24^th October 2016

“Why doesn’t our media report the persecution of Christians?”, asks Greg Sheridan (The Australian). He struggles for an answer concluding “In many other parts of the world persecution of Christians is a daily part of life. But you won’t hear much about it at all among the hordes of conformist zeitgeist prattlers in the Western media. That’s one bit of reality that just doesn’t fit.”

That last sentence is heading in the right direction. While a senior Islamic figure advocates the death penalty for homosexuals with not a mention in the media, Archbishop Porteus provides a reasoned document supporting Christian marriage, (which is currently Australian law) and was threatened by the anti-discrimination tribunal. What? So, why is this? Sheridan: “The Western media cannot bring itself to describe, much less make moral judgments about, the savage persecution of Christians.” Fear of Islam? A perverse notion that Christianity is still the oppressor? Inter-faith dialogue? Getting warmer. The clue is in the starkly obvious. Unprecedented silence in the post-Christian world. And there it is!

How can a pluralist-dominated media report Christian’s choosing death rather than converting to Islam? Christian women submitting to decapitation rather than staining themselves sexually with Muslim jihadists? That is untouchable to a media hell-bent on promoting and nourishing sexual licence and hedonistic lawlessness. The SBS coverage with Tom Bollard’s commentary on the 2014 Sydney Mardi Gras was vile, labelling all who opposed homosexual marriage as zombies whose death symbolised good overcoming evil. How can the media report this global persecution which is simultaneously a declaration of real Christianity and an expose of the fake pluralist liberalism? They can’t. 

Ironically the media is more afraid of the Bible than the Koran! The media actually fears the Bible and Christianity. It must ridicule, expose and linger over its failures and heap slander on the Body of Christ. Reporting courageous martyrdoms overflowing in the Middle-East and Africa disturbingly confronts their idea that all religions are equal. Our media cringes before the truth claims of the Bible. Perhaps some of its leaders were once Christians, but for too long wilfully pursuing lawlessness cannot find liberating repentance, so it must blot out and seek the destruction of the judgment which rises within the conscience, perhaps never embracing the Gospel of cleansing grace. But, we should take this to ourselves. Beware lest we compromise the law of God which brings just and deserved judgment upon our sins! Come afresh to Christ; to his table of communion in repentance and joy. Resist the redefining of holy law by the new Pharisees of legalistic political correctness. When he graciously whispers, let the Holy Spirit do His examination and lead us more deeply into the Saviour. The place the media hates, but in which the believer delights. Repugnance to one but rest to the other.

Ian Clarkson is a UCA Minister in South Australia.

Ian's column is published in ACCatalyst (September 2016)