On Tuesday 30th May, Jawad Iqbal wrote in the ‘Thunderer’ column in the Times newspaper under the headline West must wake up to North Korea’s war on Christianity: ‘ … The latest International Religious Freedom Report from the US State Department details the plight of Christians. It includes the case of a two-year old boy sentenced to life in a prison camp after his parents were discovered with a Bible (classified as a serious crime) in their home. The entire family were jailed under the regime’s policy of collective punishment. …’
Such events make me have three reactions: i. I am incensed by the injustice of such issues and in admiration of the heroic Christians who are prepared to pay such a high cost of discipleship of Jesus; ii. a reminder of the power of the Word of God that there are regimes that will stop at nothing to prevent it being heard or read and; iii. so often our own weakness to find or make the time to read part of the Gospels each day despite the total liberty and freedom we have to do so and are only prevented by pride or fear of what others may think of us.
