Threatened by Children!

Have you considered how strange it is that governments feel so threatened by our faith that they expend significant law-enforcement resources to oppose Bible stories taught to children? Of course, these governments should see any ideology of violence and political revolution as a threat — especially when used to indoctrinate children. That is exactly what the Central Asian nations suffered during the era of Soviet dominance. Beginning in the 1920s and continuing through 1991, the USSR annexed their lands and advanced its atheistic Communist ideology through forced indoctrination and propaganda. But we Christians are teaching children humility, love, and forgiveness. What are persecuting governments seeing as a threat?

Following a pattern used powerfully by the Nazis’ “Hitler Youth” program (which began in 1922), Communists at all times have made indoctrinating children the centerpiece of advancing their ideology. And in the last 35 years, since the fall of the Soviet Union, Muslim governments have continued to follow this pattern in Central Asia, forcing their ideology on the populace with special attention to restricting what children are taught. In my 19 years of serving persecuted Christians with VOM, I have seen this focus on children manifested as one of two main objectives of every persecuting government; the other is their work to restrict access to Bibles.

Clearly, children are the top priority of the ultimate persecutor, our spiritual enemy. This is apparent even in nations not led by Communist and Muslim governments. The education of children is a significant area of rising Christian persecution in Western European democracies, and it has also become important throughout North America, Central America, and South America. Having raised two children to adulthood with one more still school-aged, my wife and I have enough personal experience to know that this is easier said than done. Yet, it must be said: We will need to live boldly and intentionally to raise up the next generation of disciples for Christ. We must commit to do so sacrificially, at any cost. I pray that our Lord will show each of us how to do that, both near and far — in our hometowns and churches, and as we serve our severely persecuted Christian brothers and sisters abroad.

Cole Richards, President
The Voice of the Martyrs