A Christian Pastor On Death-Row In Iran
A Christian Pastor On Death-Row In Iran
For the past week or so in New York, I have witnessed young people protesting down in the Wall Street area… bemoaning the supposed greed of the Wall Street bankers; and, as I write this blog, I know that were I to tune in to the NBC show, Saturday Night Live, a couple of hours from now… that President Obama might be subjected to some comedic jabs, all in the name of satire. This is the beauty about America where our First Amendment’s Rights give us the latitude to engage in such behavior and to worship whatever Deity we fancy; now, juxtapose those rights we enjoy here and take for granted to that of the Iranian Christian pastor, Youcef Nadarkhani, who was given a death sentence because he refused to disavowed his beliefs in Christ Jesus and convert to Islam.
It has been a week since the Iranian leader came to the United Nations and engaged in his usual vitriol against the ‘Great Satan,’ while many Iranian Christians, among other political prisoners, are in shackles in his country. Iran is a place that still hangs homosexuals and stone adulterers because the free speech and personal behaviors we so lavishly take for granted here are nonexistent in a place like Iran. It must be noted that the Iranian Christian pastor’s death sentence was predicated on Sharia Law… which, the largest Muslim advocacy group in America, C.A.R.E., is currently suing the State of Oklahoma because the latter amended its Constitution to preclude it citizens from the usage of Sharia Law within its borders.
I am certain that our State Department and Christian organizations like the Papacy are pressuring the Iranian regime to free my Christian brother… and in addition to give him permission to leave Iran with his family. But those of us who are Christians must remember to pray for him too… knowing that we are told in our Bible that the fervent prayers of righteous men and women availeth much. I can only hope that I have the courage of my Christian convictions in the relative peaceful confines of the U.S.A. to face death like that of my Iranian Christian brother. No doubt Youcef must have taken to heart the lessons from Stephen, the first Christian martyr, who was killed on the orders of Saul before the latter was convicted and converted to Christianity and became the Apostle Paul.
There are those who ask why I ‘big up’ America… knowing her history; but that is precisely why I ‘big her’ up because America’s warts are exposed for all of us to see… and yet with said warts, nothing compares to her because we can virtually say what we want and worship anything as god and not suffer the dire consequence my Iranian Christian brother is facing.
As a boy, years ago in St. Kitts, I was watching a Cricket match and the ball was hit to one of the players who happened to be one of the police officers stationed in my village. The ball was not fielded correctly; instead, it went through the officer’s legs, which caused me to shout an expletive at the officer. Upon the officer hearing the expletive, I was told by him to walk to the police station and wait for him - and I did; and if my grandma did not beg for mercy, I could have been flogged, literally. I conveyed this true story to underscore the freedom we enjoy here… as opposed to Iran and elsewhere... I ask again that my Christian brothers and sisters to remember our Iranian Christian brother, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani and his family in our prayers.
