Media malpractice
They fail to cover Christian martyrs
Boko Haram is one of the terrorist group carrying out the genocide of Nigerian Christians. Agence France Presse via bbc.com in November 2016
When news surfaced on X February 19 that 70 Christ followers were beheaded with machetes or hammers in a Congo church, American believers were shocked and pleaded for media coverage.
A month after the violence caused by Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), who are affiliated with the Islamic State, media coverage is thin. A quick Google search of “christians in Congo beheaded Feb. 13” yielded four: Fox News, AOL, Yahoo, and Newsweek. Other references are Christian news, or ministries connected to people of faith or the persecuted church.
What recklessness by the U.S. media. Christians are martyred without a whimper from the media worldwide. If it was 70 Muslims, 70 Hindus, 70 Buddhists, or 70 Sihks, it would have gained coverage. The media’s indifferent to the slaughter of Christians.
Sub-Saharan Africa is the most dangerous place on earth for Christ followers.
The Christian Post obtained a statement from Jeffrey King, president of International Christian Concern, a watchdog of the persecuted church. King wrote in an email:
‘This recent massacre, where 70 Christians lost their lives, is not an isolated incident but part of a grim tapestry of violence that has claimed over 6 million lives in the DRC over two decades of on-and-off war. The vast majority of the DRC’s residents are Christian, so this is a religious genocide carried out by radical Islamic terrorists (the ADF).
‘It’s time for more than prayers; we must demand an all-African military force to intervene in this failed state, to restore order and save countless more people from becoming victims of this endless cycle of bloodshed.’
As angry any Christ follower is justified in being, don’t be surprised. There are multiple warnings in the Bible about the world hating Christ followers because they follow Him.
At 4 a.m. on February 13, 20 people were captured and tied up in the village of Mayba in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to Open Doors (OD), a ministry that focuses on the persecuted church.
OD obtained information from field sources. It included word after the early morning abductions, people in Mayba planned to free them when 50 more people were taken captive, taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga, and massacred.
This attack in Congo is part of bloodshed against Christians in the nation amid a civil war.
African nations have had civil wars, political instability, and corruption that enables groups connected to Islamic State, and other terrorist groups, to kill Christians and other religious minorities.
The Islamic State has various groups on the African continent, including Somalia, Nigeria, and Congo. Meanwhile, there’s also al-Shabaab in eastern Africa, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and the Fulani herdsmen are in Nigeria. ISIS groups, al-Shabaab, and Boko Haram are on the U.S. State Department list of foreign terrorist organizations.
While Congo was the scene of recent outrage, much focus has been on Nigeria in recent years, and justifiably so.
In 2021, Antony Blinken, Secretary of State for former President Joe Biden, removed Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, much to the chagrin of the U.S Commission on International Religious Freedom, the organization directing policy on religious freedom. Team Biden took heat for it because of the reality in the largest African nation.
Genocide Watch and others have chronicled the genocide in Nigeria:
Since 2000, 62,000 Christians in Nigeria have been murdered in genocide perpetrated by Islamist jihadist groups including Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani militias. The International Committee for Nigeria refers to this genocide as the “Silent Slaughter.”
The International Committee on Nigeria (ICON) has called on the U.S. to name an envoy to Nigeria because the attacks on people of faith receive no response from the Nigerian government.
The ICON report was released in August 2020, gaining outrage from people and groups, including Family Research Council President Tony Perkins:
‘It is my opinion that this grim evidence calls for immediate action, [and] I hope and pray it is acted upon by responsible international governments and organizations willing to take every step necessary to save the lives of innocent men, women and children.’
Meanwhile, Matthew Daniels was chair of Law & Human Rights at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C, in July 2019 when he wrote the following for The Hill:
The time has come for the international community to stop all pretense that what is happening in Nigeria is anything less than a genocide. Just as the free world united in the struggle against ISIS in the Middle East, every nation that aspires to the term ‘civilized’ needs to join in ending this next international tragedy-in-the-making before it’s too late.
That was about six years ago, and matters have worsened.
No matter the report producing compelling and overwhelming evidence of the Nigerian genocide, the media avoids it.
Tucker Carlson interviewed Jonathan Roumie Wednesday, the actor who plays Jesus Christ on “The Chosen,” with topics including the persecuted church. Additionally, there are growing first-hand accounts of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham forces of the new Syrian government, which has past connections to al-Qaida, carrying out genocide of religious minorities, including Christians, Druze, and Alawites.
People of faith must raise the issue because it is the right thing to do. There is value to being a watchman or watchwoman. There is value to standing in the gap for the persecuted church. There is value to casting light on this 21st century humanitarian crisis.
Proverbs 24:11-12 (NASB) states:
11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.
12 If you say, ‘Behold, we did not know this,’ does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay man according to his work?