Will there be enough evidence to convict me?

What if we lived in a country that was not Christian friendly?  What if any evidence found against me could get me thrown into prison, my livelihood taken away, my meeting place burned down, and my family separated, or murdered?

Would there be enough evidence in my life to convict me? 

I think we live in a time and place in America where being Christian is an easy thing.  I can wear a bracelet with WWJD?  on it.  How about an "In God We Trust" license plate, provided by the state?  THAT would make me easy to track as I cut off the guy in the next lane, and shake my fist at him.  I can slap a "fish" sticker right there on my bumper, just in case anyone is confused by my actual behavior.  Yea, boy, they'd know I'm a Christian, because when I get out of my car at the movie theater to watch a less than stellar movie, I'd have on my "__________________"*  t-shirt.

*insert any catchy "I'm cool 'cause I'm a Christian, and you're not"  phrase

If the thought police listened to my music collection, would I have anything there to convict me?  I'm not a great lover of "Christian radio music,"  so that wouldn't be there to confuse them.  You know the stuff,  the singers dress, act, and sing like secular artists, but insert God occasionally, and try to sound sincere as their sales soar, and THEIR name is on everyone's lips at the awards shows.   What about the movies I rent?  The books I read?  The groups I belong to? What do I allow my children access to?  Would that convict me of being Christian? 

Lately, my priest, Father Joel, has been calling our attention during prayers  to Christians around the world who are in peril because of the governments that rule them.  Egypt, Iraq, Indonesia, China...... the list goes on.  In some of these places, just having a Bible, or not attending Mosque could get your house ransacked, burned, or your family assaulted.  Would I still get up on Sunday mornings for liturgy (the work of the church, the communion service)and leave my house if I knew there would be a spy at the end of the street writing down my name?

Several faith traditions within Christianity revere saints.  We name them at services, we have their pictures or icons on our walls, we name our churches and schools for them.  We hold up them up as testimony to lives given in worship of the Trinity.  I don't necessarily want to die the bloody death of a martyr,  as those mentioned in Hebrews 11.  I just wonder where I would be if  anti-Christian troops marched down my street.

One 20th century martyr, St. John of Chicago, lived close enough in time for me to relate to his sainthood, and to his stand against anti-Christian forces.   He was a Russian priest who came to America in the late 1800's  to start churches and schools in the Chicago area.  He returned to Russia and on Oct. 31, 1917, during a revolutionary battle in his town, he and other priests started prayer services "for the victory of the Cossacks"..

 "The priests were captured and sent to the headquarters of the Council of the Workers and Soldier Deputies. A priest, Fr John Kochurov, was trying to protest and to clarify the situation. He was hit several times on his face. With cheers and yelling the enraged mob conveyed him to the Tsarskoye Selo aerodrome. Several rifles were raised against the defenseless pastor. A shot thundered out, then another, after which the priest fell down on the ground, and blood spilled upon his cassock. Death did not come to him immediately... He was pulled by his hair, and somebody suggested, Finish him off like a dog. The next morning the body was brought into the former palace hospital."
http://sainttikhons.org/St._John_Kochurov.html

I wouldn't fault any Russian  Christians who ran and hid that day.  Many who gathered to pray and worship during this battle knew that they wouldn't  make it home.  Their lives were testimony to the presence that God had in their lives.

My shirt for the today should say  "WWIBWTCFTC?*

*Where Will I Be When They Come For The Christians?

I hope there is enough evidence to convict me.



Hebrews 11:35-37...Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.  Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment..  They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword.

Dianne, not worthy