Review by Jonathan Heaps A Hidden Life Dir. by Terence Malick Prime Video, PG-13, $19.99 As an Amazon Associate, TLC earns from qualifying purchases. Toward the end of A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick’s excellent new film about Franz Jägerstätter’s refusal to swear loyalty to Adolf Hitler, Jägerstätter (August Diel) prays in terms approximating Psalm 23. … [Read more...] about A Terrible Freedom
martyrdom
Guilt and Persecution
The United Kingdom is beset by a post-colonial guilt that makes it likely to ignore pleas for help from Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith, the Bishop of Truro has said. The Rt. Rev. Philip Mounstephen believes that while people of many faiths are persecuted, Christians are more likely than others to be victims. Pew Center statistics gathered … [Read more...] about Guilt and Persecution
Global Persecution Worsens
Open Doors, which campaigns on behalf of persecuted Christians, says persecution of Christians is increasing across the world and that Christians in Asia most likely to risk imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom. It is hardest to be a Christian in North Korea, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, according to the latest research by Open Doors. It reports a rise in attacks by Hindu … [Read more...] about Global Persecution Worsens
Abp. Welby on a ‘Daily Threat of Murder’
Middle Eastern Christians are on the brink of “imminent extinction,” the Archbishop of Canterbury has warned. Writing in The Daily Telegraph ahead of a Westminster Abbey service to celebrate the contribution of Christians in the region, he said Christians face a “daily threat of murder.” In the last few years, he said, they have been slaughtered by Islamic State, and in … [Read more...] about Abp. Welby on a ‘Daily Threat of Murder’
Sudanese Bishop Pleads for Rescue
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald Participants hopping from one hotel to the next for General Convention meetings got a sobering reality check July 7 as Bishop Samuel Enosa Peni of Nzara, South Sudan, briefed the World Mission Committee on the deteriorating situation in his country. “In only two years, the crisis came again — worse than it was before,” Bishop Peni said, referring … [Read more...] about Sudanese Bishop Pleads for Rescue
A Song before Dying
Ian Squire, one of four British medical missionaries held captive in Nigeria beginning in mid-October, was martyred immediately after he sang “Amazing Grace,” said Dr. David Donovan, a fellow hostage. Squire stood after finishing the hymn, and a volley of gunshots killed him instantly. His fellow hostages fled from the hut where they were held, fearing they would be … [Read more...] about A Song before Dying
A Marshall Plan for Iraq
Videos and photos from Rowaid Hesa’s hometown of Qaraqosh, Iraq, give him no comfort these days in central Massachusetts, where he landed after fleeing Iraq four years ago. The images depict only devastation left by Islamic State militants, who forced all remaining Christians to leave town in a caravan in 2014. Still, he watches them because they show his family’s plight. … [Read more...] about A Marshall Plan for Iraq
Honor the Dead of Minya
The Rev. Frederick Schmidt, Jr., writes about the slaughter of at least 20 Coptic Christians early today in Minya, Egypt: [W]e won’t be riveted to stories from Minya for days on end the way in which we have followed the news from Manchester. … [T]he moral values that we hold dear should leave us ever restless and discontent with human definitions of compassion, mercy, and … [Read more...] about Honor the Dead of Minya