Unashamed Of The Faith

Today’s post is concerns a story from The Daily Blaze about two young girls, named “Precious” and “Hope”, who escaped from Boku Haram in Africa:

At first, the fighters pretended to be part of the local army, driving in similar vehicles and wearing clothing resembling military garb. Precious and the other girls believed they were there to protect them from the militants that were hiding in the tall brush.

But then, the men started pulling some of the girls out of bed, giving them no time to get dressed. Others grabbed what they could, mainly Bibles and clothing.

The men rounded up the hundreds of girls outside.

…

When the men had gathered the girls at the front of the school compound, one of them said, “We will release you but you have to get married. No more schooling,” Hope said.

Some of the men fought and shouted amongst themselves. One said, ”We have to call our master before we let them go. Keep them.”

The Boko Haram militants had parked three large trucks and several smaller cars at the compound gate. Before loading the girls in, the men confiscated all of the Bibles and any clothing the girls had managed to grab.

“The moon was so high and the fire was so bright there was no place we could hide or run,” Hope said.

The girls were told to get into the trucks, but it was too high for some and they couldn’t reach. Some of the men pulled the small cars alongside and then brought the rice bags they had stolen from the school to be used as a step to climb up.

When there was no room left in the trucks. Precious was standing alongside a small vehicle.

There were three girls, however, the militants didn’t have room for. One of the men shouted, “Are you Christian or Muslim?”

One of the girls was a Muslim, so she was allowed to run home, Precious said.

One of the Christian girls was pushed to the ground and a militant placed the muzzle of his weapon against her head.

“Renounce your faith or we kill you,” he said.

“It’s better to die than to renounce Christ,” the girl replied, Precious said.

He yelled it again, Precious said, pushing the girl farther into the hard earth. Then he let her up.

“He said, ‘Run home or we will kill you.’ They let the three girls go and they went running home,” Precious told Greve.

Precious didn’t know why they let those girls go. It didn’t matter why.

She was then shoved into the trunk of the vehicle.

I said earlier that this post concerned the girls who escaped from Boku Haram, but that exactly isn’t true. The post is really about that young girl who would rather die than renounce Christ. That young girl showed more courage, more conviction, than all of the mainstream Churchian pastors out there (you know who they are) combined. She was pushed hard into the earth and had a gun up against her head. She had every reason to believe that death awaited her if she refused to renounce her faith. But she didn’t.

Compare that to Protestant and Catholic leaders who will bite their tongues and not speak up about core Christian doctrine. Do they face death when they speak the Word? Hardly. They risk not death, but making women (and plenty of men) uncomfortable. And what will come about as a result of that discomfort? The worst that can happen is they lose their job, not their life. Yet, despite the far lesser penalty they would experience for defending their faith, these “Shepherds” will hem and haw and twist Scripture like a pretzel so as to not offend members of their congregations. Of course, that assumes that said “Shepherds” actually believe the Word in the first place.

As I think on it, this account reminds me of the tale of the Seven Brothers, from Second Maccabees. We in the West have become weak and soft. We’ve forgotten the true depth of sacrifice sometimes required of us for our faith. This is a difficult road to walk, even in the best of times. Yet so many of us aren’t even willing to take minor steps to stand up for the truth of God’s Word. I am no exception, I too have failed to walk the road when it was asked of me.  Looking back on my life, I am now ashamed of the times when I was silent, when instead I should have spoken up. To the best of my abilities I won’t make that same error again. I think all of us need to keep in mind that young girl, and be unashamed of our faith.