If we forget GOD...

a reply to: igloo

I don't happen to be religious but I see it's value to others and want them to have that right unpersecuted.

I just want honesty. If we're going to persecute a group don't try to deny it. Just say it's "punch a X in the face time"

Falun Gong.

a reply to: oddscreenname

Uyghurs, even. And the fact that they make it "their whole personality..."

originally posted by: Tarantula777

Guess which is officially the most persecuted religion on the planet? It is CHRISTIANITY.

Stop moaning - the only reason you do, is because you feel it gives some legitimacy to your disgusting, blood-magick based death-cult.

Your masters, the Js, do the same thing - its an effective strategy.

I was a Christian for almost 40 years. I am also being "persecuted," because the Christians around me have done the same to me as you say your non-Christian contacts have done to you.

Get over yourself and stop playing the victim.

The principal human instigators of religious persecution, however, have been the promoters of false religion. For example, the end of World War II in Europe did not result in full freedom for Jehovah’s Witnesses there to carry on their work of Bible education without opposition. In some places officials respected them because of their firm stand during the war. But elsewhere powerful tides of nationalism and religious animosity led to further persecution.

Among the Witnesses in Belgium were some who had come from Germany to share in preaching the good news. Because they would not support the Nazi regime, the Gestapo had tracked them down like wild beasts. But now Belgian officials accused some of these same Witnesses of being Nazis and had them imprisoned and then deported.

What was behind much of the persecution? The Roman Catholic Church. Wherever it had the power to do so, it was unrelenting in its war to stamp out Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Knowing that many people in the West feared Communism, the Catholic clergy in the Irish city of Cork, in 1948, whipped up opposition to Jehovah’s Witnesses by constantly referring to them as “Communist devils.” As a result, when Fred Metcalfe was sharing in the field ministry, he was confronted by a mob that punched and kicked him and scattered his Bible literature on the street. Happily, a policeman came along just then and dispersed the mobsters. In the face of all of this, the Witnesses persevered. Not all the Irish people agreed with the violence. Later, even some who shared in it wished that they had not. Most of the Catholic people in Ireland had never seen a Bible. But, with loving patience, some of them were helped to take hold of the truth that sets men free.—John 8:32.

Though the Witnesses in Italy numbered only about a hundred in 1946, three years later they had 64 congregations—small but hardworking. The clergy were worried. Unable to refute the Bible truths preached by Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Catholic clergy pressured government authorities to try to get rid of them. Thus, in 1949, Witness missionaries were ordered out of the country.

Repeatedly the Roman Catholic clergy sought to disrupt or prevent assemblies of the Witnesses in Italy. They used hecklers to try to disrupt an assembly in Sulmona in 1948. In Milan they put pressure on the chief of police to cancel the permit for a convention at Teatro dell’Arte in 1950. Again, in 1951, they got the police to cancel permission for an assembly in Cerignola. But in 1957, when the police ordered a Witness convention in Milan to be closed down, the Italian press objected, and questions were raised in parliament. The Rome weekly Il Mondo, of July 30, 1957, did not hesitate to state that the action had been taken “to satisfy the archbishop,” Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI. It was well-known that for centuries the Catholic Church had forbidden circulation of the Bible in languages used by the general public. But Jehovah’s Witnesses persisted in letting sincere Catholics see for themselves what the Bible says. The contrast between the Bible and church dogma was obvious.

In Catholic Spain when organized activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses was gradually revived after 1946, it came as no surprise that the clergy there also pressured secular officials to try to stop them. Congregation meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses were disrupted. Missionaries were forced out of the country. Witnesses were arrested for simply having the Bible or Bible literature in their possession. They were often detained in filthy jails up to three days, then released—only to be arrested, interrogated, and put in prison again. Many served sentences of a month or more. The priests urged secular authorities to track down anyone who studied the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses.

As in the time of the Inquisition, the clergy in Spain did the denouncing and then left it to the State to do the dirty work. For example, in Barcelona, where the archbishop launched a crusade against the Witnesses in 1954, the clergy used their pulpits as well as the schools and the radio to advise people that when the Witnesses called on them, they should invite them in—and then quickly call the police.

The priests feared that the Spanish people might learn what was in the Bible and perhaps even show others what they had seen. When Manuel Mula Giménez was imprisoned in Granada in 1960 for the “crime” of teaching others about the Bible, the prison chaplain (a Catholic priest) had the only Bible in the prison library removed. And when another prisoner lent Manuel a copy of the Gospels, this was snatched from him.

And what about Portugal? Here too, missionaries were ordered out of the country. Egged on by the Catholic clergy, the police searched the homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses, confiscated their literature, and disrupted their meetings. In January 1963 the commander of the Public Security Police of Caldas da Rainha even issued a written order forbidding them to ‘exercise their activities of Bible reading.’

In other parts of Europe, secular authorities raised obstacles to the preaching of the good news by classifying the distribution of Bible literature as a commercial activity, subject to laws on commerce. In a number of the cantons of Switzerland, peddling ordinances were applied to the distribution of literature by Jehovah’s Witnesses on a voluntary contribution. As the Witnesses carried on their activity, they were subjected to numerous arrests and court actions. When the cases came to trial, however, some courts, including the High Court of the canton of Vaud, in 1953, ruled that the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses could not properly be viewed as peddling. Meanwhile, in Denmark an effort was made to limit the hours during which Witnesses could offer literature, restricting their activity to times authorized by law for the operation of commercial shops. This too had to be fought in the courts. Weapons used against true Christians have included bans, mob violence, prisons, and the ‘framing of trouble by law.’ (Psalm 94:20) And so it was in the first century, when Christians were often the object of misrepresentation, being depicted as evildoers. The words found at Acts 16:20, 21 are typical of such accusations: “These men are disturbing our city very much, . . . and they are publishing customs that it is not lawful for us to take up or practice, seeing we are Romans.” On another occasion, religious opposers tried to incite the city rulers to act against Christ’s followers, asserting: “These men that have overturned the inhabited earth are present here also, [and they] act in opposition to the decrees of Caesar.” (Acts 17:6, 7) The apostle Paul was labeled “a pestilent fellow” and the leader of a sect that was stirring up seditions “throughout the inhabited earth.”​—Acts 24:2-5.

Another issue affecting Jehovah’s Witnesses in Europe, as well as in other parts of the earth, was Christian neutrality. Because their Christian consciences would not permit them to get involved in conflicts between factions of the world, they were sentenced to prison in one country after another. (Isa. 2:2-4)

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage warfare* [“We do not wage warfare.” Lit., “we are not doing military service.” ...; Lat., non . . . mi·li·ta'mus.] according to what we are in the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful by God for overturning strongly entrenched things. For we are overturning reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God;” (2 Cor 10:3-5)

“A careful review of all the information available goes to show that, until the time of Marcus Aurelius [121-180 C.E.], no Christian became a soldier; and no soldier, after becoming a Christian, remained in military service.” (The Rise of Christianity, by E. W. Barnes, 1947, p. 333)

Following World War II, the clergy in the eastern part of Czechoslovakia continued to instigate persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses. During the time of Nazi domination, they had charged that the Witnesses were Communists; now they claimed that the Witnesses were against the Communist government. At times, when Jehovah’s Witnesses were making calls at the homes of the people, the priests urged teachers to let hundreds of children out of school to throw stones at the Witnesses.

Similarly, Catholic priests in Santa Ana, El Salvador, agitated against the Witnesses in 1947. While the brothers were having their weekly Watchtower Study, boys threw stones through the open door. Then came the procession led by priests. Some carried torches; others carried images. “Long live the Virgin!” they shouted. “May Jehovah die!” For some two hours, the building was pelted with stones.

In the mid-1940’s, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Quebec, Canada, were also subjected to horrible abuse, at the hands of Catholic mobs and officials alike. Delegations from the bishop’s palace called daily at the police department to demand that the police get rid of the Witnesses. Frequently, before an arrest was made, the police were seen emerging from the back door of the church. In 1949, missionaries of Jehovah’s Witnesses were driven out of Joliette, Quebec, by Catholic mobsters.

The Catholic Church has used every means possible to maintain an iron grip on the people. By bringing pressure on government officials, they saw to it that Witness missionaries were ordered to leave Italy in 1949 and that, when possible, permits secured by the Witnesses for assemblies there were canceled during the 1950’s. In the Dominican Republic, the clergy collaborated with Dictator Trujillo, using him to accomplish their aims even as he used them for his own purposes. In 1950, after newspaper articles written by priests denounced Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Watch Tower Society’s branch overseer was summoned by the Secretary of the Interior and Police. As he waited outside the office, the branch overseer saw two Jesuit priests enter and then leave. Immediately after that, he was called in to the Secretary’s office, and the Secretary nervously read a decree banning the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses. After the ban was briefly lifted in 1956, the clergy used both radio and press in renewed slander of the Witnesses. Entire congregations were arrested and ordered to sign a statement renouncing their faith and promising to return to the Roman Catholic Church. When the Witnesses refused, they were beaten, kicked, whipped, and had their faces smashed with rifle butts. But they stood firm, and their numbers grew.

In Sucre, Bolivia, there was more violence. At the time of an assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1955, a gang of boys from the Sacred Heart Catholic School surrounded the assembly place, yelled, and threw stones. From the church building across the street, a powerful loudspeaker urged all Catholics to defend the church and the “Virgin” against the “Protestant heretics.” The bishop and the priests personally tried to disrupt the meeting but were ordered out of the hall by the police.

The previous year, when Jehovah’s Witnesses were holding an assembly in Riobamba, Ecuador, their program featured a public talk entitled “Love, Practical in a Selfish World?” But a Jesuit priest had stirred up the Catholic populace, urging them to prevent that meeting. Thus, as the talk got under way, a mob could be heard shouting: “Long live the Catholic Church!” and, “Down with the Protestants!” The police commendably held them back, with swords drawn. But the mob hurled stones at the meeting place and, later, at the building in which the missionaries lived.

The Roman Catholic clergy have been in the forefront of the persecution, but they have not been the only ones. The Greek Orthodox clergy have been just as fierce and have used the same tactics, in their more limited area of influence. In addition, where they felt that they could do it, many of the Protestant clergy have demonstrated a similar spirit. For example, in Indonesia they have led mobs that broke up Bible studies in private homes and that savagely beat Jehovah’s Witnesses who were present. In some African lands, they have endeavored to influence officials to exclude Jehovah’s Witnesses from the country or to deprive them of freedom to talk about God’s Word with others. Although they may differ on other matters, the Catholic and Protestant clergy as a whole are in agreement on their opposition to Jehovah’s Witnesses. On occasion they have even joined forces in trying to influence government officials to stop the activity of the Witnesses. Where non-Christian religions have dominated life, they too have often used the government to insulate their people from any exposure to teachings that might cause them to question the religion of their birth.

At times, these non-Christian groups have joined forces with professed Christians in scheming to maintain the religious status quo. At Dekin, in Dahomey (now Benin), a juju priest and a Catholic priest conspired together to get officials to suppress the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses early in the 1950’s. In their desperation they fabricated charges that were calculated to stir up all sorts of hostile emotions. They charged that the Witnesses were urging the people to revolt against the government, were not paying taxes, were the reason why the jujus did not give rain, and were responsible for the ineffectiveness of the prayers of the priest. All such religious leaders feared that their people might learn things that would free them from superstitious beliefs and a life of blind obedience.

In many parts of the world, other issues have led to waves of persecution. One of these issues has involved the attitude of Jehovah’s Witnesses toward national emblems. But that's a topic for another time, it involves the subjects of nationalism and patriotism. It is however briefly addressed in the video earlier.

Oh, I forgot, I wanted to end with this quote:

McClintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia quotes John Jortin, an 18th-century English Protestant, born of French Huguenot parents, as saying: “Where persecution begins, Christianity ends . . . It was after Christianity had been established as the religion of the [Roman] empire, and after wealth and honor had been conferred on its ministers, that the monstrous evil of persecution acquired gigantic strength, and threw its blasting influence over the religion of the Gospel.”

(True) Christianity may be the most persecuted religion in the world, but Christendom is probably the most responsible for and/or involved in the persecution of true Christianity. And there's a big difference between Christendom (the religions and denominations that claim to represent Christianity) and Christianity. In part, recognizable by the reminder above that: “Where persecution begins, Christianity ends.”