These blasts led to protests by Christians in Pakistan because for too long the Pakistani government has done nothing to protect the Christians, and has even aided and abetted those who persecute them. And the response from Christians in the West? Yawns of indifference.
“15 killed, 70 injured as blasts target Lahore churches,” The News International, March 15, 2015 (thanks to Lookmann):
LAHORE: Twin blasts targeted the Roman Catholic Church and Christ Church during Sunday mass in Youhanabad area of the provincial capital, killing 15 people including two policemen and injuring at least 70 others.
According to initial reports, two suicide bombers attacked the churches located in the Christian locality.
Eye witnesses told Geo News that a man blew himself up outside one of the churches as a police guard stopped him from entering, while the other blast took place inside the church during Sunday mass.
However, police have yet to confirm the nature of the blast. Two suspected men were caught from the venue but the enraged mob burnt them alive after subjecting them to severe torture in the presence of police.
The explosions caused a stampede at the Church as panicked worshipers ran to save their lives. Windowpanes of the nearby buildings were shattered due to the explosions.
Doctor Haider Ashraf, DIG Operations, said seven policemen were deployed for security. He said two constables identified as Asghar and Yawar Ali were killed while four others sustained injuries.
Forensic experts are gathering evidence from the blast scene. The dead and injured were taken to Lahore’s General Hospital. MS General Hospital confirmed that 15 people lost their lives.
The hospital has made an appeal for blood donation. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack and have sought a report into the incident.
A large number of protesters took to Ferozpur Road to protest the attack, prompting provincial authorities to suspend Metro Bus Service.
They also stopped federal minister Kamran Micheal from visiting the blast scene.
Sadiq Daniel, Bishop of Pakistan, condemned the blasts and termed them an attack on Pakistan. He said that all the missionary schools will remain closed on Monday against the attack.
A large number of people from Christian community took to the streets in Karachi in protest against the Lahore blasts.
Linde Barrera says
Disgusting, demonic. I am so tired of seeing and hearing about innocent people being preyed upon and murdered. Lord Jesus Christ please come now.
terry says
He is…….
Paul Young says
If Obama administration fails to change it’s policy on radical Islam,or Americans fail to elect a President with common sense,this and worse will happen in USA. WAKE UP AMERICA!!! God help us and His people around the world,especially Israel His chosen people.
dumbledoresarmy says
“Yawns of indifference”.
But *I* am a Western Christian, resident in Australia. And I am not indifferent.
However, I only found out about this latest Muslim atrocity half an hour ago, and at a time when I ought to be in bed anyway and therefore do not have time to start firing off letters on the subject to my religious and political leaders – and should really not even be taking time to type this.
I can only respond once I *know*, and after I have had a bit of time to think what to do and say.
Incidentally, however, I first found out about this event not from visiting here – because I was doing something else this evening – but when casually checking FB before heading off to bed. (I then came here afterward). A friend of mine who is an Anglican priest in a major Australian city – and who is getting more and more aware of the violence hardwired into Islam – had shared the story – BBC version – in his newsfeed. And people who were up late, past their bedtimes, were discussing it. One person at least had travelled to Pakistan and was commenting upon the persecution and discrimination suffered by the minority Christians.
Awareness *is* there, and is increasing, and I would say people are doing more than is reported in the secular news outlets.
somehistory says
Neither am I indifferent. Many
individual Christians in the U.S. care very much about what is happening. When I read that *we* are indifferent and yawing, that we don’t care, I don’t apply the *we* to *me* (myself).. News people and government don’t speak for me. From reading your comments here for the past several years, I don’t believe they speak for you either.
deja vu says
Count me in, DDA and somehistory. We have a group which advocates for our persecuted family in Christ and writes letters to encourage them through their years of imprisonment and horrendous torture. Our church wholeheartedly supports our ministry in giving and in prayer, for which we are immensely grateful.
Unfortunately, some of the more light-weight churches (if I can put it that way) are not interested in hearing anything they perceive as ‘negative’. But that is changing as groups such as ISIS are doing a great job of alerting them to the reality of Christian persecution. A great harvest is being reaped in all nations wherever there is persecution.The more they rage, threaten and oppress, the more people are drawn to Christ. It has always been the case!
Greyhound Fancier says
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. This could be the vehicle for opening that region to the Gospel.
What you see in the Islamic world, particularly the ISIS-controlled areas, is a world without Christ. Is this the world that the leftist apologists for Islam want to live in?
deja vu says
Greyhound Fancier – ‘This could be the vehicle for opening that region to the Gospel.’
Yes indeed – and that’s exactly what’s happening! Numbers are staggering in countries such as China and Iran, and I believe we will be amazed when it’s finally safe for the underground church to emerge and an accurate count can be made.
Every prisoner we are in contact with evangelises their fellow prisoners who can’t help noticing how resiliant they are under torture, and how they forgive and pray for their torturers. They often want to know what makes them so different. I know of a Chinese pastor who has been imprisoned many times, and each time he goes to prison his house church grows five-fold. So when his meeting place is raided yet again, he calmly surrenders himself to the police with his wrists held up ready for the handcuffs.Truly this is cutting-edge Christianity. It puts us to shame.
You ask, ‘ Is this the world that the leftist apologists for Islam want to live in?’
I ask the same question of atheists who will never get their imagined secular Utopia. All they are doing is creating a spiritual vacuum which Islam is only too ready to fill. Likewise leftist apologists for Islam who probably expect the crocodile to eat them last.
Edgar Allen says
I am sure this will be on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow. CNN, ABC and CBS will have a full 15 minute segment on combating bigotry, religious hatred, and the need for tolerance of the Other.
What we do without our main stream media.
Joginder Singh says
I for one am not missing the MSM as I gave up relying on the dhimmified MSM years ago See the BBC use of “ASIAN” when it should be “MUSLIM” and “ISLAM” that it should be using
deja vu says
I can imagine your anger at this blanketing of vastly different peoples, cultures, religions and nations by the collective term ‘Asian’. I suppose they assume it’s no different than naming people Europeans, but the motive is not the same for they are afraid to name names for fear of seeming discriminatory. Everything in today’s society is about ‘seeming’ rather than ‘doing’. As a result nothing gets done..
deja vu says
I am sure this will be on the front page of the New York Times tomorrow. CNN, ABC and CBS will have a full 15 minute segment on combating bigotry, religious hatred, and the need for tolerance of the Other.
Come on, Edgar, get real! The front page is already taken. What’s a few dozen Christians killed and maimed? They probably brought it on themselves anyway.
If they mention it at all it wil be a small column on Page 23.
roger says
This barbaric attack will cause Muslims to stop what they are doing and launch huge marches through the major cities of every western country. Here, Muslim Imams will first after thanking western governments for their hospitality and generosity shown to Muslim asylum seekers and those who sought a better life in under the western system of government and rule of law. All Muslim will join in unison to demand that the Pakistani government force Pakistani Muslim leaders to fully recognise Christians as equals in society and to rebuild Christian churches…… and then… um
Salah says
The Church grows thanks to the blood of the martyrs.
Fifteen years ago, on al Jazeera TV, sheikh al-Qataani (a muslim scholar) said: “The number of Christians in Pakistan rose from 80 thousand in 1947 to 6 million in 2000.”
http://crossmuslims.blogspot.ca/2010/05/dying-islam-lislam-mourant.html
RonaldB says
This incident shows the general pressure on Christians in Pakistan, but it seems to not reflect an indifferent government.
There were two police protecting one church, and apparently 4 or 5 protecting the other.
“Doctor Haider Ashraf, DIG Operations, said seven policemen were deployed for security. He said two constables identified as Asghar and Yawar Ali were killed while four others sustained injuries.”
” Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan condemned the attack and have sought a report into the incident.”
I think this incident shows Islam on the march. It also shows that once an Islamic (or any other) insurgency becomes rooted, the means necessary to suppress it are not going to look pretty. Again, you see the folly of the US withdrawing support for dictators in Islamic countries.
Jay Boo says
Christianity is a painful reminder to Muslims of what Islam lacks spiritually.
Joseph says
That one statement is more thought provoking than an entire page.
It is all too true.
deja vu says
Jay Boo
Excellent comment. And that’s why they hate Christians or, more correctly, they hate Christ. If ever there was evidence that the motivation for the persecution of Christians is diabolical, this is it.
Richie says
EVERY DAY these savage muslims engage in mass murder, yet apologists of Islam still insist the killings have nothing to do with islam’.
WHAT will it take to deflate that absurd line of propaganda once and for all?
Joseph says
@Richie
It will stop when the politicians and there families are murdered by this scum.
I have done some research on murderers and sex offenders and where they live upon release.
Compare that map to where the politicians live.
It does not matter what U.S. city you pick, the criminals are being(especially sex offenders) relocated far far away from the homes of politicians.
This –HIT will also stop when the profits stop.
Richie says
By then it may be too late
mortimer says
A prayer was said for the Pakistan victims in church today.
Charli Main says
Quick !!!!! Send another 20 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan to help all those poor, suffering and persecuted Muslims. You know, the ones living in fear of their lives, behind locked doors, from another attack by all those violent Hindu and Christian jihadists living in Pakistan.
bikerborz says
We in the West are criticized for being apathetic and uncaring to those Christians (and others) in the Middle East and Far East. The truth is: what can we in the West really do? Should our governments send in troops to a foreign country to enforce a “peace”? (That will just be seen as “foreign Crusaders”, and will be counteracted as such.) Should we send financial aid? (That will just be skimmed or stolen, and then used against us.) Should we impose “sanctions”? (Like that has worked in the past…) Are we being asked to volunteer to go ourselves and stand in the midst of these persecuted Christians and peoples? I’m sure there would be some volunteers. We are criticized for being uncaring and apathetic — what would you have us do?
Linde Barrera says
The one viable idea I can suggest right now to help our Christian brothers and sisters in Syria and Iraq is to make a tithe online. Go to info@theacero.org. This is the Assyrian Church of the Middle East. This is “Federal Tax Return Season” for Americans, so hopefully many Americans will give a percentage of their tax return and that will show compassion on our part. Thank you for your good question.
Mo says
@ bikerborz
“We in the West are criticized for being apathetic and uncaring to those Christians (and others) in the Middle East and Far East. The truth is: what can we in the West really do?”
Everything you said here is exactly what goes through my mind as well. Many Christians (and others) DO care, but in reality, we just don’t know what we can do.
deja vu says
Bikerborz and Mo: ‘Everything you said here is exactly what goes through my mind as well. Many Christians (and others) DO care, but in reality, we just don’t know what we can do.’
It’s wonderful to hear you want to do something but are at a loss to know what to do. May I suggest exploring the website below for the ways you can help and be part of this incredible ministry to the persecuted? Though each of us is a small link in a long chain, I can honestly say that in the years I’ve been involved in this ministry I’ve been truly humbled, and richly blessed, many hundreds of times over.
Currently there are estimated to be between 150-200 million Christians who are being persecuted in various ways in all Communist and Islamic nations of the world. This ranges from harassment and discrimination, banishment and exclusion, the burning of businesses, homes and churches, arrest and beatings on trumped up charges with a mock trial, or no trial at all, right through to long imprisonment in filthy conditions, denial of medical care, starvation rations, horrendous torture both physical and psychological, to paying the ultimate price.
The sheer injustice of it is hard to take, but those of us in free nations can bring hope, comfort, encouragement, and even joy, to our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ, remembering them in our prayers. More importantly, by ‘visiting’ them in prison’ with our letters full of Scripture we are obeying the exhortation of Jesus in Matthew 25:36-40. It is sobering to realise that He thought it important enough to use as one of the criteria for dividing the sheep from the goats.
This is the VoM USA site, but there are local branches in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
http://www.persecution.com/
https://www.vomcanada.com/
http://www.vom.com.au/
This is the agency I support, but there are others such as Open Doors, Release International (UK) and the Barnabas Fund to name a few. Each has its own distinctives, but they all fight for the same cause.
Mo says
@ deja vu
“It’s wonderful to hear you want to do something but are at a loss to know what to do. May I suggest exploring the website below for the ways you can help and be part of this incredible ministry to the persecuted? Though each of us is a small link in a long chain, I can honestly say that in the years I’ve been involved in this ministry I’ve been truly humbled, and richly blessed, many hundreds of times over.”
I’m aware of some of these, and wasn’t sure what they were doing in these cases. Thanks, I’ll check them out.
Mo
Mark says
Yawns of indifference? No, but Christians don’t control government in any western nation at the moment, and even if we did, could we really prevent Muslims from murdering Christians? We haven’t be able to prevent anyone from murdering Christians for 2000 years. In fact, we do well to prevent professing Christians from murdering Christians.
We aren’t indifferent. We are without our king. But that will change. Maranatha. And then there will be no rest for the wicked indeed.
deja vu says
Mark – I agree with what you say, but we *do* have our King! And He is directing world affairs as He did before the Exodus. God is in control not Pharaoh, just to use one example. In the meantime “We must work the works of Him who sent Jesus as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work.”
John 9:4
We can work to allieviate the suffering of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ through supporting agencies such as Voice of the Martyrs (see links after Mo’s comment above) and carry on faithfully serving Him in the ministry He has given us till we go home, or He returns.
DD says
There are 7 prophets, current alive, but this is they last time, w/ no religion.
Cultish religions brainwash so debate is useless.
Seek ye the truth of the Creation…which does not need prayer. Why should it?
Priests / I mans/ Rabibis. tell us to submit in error.
Think about that.
.?
7th. Is. BEAM.
Truth….peace in wisdom to you.
Religion is obleleted by true teaching and thinking and love and harmony.
Jerry says
God created the universe and man.
Religion is, however, man made.
Islam is a Satanic manifestation of
man made religion at its worst.
deja vu says
Absolutely agree. I would add that ‘religion’ is not what Christianity is about – it’s a personal relationship with God through Jesus, energised by the Holy Spirit. Followers of Jesus sitting under a tree worshipping Him are no less Christians than those in a mighty cathedral or a church building. In fact they are often more so.
Jesus was not interested in the outward show but the inner man. He did not come to start an organisation with all its pomp and ceremony, rules and regulations, traditions and layers of hierarchy, but a living and active organism likened to a healthy body with Christ as the Head.
I agree with you about the source of Islam, but it is a totalitarian political ideology, such as fascism or communism, wrapped in a stifling and burdensome cloak of a counterfeit religion.
Linde Barrera says
Deja vu, thank you for that awesome response. You sound like a student of Christian theology. God bless you for preaching the Living Word.
deja vu says
Thank you for your encouragement and kind words, Linde. I am just a very ordinary sheep who didn’t grow up in a Christian home, was saved as an adult and has been well taught in the last 8 years by a gifted and faithful Baptist pastor. To me he is a modern equivalent of C H Spurgeon whose works I have devoured, along with J C Ryle, A W Tozer and many others.
But I have much still to learn and to put into practice.
As you may have gathered, my other teacher is the persecuted church. I am constantly pulled up short by their courage and endurance, their willingness to lie in rags in filthy crowded cells, beaten, sick, starving, injured and abused, facing execution any day – and yet praising God and forgiving their tormentors time after time, and praying that they might be saved. In the midst of these dire circumstances they are very conscious of the real presence of Jesus among them in a way that we, who are free, do not experience. So much so that the founder of VoM, Richard Wurmbrand (who was imprisoned and brutally tortured for 14 years by the Romanian communists) said, upon his release, that he did not wish to leave because of his love for his fellow captives and his sweet communion with Jesus. Read his book ‘Tortured for Christ’ if you’re interested in knowing more. And many thanks again for your words of encouragement!
Jerry says
The problem is not “Islamophobia” but “Christosphobia”.
Bunch of Paedophile Satanophiles
deja vu says
Very true. Little do they know that by attacking Christians they are attacking Christ Himself. Even those using His name as a swear word, or taking God’s name in vain, do not know what they do.