There are ten of them, Iranians, converts from Islam, believing that a man elected as President would not deport them, but welcome them as he claims to be a Christian. Artemis Ghasemzadeh visited a church in Turkey, bought a small Bible, converted and was baptized. Under Iranian law, she is an apostate, a crime punishable by death.
So where are all the so-called good Christians elected to Congress? Not defending her or the other women and children destined to be sent to their deaths. Iranian judges hand down death sentences for men based on their interpretation of the Qur’an. Women are imprisoned to be beaten five times a day during prayer, but we saw what has happened to women imprisoned in Iran, as they are beaten to death.
So where are they? Members of Congress like Tom Kean and Chris Smith, not to mention Christian-in-chief Mike Johnson? Are they advocating for these converts? We don’t see it. What hypocrites they are! And we know what Jesus said about hypocrites.
Prayer for the Day
Sheltering in dark unseen places, they come to you, O God,
And fearfully they seek to follow your Word;
Facing not lions as did our ancestors in faith in ancient Rome,
They still face persecution, imprisonment, or death.
Help us to rescue them O Holy One, so they will not suffer,
But be welcomed in this land founded on religious freedom.
In the name of the One who is our rescue,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
The [Iranian] penal code provides for hudud punishments (those mandated by sharia), including amputation, flogging, and stoning. It specifies the death penalty
for moharebeh (“enmity against God”) and sabb al-nabi (“insulting the Prophet”). Prevailing fatwas prescribe the death penalty for apostasy.
U.S. State Department Report on Religious Freedom 2023
It is not an accident that freedom of religion is one of the central freedoms in our Bill of Rights. It is the first freedom of the human soul, the right to speak the words that God places in our mouths.
George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States
Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbor ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye
Jesus as reported in Matthew 7: 3-5