Christian Martyrs in an Age of Indifference

One of the many horrible realities of ISIS, the Islamist terrorist group which took over control of parts of Iraq and other countries was its brutal torture and murder of innocent people from other religions.

It was four years ago this week that  21 men were videotaped on a beach in Libya as their ISIS captors beheaded them one by one when they refused to renounce their faith. Of the 21 victims, 20 were Coptic Christians from Egypt who had migrated to Libya for work.

There is a new book about them by a German author, Martin Mosebach, who went to Egypt to learn more about them. Mosebach visited all of the families of the slain, as well as their bishop, He spent time experiencing Coptic liturgies, and went to the monasteries which are islands of Christianity in a Muslim majority world. He discovered that the men who were killed are considered martyrs and revered by the communities in which they lived.

Christians are a voiceless minority in Egypt and often persecuted. Yet they are resolute in what we might consider a simple faith. In North America it seems that Christianity is dying a slow death from affluence and indifference. For those of us who are Christians we might consider the extent to which we would be true to Christ in the midst of genuine threat and fear.