Church Bombings Again in Pakistan
Another Bloody Sunday.
It was another bloody Sunday in Pakistan this weekend. Suicide bombers focused on a Catholic house of worship on Sunday morning in the city of Lahore. 18 killed. Dozens injured.
Christians are easy targets. Sunday morning. Same time. Same place. Ready, aim, detonate.
The bombings aren’t about religion. They are about politics and power.
Politics and power go hand in hand. Both are often about having your way with other people’s lives.
The desperate—those who feel influence slipping away, guarantee support by fostering fear.
Boom.
Christians in Pakistan dare to be brave. They take risk enough when they gather even in secret. Brave indeed when they hang a sign on the door. The Christians of Pakistan deserve the support of Christians in the West.
It has been about 18 months since the bombings of Christian gatherings in September 2013. Other Christians around the world barely noticed. A few seconds on the nightly news. A mention in the press. No public outcry. No waves of support. Assisting Pakistani Christians doesn’t fit into our organized view of the world.
In 2×2’s Ambassador visits following last year’s bombings we heard no mention of Pakistani Christians in the prayers of the church. In many churches these prayers had been written and published months before. Straying from the text is hard!
Perhaps we should remember the church bombings in our own history and how they changed our world.
Our Own Bloody Sunday
It has been some 50 years since four black children were killed in a church bombing in Birmingham. Their lives were remembered recently as we revisited the protest march that resulted in Selma’s Bloody Sunday.
Hate has a similar look.
2×2, small as we are, did what we could and will continue to do so.
We can spread the word.
For two years in a row, 2×2 readers have sent clothing and toys to Christian orphans. Church bombings have a way of making orphans.
We write to Christians leaders and share fellowship and encouragement as best we can from thousands of miles away. We’ve been doing this for two years now. We know some of the Christians of Pakistan by name. We’ve prayed together. We are praying for them now.