in the name of a government or a religion, is always tragic and an affront to the message of peace we find in Jesus. Second, and with the first part expressed, I must admit I was a little surprised, perhaps even taken aback, JD, by your following statement:
“Part of me flushes with anger when I consider the price America has paid to help Afghanistan escape from the Taliban, and think that this is how the new government treats its own people. Is this what we sacrificed to produce? Is freedom of conscience and freedom of speech not a fundamental right of human beings everywhere?”
Can you elaborate more on this, JD? Rather than express my own opinion (if that’s even what I have), I’m hoping you can help me better understand a) how you distinguish between the violence America’s used in its “War on Terror,” a war that’s, no doubt, harmed innocent people (even Christians?) in Afghanistan, b) how you distinguish between a Christian life (deemed a threat to some in the Middle East) and a more ‘Radical Islamic’ life (deemed a threat to the West and its ideals), and c) your initial expectations of our American sacrifice, namely what you thought it would produce? In regards to ‘c’, you may actually have raised a good concern. Can we sacrifice lives (at the expense of others) in such a way that we actually think we can produce something good?
Again, my questions aren’t a dismissal of the tragedy at hand. Like I said, I’m praying for him and his family; one can only feel slightly helpless and gloomy thinking about it the reality of the world we live in at times. Yet, what does it mean that we participate in a nation-state and churches that condemn violence towards us [the Christians/Americans] while simultaneously glorifying/honoring the violence we [America, Christian civilians, Christian soldiers] do to others. Shouldn’t we take a stand against persecution/violence everywhere and at all times?
I’d appreciate your thoughts. I’m not posturing. I’m confused and worried we’re contradicting ourselves.
Peace,
Cornelius