Christian persecution: Author sounds the alarm

Johnnie Moore's appearance at Penn's Peak last week was a wake-up call.

In fact, everywhere the author speaks is a wake-up call to a new audience.

Moore, 32, is the former vice president and pastor at Liberty University who tells a story of pain and agony of besieged Christians overseas.

He has worked with victims in the Middle East, Bosnia and Rwanda and visited the largest refugee camps. He says the world is seeing the start of a Christian genocide at the hands of Islamic extremists, and Americans need to wake up and take action.

"Entire communities have been displaced or eliminated; men, women and children have been murdered in the most heinous ways for their faith alone. Others have been forcibly converted or subjected to taxes, Christian homes have been targeted, women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery, and the list goes on and on," Moore says.

Moore, who works as chief of staff to Hollywood producer Mark Burnett, published a book about the crisis, "Defying Isis: Preserving Christianity in the Place of Its Birth and in Your Own Backyard."

Moore believes the horror is just the tip of the iceberg.

He's convinced that the goal of ISIS is to eradicate Christianity in the world.

Of course, some will say Muslims and Christians have been in conflict since the days of the Crusades. And while that may be true, ISIS, in particular, has reared its head in an ugly way, Moore says.

"They feel they're finishing the deal."

Moore says the threat is real.

"Their faith is not an Islamic one, but a satanic one. The threat of ISIS is a threat to the livelihood of every person on the planet, and in its crosshairs is the faith of the world's 2 billion Christians and nearly all of its Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Buddhists."

It's evident, he says, in the way the world is becoming increasingly numb to a drastic escalation in the persecution of Christians and other religious minorities all over North Africa and the Middle East.

Moore believes the official U.S. response to the genocide has been insufficient largely because incumbent politicians see the issue as a matter of religion, thus prompting a hands-off attitude.

For that reason, he implores rank-and-file Americans to take up the cause through prayer and perhaps support of Moore's Cradle of Christianity Fund and the World Help.

In some ways, we're insulated as we sit in our little corner of the world; we might not be fully aware of the extent of harshness and violence taking place elsewhere in the name of religion.

The Lehighton 9/12 Project deserves credit for bringing Moore to Penn's Peak, even if the news was unsettling.

It's a sobering message, but one we need to hear.

By Donald R. Serfass | dserfass@tnonline.com