ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Use ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½.com or the new ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ App to listen to ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Episode details

Radio 4,2 mins

Rev Dr Giles Fraser - 06/11/2018

Thought for the Day

Available for over a year

In the last Presidential election, 81% of white evangelical Christians voted for Donald Trump and only 16% voted for Hilary Clinton. And there’s little reason to expect anything other than a similar level of support in today’s mid-terms. Christians vote for President Trump – and one consequence of this is that Christianity is rarely seen as something neutral in America’s acrimonious culture wars. And a strong association has been established between Christianity and – to put it crudely – rich white American men. Or - if that’s not precisely right - between Christianity and historic privilege and power. And the problem with the closeness of this association – often reinforced by the media going over the reasons for Trump’s success - is not that it isn’t partially correct – because it clearly is - but rather, that it doesn’t speak anything like the whole truth about global Christianity. For whilst in some places Christianity may indeed be the religion of privilege and power, it is also the world’s most persecuted faith. Take the case of Asia Bibi – not a rich white American man, but a former farm worker from the Punjab. In 2009, this Roman Catholic woman was arrested after an argument with co-workers who said she was too dirty to drink from the same cup as them. The accusation against Bibi - which she denies - was that she insulted the prophet Mohammed. Bibi was charged with blasphemy and sentenced to death by hanging. Since 2010 she has been locked up, attacked by fellow prisoners, and the object of an almost obsessive communal anger that demands her death. Last week, the Supreme Court of Pakistan overturned her conviction, declaring her innocent and free to go. Except she still isn’t free to go because she has been banned from leaving the country. And her life remains in constant danger. Asia Bibi is just one example amongst many. From North Korea to China, from Iraq to Somalia, Christians the world over continue to be bombed and imprisoned - but it feels to me like this is not a cause that some people feel instinctively comfortable getting behind partly because of the historic association between Christianity and privilege. Moreover, when Christianity is positioned on one side of an acrimonious political struggle, it’s too easy for those on the other side to think that the persecution of Christians just isn’t one of their issues. For the story of a woman like Asia Bibi doesn’t fit with the dominant narrative that Christianity is the religion of rich white men. And this could be why Bibi, and so many others like her, have been so shamefully ignored for far too long.

Programme Website
More episodes