Why is Persecution of Christians On the Rise? Dr. Jeff Mirus

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By Dr. Jeff Mirus, Catholic Culture, Dec 10, 2021

 Jeffrey Mirus holds a Ph.D. in intellectual history from Princeton University. A co-founder of Christendom College, he also pioneered Catholic Internet services. He is the founder of Trinity Communications and CatholicCulture.org.

Just by looking at the news for this past week, you can see the rise of overt hostility toward Christianity. Consider these headlines:

I’m sure you get the picture. You probably were already familiar with it. But what are the underlying causes?

A Counter-Witness

In some cases over the centuries, hostility toward Christians has arisen because of popular loyalty to false gods or—as we know from the riot of the silversmiths in Ephesus recounted in Acts 19—simply because of the financial advantages of promoting pagan worship. More often, of course, the root cause of Christian persecution has been Christian witness to the moral life. This cause is heavily accentuated in secular societies, and there is an important sense in which all pagan societies have been deeply secular because they do not worship a God who deifies through grace and cares about how we behave morally. …

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