By Eric Leijenaar, BosNewsLife Senior Special Correspondent
WETZLAR, GERMANY (BosNewsLife)– Over a million Children are victims of Christian persecution around the world, according to new figures obtained by BosNewsLife Monday, May 16.
The leader of Christian aid and advocacy group Open Doors in Germany, Makus Rode, revealed the data over the weekend at the annual gathering of his internationally known group.
He said Open Doors Germany has launched a campaign ‘Zukunft geben’ or ‘Giving a Future’ to support children of persecuted Christians.
“Children often pay a high price for their own faith or for the fact that their parents are faithfully following Jesus,” Rode explained at the meeting in the German city of Wetzlar.
SUFFERING POVERTY
“Many children suffer of poverty because they are of a Christian family” he noted. Additionally, he said, children “are being a taken away from their parents or kidnapped.” Also, in some cases, “They see how their parents are shot and killed in front of their eyes.”
BosNewsLife has over the years also reported on such cases including in Burma, also known as Myanmar, where the predominantly Christian Karen minority has faced a crackdown by government forces.
However, Rode told his audience that the “persecuted children of today are the leaders of the persecuted Church of tomorrow.” He said children of persecuted Christians need the support of especially “Christians in the free Western world.”
At least 100 million Christians are persecuted globally, according to conservative Open Doors figures. Other sources say as many as 200 million people are persecuted because of their faith in Christ.
Makus Rode doesn’t know anything about Burma and it’s people. What he knows is very superficial. Not only Christians but also Muslims, Buddhists and believers of other faiths are also facing repression. Some people are using (if not abusing) the suffering of people of Burma for their ends, in religion or in politics. Those people disgusted me.