How many times now must we look at our national flag flying at half-mast, lamenting over a recent tragedy? It almost seems as if it flies in this position permanently. With atrocities being committed against Christian, helpless civilians, and other minorities occurring by the day, it has become commonplace to turn on the news and hear of some horrible incident. With the recent bombing of Pakistani Christians, mostly woman and children, in a park after Easter mass, the bashing of the nuns’ skulls in Yemen, the priest crucified in Yemen, or just another bombing or mass shooting, we are almost becoming numb to the constant atrocities.
The United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide defines “genocide” as killing and certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Isn’t this exactly what is occurring to Christians and other minorities in The Middle East? ISIS’ magazine, Dabiq, calls on the destruction of the “Crusader army”. Plus, their videos encourage the killing of priests and Christians. Their plan is to eradicate Catholicism from its birthplace in The Middle East and destroy our entire Western civilization.
I am pleased to be a member of The Knights of Columbus. As Obama had laid a deaf ear to all Christians in The Middle East, The Knights provided the State Department with a nearly 300-page report filled with compelling evidence that genocide is occurring against Christians as well as other religious minorities. These atrocities included assassinations of Church leaders, mass murders and deportations, torture, kidnapping for ransom, sexual enslavement and systematic rape of girls and women, forcible conversions to Islam, and destruction of Christian churches, monasteries, cemeteries, and artifacts.
After much work by The Knights’ CEO Carl Anderson and other members, Secretary of State, John Kerry, finally declared that ISIS (or as he foolishly says Daesh) is committing genocide against Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims. However, this is only the first step. Unfortunately, this condemnation does nothing to solve the problem. He declared what most of us knew for over a year. Plus, his words ring hallow as there is no action behind them. At this point you must ask yourselves, is this the new norm? Will we just accept what is occurring and issue idle warnings to our enemies, paint a picture over our Facebook picture, hashtag the atrocities in disgust, and lower our flags to half-mast? Is appeasement and apathy the new norm? Well, it seems that is the society we live in now.
Fueled by political correctness, secularism, and an American President with un-American values, we are now reaching a critical point in humanity’s history. Will we revert back to 9th century barbarism or fight to restore our Liberty and our future generations’ safety. It is the question we must all ask ourselves right now. Those that do not answer it are letting the terrorists win. Those that are apathetic are letting the terrorists win. Don’t stand idly by. Talk to your Congressman. Support organizations like The Knights. Let your voice be heard before it’s too late!
