Dear Friends,                                                                                                Christ is King

“In a statement marking Easter, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Friday for ‘all nations to respect the right of Christians to declare Christ is King.’”

Um, Marco, what are you talking about? Do you mean that all nations must acknowledge that Christians have a right to their beliefs? Well, if so, why aren’t you saying that believers of all religions, and all non-believers have a right to their beliefs or non-beliefs? Yeah, yeah, yeah it’s Easter so Christians are particularly conscious of their Christianity right now. It’s also Passover. Anything to say about that? Or (and this seems more likely to me) are you saying that non-Christians had better watch out, Christians are on the march,

Onward Christian Soldiers!

and all that? To treat Christians as global victims is ridiculous. Yes, there are places in the world where Christian minorities are in danger, they should be defended as all other religious minorities throughout the world should be defended.

One group that is particularly in danger are Afghan Christians. Your administration has just ordered thousands of Afghan refugees to “self-deport” withing seven days, or else. These are people who worked with the US invasion forces believing, wrongly, first, that the US would assist in creating a secular and democratic Afghan state; second, that they would be given some kind of protection after the resurgence of the Taliban. Many of these are Christians, so doubly in danger if they return to Afghanistan. Afghan Christians declare that Christ is King. Why are you sending them back to a country that is their homeland but where the current rulers regard that declaration as anathema?

How can you turn your back on people who risked their lives by allying with the US forces, and whose lives are now again at risk? I opposed the US invasion of Afghanistan, I am not a Christian (I’m one of the non-believers), I stand with all the Afghan refugees that you are threatening with deportation – a deportation maybe to death – including the Afghan Christians. I think that I am in a position to ask: What kind of a Christian are you? 

Love and solidarity,

            Bobby