As Christmas approaches, Baghdad Christians lament empty pews

[EC]

 BAGHDAD — A choir dressed in crimson robes sang ancient hymns below a Christmas star strung with fairy lights at a recent service in the Iraqi capital, the heavy scent of incense hanging in the air. But the season here has a somber edge, and the priest has a serious message for his congregation: Stay.

Just a year ago an Advent service in St. George’s Chaldean Catholic Church would have drawn 300 to 400 worshipers, says the Rev. Miyassir al-Mokhlasee. But now only around 75 people are scattered across its pews.

Ringed by concrete blast walls and police checkpoints, St. George’s has seen its congregation shrink for the past decade. The instability and violence following the U.S. invasion in 2003 have driven many Christians out of the country. The nation’s Christian population has plummeted from more than a million to what community leaders estimate as less than 400,000 today.

Now the conquests by extremists from the Islamic State, known for their cutthroat brutality and intolerance for other religions, have delivered another blow to Christians in their historic heartland.

For the first time in well more than a millennium the plains of Nineveh and its provincial capital of Mosul have been virtually emptied of Christians. Islamic State fighters, who control the northern region, had ordered Christian residents to either convert, pay a tax for keeping their faith or face execution.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/as-christmas-approaches-baghdad-christians-lament-empty-pews/2014/12/21/64d34b94-5fc2-4ca4-bc44-dffd13046310_story.html

[alicewonders]

I don't even know what to say anymore about this.  Christians everywhere are mocked and persecuted.  Makes me weep.  Christmas is a joyous time, but that joy is being attacked greatly.  I know we will be victorious in the end though.

[EC]

We will.

[Fishrrman]

I wish I shared your optimism (both of you).
But I'm a realist.

The West is doing nothing to save itself, and much to hasten its own downfall.

We -may- someday "wake up" -- but that moment won't come until either just before, or just AFTER, the "point of no return" is reached.

This was posted only yesterday or the day before, but it's worth repeating:
Winston Churchill:
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd bet against The West on this one.
We are going to end up not far from his last line above...

[alicewonders]

I wish I shared your optimism (both of you).
But I'm a realist.

The West is doing nothing to save itself, and much to hasten its own downfall.

We -may- someday "wake up" -- but that moment won't come until either just before, or just AFTER, the "point of no return" is reached.

This was posted only yesterday or the day before, but it's worth repeating:
Winston Churchill:
"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves."

I'm not a betting man, but if I was, I'd bet against The West on this one.
We are going to end up not far from his last line above...

Well, I was kind of thinking about the END end!  The one where we definitely win!