Enemies of the State

Enemies of the State: these four words jumped out of a human rights movement newsletter we received some years ago. Open Doors serves persecuted Christians worldwide. Further down the page was a transcript of a letter, originally in a South East Asian language, which was given by the authorities to Christians to sign. It is a Denial of their Faith declaration. Refusing to sign it meant prison.

This article struck us for two reasons. Firstly, it made us ask 'What would I do in that situation?!? Secondly the phrases ‘revolution’, ‘enemies of the state’, ‘dissident’ and ‘rebellion’ have become advertising slogans, pop
music catch phrases, abused terms that have lost their meaning. Yet this article reinjected the severity and courage back into these words. These peaceful, unarmed Christians share their faith, meet, worship and pray, yet they are seen as a major threat to the secular state.

In May 2002, we arranged a Open Doors benefit gig, featuring young local rappers and singer/songwriter Ross Spencer. The night was educational and sparkled musically, but because of the cost of venue and poor turn-out, we were only able to raise a meagre sum for this cause.

Open Doors - www.od.org