The Hard-Won Lessons of Terror and Persecution
Overseas Christians reflect on painful experiences
Art Moore | posted 9/01/2001 12:00AM
For Nus Reimas, general secretary of the Indonesia Evangelical Fellowship, the September 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon brought back horrific and painful memories. More than a year ago, hundreds of well-armed radical Muslim warriors descended on the Maluku island chain in eastern Indonesia to purge the region of its Christians. Among the thousands of Christians they massacred were 38 members of his extended family.
In interviews with Christianity Today, Reimas and evangelical leaders from Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, and Malaysia discussed their experiences of terrorism, violent religious extremism, and wartime atrocities.
Unity Matters
In the Malukus, an estimated 8,000 people have been killed and 500,000 displaced in a prolonged series of shootings and arson since January 1999. About half of the Malukus are Christian. Radicals from Afghanistan with alleged ties to Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect in the U.S. attack, have joined with the extremist Indonesian group Laskar Jihad to purge Christians from the islands and establish an Islamic society.
Facing his family's tragic losses and trusting in God's sovereignty, Reimas said he struggled to apply the command of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to "give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." This determination to practice what he preaches, rather than minimize his pain, allowed him to confront his tragic losses directly.
"Only [then] could I stand up and face the situation," Reimas says. "No one expects things like this, but they happen."
Reimas's response to suffering is more than internal. He now hosts regular meetings of Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox leaders in Indonesia and says the participants have become closer. "The general chairman of the Indonesian National Council of Churches and others come to my office and meet together," he says. "It's never happened before."
Prepare to be Tested
In Sri Lanka, more than 60,000 people have died and 1 million have been displaced as Tamil rebels engage in a bloody campaign for a separate homeland. The conflict pits Tamil Hindus against Singhalese Buddhists, who represent a majority on the island nation of 19 million people. There are about 1 million Christians in Sri Lanka.
"We have been through [terrorism] many times over the past 18 years," says Godfrey Yogarajah, general secretary of the Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka. Evangelical Protestants, who compose less than 1 percent of the population, have suffered attacks. Extremist Buddhists accuse them of forcing individuals to convert to Christianity. Since the 1980s, many Christians have been killed or beaten, and about 40 churches have been destroyed.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Hindu extremist group, launched a suicide attack in July on the international airport that devastated the national airline and shocked the nation. But daily life in Sri Lanka had changed long before. "Here in our part of the world, we live constantly with security," Yogarajah says.
Yogarajah, an ethnic Tamil, endorses a strategy of preparing Christians for hard times. Sri Lankan churches, Bible schools, and seminaries have long been training Christians "to face even more difficult times," Yogarajah says. "We've been teaching, in the light of all that is happening, how we need to [spread] the gospel, to be sensitive to our community and culture, and then go forward. We need to prepare our people; otherwise we will be caught unaware when [trouble] comes."
September (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45
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