“Christians will tomorrow affirm their faith that God became flesh at a particular time and place in history. It is a catastrophe and a crime that those who celebrate the birth of Christ are in many parts of the world, most numerously in the region that includes ancient Palestine, suffering ferocious persecution.
“The Prince of Wales remarked last month on the “indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East”. Western governments need to make Christians’ rights and religious liberties integral to diplomatic policy, lest their historic presence be scattered amid scarcely imaginable carnage…
“Those who suffer for their faith, even to the point of martyrdom, should know too that they will not be abandoned or forgotten by the world in that fate. So must their oppressors.”
