Uncalled for Violence

This was in yesterday's New York Times

Zimbabwe’s Rulers Unleash Police on Anglicans
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published in NYT: May 16, 2008

The parishioners were lined up for Holy Communion on Sunday when the riot police stormed the stately St. Francis Anglican Church in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Helmeted, black-booted officers banged on the pews with their batons as terrified members of the congregation stampeded for the doors, witnesses said.

Nothing short of scary. According to the article the ruling party has targeted groups that they have not been able to control. This includes "the Anglican diocese of Harare, as well as charitable and civic organizations, trade unions, teachers, independent election monitors and the political opposition."

It seems that there is a renegade Anglican bishop who is an ally of the President, Robert Mugabe. Somehow or another Mugabe's ruling party says that only followers of that Bishop are allowed to worship. The Times says,

Over the past three Sundays, the police have interrogated Anglican priests and lay leaders, arrested and beaten parishioners and locked thousands of worshipers out of dozens of churches.

Many American Christians (usually of the right-wing persuasion, feel that Christians in the United States are being persecuted. This story is about persecution. I am grateful that here in America we don't face those things. I pray we will never have to.

But that forces me to pray even more fervently for those who are persecuted for their religious beliefs. I don't care what the religion is, freedom of worship should be a basic human right. There is persecution of many different religions in many different places. It is not, I believe, God's will. No, don't quote the Old Testament to justify it or to counter the thought that freedom of religion is essential. It is not for us to say who can and can't worship. If one is forbidden, any can be forbidden.

Pray that such can be stopped and avoided. I can only believe that this would be God's will.