This is the text of an article (about the persecution of Christians) commissioned by the Times today:
Religious special pleading is rarely convincing or attractive. Overblown complaints about being picked on run the danger of diminishing or trivialising genuine suffering.
So, it is remarkable that when Christians are specifically targeted for the most appalling persecution, either politicians or media commentators find it difficult to name it for what is. To identify the persecution of Christians is not to diminish the targeted suffering of others.
It is reckoned that Christians represent the most persecuted people on earth in the twenty first century. And we are not talking here of a bit of ridicule or silly marginalisation. We are talking about men, women and children being singled out because of their Christian faith or identity and put to an unimaginably cruel death. Or, of course, being driven out of home, away from livelihood, deprived of identity and dignity. Or, for women and girls, being forced into sexual slavery and subjected to rape-at-will.
Everyone knows about ISIS/Daesh – how they systematically brutalise those they deem unholy. Yet pressure on Christians is being applied with renewed vigour and imagination in some surprising places. Just last week the Sultan of Brunei banned the celebration of Christmas on the grounds that this could damage people's commitment to Islam. And those who defy the ban face heavy fines or imprisonment. Who will defend Christians in Brunei?
It was timely, then, that 60 UK parliamentarians published a letter this week asking for government pressure to persuade the United Nations to designate ISIS persecution of Christians and Yazidis as genocide.
The specific nature of anti-Christian persecution in many parts of the world make it difficult to identify a single solution. What happens in Nigeria clearly has a different local manifestation from in Pakistan or Syria (or Brunei); but the complexity or ubiquity of the phenomenon should not lead to embarrassed silence on the part of the largely religiously illiterate western intelligentsia.
The first demand of such a phenomenon is to name it for what it is. Where Christians are being persecuted, then the word should be used without embarrassment. When my Christian brothers and sisters suffer in Sudan (and they do), they rely on the rest of us to tell their story and to use what powers we have to bring political pressure for an end to such suffering. The Anglican Communion and the links forged between dioceses across the world are essential in fulfilling this demand and vocation.
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Nick Baines's Blog 
December 24, 2015 at 8:46 am
Incredibly well put and timely.
December 24, 2015 at 9:27 am
[…] Religious special pleading is rarely convincing or attractive. Overblown complaints about being pick… […]
December 24, 2015 at 10:38 am
Reblogged this on hungarywolf.
December 26, 2015 at 5:28 pm
Hello Nick.
I was drawn to this article by your phrase “religious illiterate western intelligentsia”
It`s a good one, so redolent of the times that we live in.
Yet, I cant` help thinking of Rowan and Lucy, Giles and Paul Flowers…Stephen Sizer and Pope Francis, Stourton and Longley…that rush to the BBC Green Room to draw fire from the “liberal intelligentsia”-to be put on the naughty step, before a show trail in the dock of Harmans “Court Of Public Opinion”(as deemed by selfsame intelligensia anyway).
In my time, your church has stayed schtum on Rotherham, but held forth on “climate change”…you have let the media tear you apart over Boston and Pastor McConnell-but you have acquiesced in cases like Savile and Batmanghedghli, Leveson and Russell Brand.
In short-your church has forfeited any right to defend the Gospel, because you fear the opinion of Bonnie Greer or Tom Paulin more than Jesus Himself.
This article is very good-but how many tears of scriptural twister will you now need to undo?…the church is hostile to israel, has no depth in the Old Testament prophetic tradition, and has no cogniscence of what Islam and the “Syrian refugee crisis” means. Cheap grace and liberal genuflections do get the BBC less willing to shaft you for the day…but they have broken your stained glass windows and thieve your culture and traditions at will, as much as Occupy did in 2010/11.
You can write well and it works-but the BBC won`t be taking it any further as long as Islam and Pastel pink Communalism run the game of “perceptions”..Alan Greaves died not too far away from you in 2012, and his death needs atonement…you`ll progress no further until you see what persecutions and compliance cultural duct tapings are being done on your doorstep.
I myself would refuse to talk to the BBC…refuse any “multifaith forums” that do not invoke the Lordship of Jesus(or al least a cultural step change in how schools, Childrens Services and the NHS, courts etc, are run)..and would provocatively back the likes of UKIP when they blame floods on Gods anger…much more likely that climate change is it not?
All the best for this Christmas season…but you`ll be called upon to be brave over the EU Referendum, Islam and Corbyn etc…and I fear for your church which could be improved…but will(more likely) be removed.
Will pray that God opens ears and allows his people top learn some tactics on how to deal with Ariel, Media, NIke and all the other false Gods your church has worshipped for too long.