A United Airlines passenger is violently hauled off a plane, and there is national outrage, rightly so. Press Secretary Sean Spicer says that Assad is worse than Hitler, and again, there is national outrage, rightly so. Forty-five Egyptian Christians are slaughtered by ISIS while attending church services on Palm Sunday and scores of others are wounded, and there is barely a national yawn. How can this be?
You might say, “That’s easy. The first two events took place right in front of our eyes, here in America. The third event took place in Egypt, and as tragic as it was, it’s a matter of out of sight, out of mind.”
I understand that. But what about the Islamic terror attack on the Brussels airport last year, killing more than 30 people? That was covered by our media day and night, with footage from the blast shown over and over by the hour.
And what about the Islamic terror attack in France, when a driver plowed his truck into hundreds of people in Nice, killing more than 80? That too received day and night coverage, with the bloody footage, including dead children lying in the streets, put before us by the hour.
But when it’s Christians being slaughtered by Islamic terrorists while worshiping the Lord in the safety of their church buildings, it only receives passing mention on our networks. Why?
We have the video footage of the attacks, which took place in two different locations in Egypt. We see the bomber being directed to walk through the metal detector, and then we see the massive explosion. And we see the carnage within one of the church buildings – blood all over the floor; corpses scattered in the debris; wooden pews torn apart; the sound of people moaning and crying.
The video footage is compelling and agonizing, just as much as any of the footage from Brussels or Nice. Yet most of us have not seen this footage on major TV networks, or if it has been aired on these networks, it has received a fraction of the coverage that the other attacks have received. Why?
But I’m not the only one asking this question. Nor is this a new question. For the last decade, a Christian genocide has been taking place in the Middle East representing one of the ugliest chapters in recent human history, yet most Americans remain sadly uninformed. The secular media is complicit.
As expressed by none other than Piers Morgan, “Unfortunately, if it happens in the Middle East, this kind of atrocity, it just does not seem to attract the kind of media attention in America that it would if it happened, as we’ve seen in attacks in Sweden the last few days, in London two weeks ago. I was there for that. Huge attention in the American media. In Paris and Nice. These get huge attention. Yet what happened in Egypt was unbelievably significant.
“If you look at what ISIS really stands for, what they are carrying out now in the Middle East and the East in particular, is that it kind of genocidal attack on Christians and Christianity. They want Christianity eradicated and they want to convert all Muslims to their crusade, they want it to be a holy war. They want Christians gone. And I don’t think that narrative is getting the attention it should get in the American media and I have to say, I think in other media around the world.”
These are strong words: What happened in Egypt is a “genocidal attack on Christians and Christianity.” These Islamic terrorists “want Christianity eradicated . . . . They want Christians gone.”
Morgan added, “I think this is a huge story. This is the kind of story that ought to be dominating cable news in America. It should be dominating headlines around the world. ISIS have declared war on Christianity. I'm not seeing that being covered enough.”
He is absolutely right, and somehow, the secular media is barely covering one of the most important humanitarian stories of the age. Again I ask: Why?
We’re talking about multiplied hundreds of thousands of Christians being displaced, exiled, attacked, maimed, tortured, starved, and killed. We’re talking about a crisis of epic proportions, yet the news coverage of this ongoing tragedy receives is negligible. Why?
Whatever the reason, there is a solution to the media’s relative silence.
All of us can raise our voices and draw attention to the suffering of our brothers and sisters in the Middle East (and elsewhere). And all of us can pray for their protection, their courage, and their comfort. In the words of Letter to the Hebrews, “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies” (Heb. 13:3 NLT).
