South Asian Forum of the Evangelical Alliance Newsletter
Issue 17: December 2014
The South Asian Forum (SAF) is a grouping within the Evangelical Alliance, set up to provide a place for South Asian Christians in the UK to encourage, support and equip each other for mission, and to represent their concerns to government, media and the wider Church. With the support of both individual members and church members totalling more than 20,000 people, SAF is steadily growing. Visit saf.eauk.org to get involved in supporting this wonderful
S outh As i a n F orum of the
Evangelical Alliance
connecting, uniting, representing
ministry by becoming a member of SAF. Once you become a member, you will receive idea, the Alliance’s bi-monthly magazine, as well as regular newsletters from SAF detailing our progress. If you are already a member of the Evangelical Alliance you can add SAF to your Alliance membership at no extra cost. In this instance please send an email to saf@eauk.org
Christmas: pondering and responding
Remembering the persecuted this Christmas
In Luke 2, we see a variety of responses to the birth of Jesus. Simeon takes Jesus in his hands and praises God, the prophet Anna thanks God and speaks about the child “to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem”. Earlier in this chapter the shepherds respond by “spreading the word” about what they have been told about Jesus. Interesting is Mary’s response: “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart”.
Christmas, a time for family, feel-good films and presents and food for many of us, of stables, donkeys, shepherds and wise men with gifts. But we forget that for Jesus’ parents, it was a time of gossip, slander, economic uncertainty, life on the edge, and fleeing a genocidal maniac to be a refugee in a foreign land.
As we draw closer to Christmas what will our response be to the birth of Jesus? Christmas is an immensely busy time as we prepare for the festivities and try to meet work deadlines. Like Martha we can all too easily find ourselves becoming distracted. And yet, in Luke 2 we have a wonderful model of how we might choose to respond to the birth of Jesus this Christmas. Like Simeon and the prophet Anna we can dedicate the coming days to praise and thanksgiving. Like Mary we can take time out to meditate, allowing the significance of Jesus’ birth to speak to us afresh. And like the shepherds we can share the amazing gift of life for those who turn to Jesus, thinking how to communicate with people of all faiths and none in our society. The great evangelist George Whitefield was a man who deeply appreciated the birth of Jesus. Whitefield once said: “You blame me for weeping....but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves although your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction, and for aught I know, you are hearing your last sermon and may never more have another opportunity to have Christ offered to you?” This Christmas let us think how we will choose to respond to the birth of Jesus.
These are precisely the same kind of factors that affect Christians in Pakistan. Like Joseph and Mary, the majority of them live close to the border with starvation – especially vulnerable to the blows of society and nature, whether mob riots or devastating floods. Where Mary was the object of gossip that at worst would result in extreme social ostracism, in Pakistan Christians can face accusations of blasphemy that could result in death and living the rest of your life in fear and on the run. If you are ‘lucky’ you might be able to flee the country and become a refugee, where your status may well mean you can’t work or face other grave difficulties. The Holy Family were refugees in Egypt, facing life on the edge, but didn’t face the kind of regulation today’s refugees face – and there would always be work for an artisan like Joseph. They had to flee a genocidal maniac, albeit one who was not loved amongst most of the population. Some Pakistani Christians have to flee a genocidal mentality rooted across much of Pakistani society. Joseph and Mary also faced economic uncertainty. In their society most peasants had been driven out of their rooted existences and lived from day to day, hoping to get work. A large number of Pakistani Christians are similarly locked into vicious and interlocking cycles of poverty, economic vulnerability and illiteracy. They face severe discrimination and prejudice in all areas of society, and often have to live a life of fear. Significant numbers are to all intents slaves – whether they work as indentured brick workers, as low-paid live-in maids or as sex-slaves. In some cases whole communities are enslaved, tied to the land and seen as property to be sold with the land. They are vulnerable to torture, false accusations of theft, sexual assault, kidnap, forced marriage, forced conversion and murder. Their faith is belittled in school textbooks, their churches and Christian activities often monitored and attacked, and the police are often at best indifferent to their rights, and at worst are complicit with the persecutors of Christians or engage in it themselves. The judicial system is not much better – Christians are kept in jail on remand for years, while Muslims charged with the same crime often get out on bail, if they are charged at all – blasphemy cases are one typical example of this double standard. And even if they are acquitted, they risk being shot as they leave court, and almost invariably have to live life on the run or in hiding for their lives from then on. In one extreme example of this, mother of five Asia Bibi,