Sir, – In one sentence Breda O'Brien has summed up a depressing road taken by western democracies, aided and abetted by a "progressive" media: "If you are busy dismantling the cultural remnants of Christianity in your own country, it is hard to muster the enthusiasm to protect the rights of Christians elsewhere" ("Terrorism and repression leave Egyptian Christians vulnerable", Opinion & Analysis, April 15th). The persecution of Christians in many countries around the world is rampant yet the issue is almost ignored by the "cultural elites" and struggles to gain attention through organisations such as Church in Chains. The message of Easter is one of reconciliation and forgiveness yet isolated voices of despairing and persecuted Christians in Egypt, India, Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Iraq, North Korea and elsewhere cast a shadow on our own lack of response and awareness. The tendency of western media to sneer at Christianity dilutes what should be our outrage at treatment of our fellow believers as they suffer appalling conditions because of their faith. It is time to speak out. – Yours, etc,
GEOFF SCARGILL,
Bray, Co Wicklow.
A chara, – Breda O’Brien argues that the cultural elites in the West are not too inclined to highlight the persecution of Christians around the world because they are more interested in painting Christianity as “an enemy of progress” in their own countries.
A similar point was made by John L Allen in his 2013 book The Global War on Christianity, in which he suggests that the reflexive hostility by some sectors of secular opinion conditions them to seeing Christianity as an agent of repression rather a victim. This blinds them to the fact that Christians taken as a whole are, in fact, the most persecuted group on the planet.
The time has come for western elites to look beyond their distaste for the role of religion within their own borders and wake up to the fact that their prejudices are acting to exacerbate the oppression of their fellow human beings elsewhere in the world by helping to minimise or cast a silence over their sufferings. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.