Why the hate attacks against Christians?

Open Doors’ watch list tells us nearly 6,000 Christians were murdered for their faith last year. Over 5,000 churches were attacked in the same period, with church buildings being bombed, destroyed, looted, burnt down and forcibly closed. All in order to prevent Christians from worshipping Our Lord together, as we are called to do.

Extremism and violence against Christians continues to rise worldwide. Since Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban, that nation has risen to No. 1 in the list of most dangerous countries in the world to be a Christian.

On the upside, Christianity is growing at a rate of about 1.5 percent globally. There are around 2.5 billion Christians in the world, representing a third of the world’s population. The faith is growing fastest in Africa and Asia, where churches are generally more orthodox than those in the West.

The issue at hand is Christian persecution. Christians are dying around the world, being tortured, and persecuted in horrendous ways, and what are we doing about it?

Many nations in the West are quick to take onboard refugees from Islamic countries with conflicting values, causing disruption in social cohesion, and even unprecedented accounts of child rape. Would it not make sense to prioritize our brethren with shared values and beliefs? Surely, they’d find it easier to integrate.

While persecution is growing around the world; we enjoy many freedoms at home. We have the protection of religious freedom under the law, but that hasn’t stopped intolerance from growing.

In my country, the United Kingdom, a spate of situations show that confessional Christianity is in a perilous state. I can point to a number of situations where medical professionals, parents, and clergy were all harassed in their respective roles for daring to be Christian. It seems it is no longer socially acceptable in this Christian country to hold to traditional Christian views.

Why so much intolerance toward Christians in the U.K. and globally? For one thing, there is an element of self-flagellation we see among the upper classes. As the well-known quote goes, “England is perhaps the only great country whose intellectuals are ashamed of their own nationality,” and the same goes for our national religion. Britain, after all, is still officially committed to Christianity—and we have a state church. There are those who would say it’s punching down. When the results of the recent national census are released, we are expecting to see the non-religious and Muslims outnumber Christians in England and Wales for the first time in our history.

It’s interesting to see that it’s the people who claim to promote tolerance, diversity, equality, and inclusion who are more often than not the ones destroying our Christian heritage, from campaigning to remove historic monuments from our churches to renaming streets and schools.

I experienced a glimpse of this first-hand myself recently. I wear orthodox Anglican garbs on a Sunday because I rush to the TV studio straight from church. I do my Sunday morning service, spend some time with my congregation, then shoot down to the newsroom and jump on air.

What’s known as choir dress has been standard Anglican dress for hundreds of years. It is straightforward English clerical tradition. I wear cassock, Geneva gown, preaching bands, topped up with a surplice and scarf while preaching. I received many messages of support, celebrating such open Christian witness on mainstream television, but the response I received from certain people among the so-called liberal is very telling.

I will name and shame because I keep receipts. English author Emma Kennedy, British author and journalist Otto English, and Nigerian royalty Dr. Shola, all ridiculed my outfit, saying “I will never not be incredulous that Calvin Robinson is treated as a serious commentator” comparing me to Samuel Parris, the puritan minister from the Salem witch trials.

Now, I am a good sport. I can take a joke as well as the next man. But these are ad hominem attacks made in bad faith. This is nastiness meant to berate and humiliate; this is not jovial banter. You’ll notice these people never attempt to challenge a person to a debate, never present evidence to break down an argument. Instead they choose to attack a person’s character. It’s the woke way. They have no need to present a better argument because, in their eyes, they’re naturally superior.

There’s a heavy anti-Christian bias to all of this rhetoric. I highly doubt we’d see them attack an orthodox Jewish rabbi’s robes or an Imam’s tunic.

As a Christian minister, I forgive them. They’re ignorant and know no better (Luke 23:34). But as a conservative commentator, I challenge them. Go ahead—ridicule Christian faith leaders, we live in a free country which celebrates freedom of expression. But be fair and balanced with your satire. You’ve mocked Christianity, now let’s see you present a fair assessment of Islam in the modern world. That’s not going to happen.