ISIS beheads Coptic Christians: see no evil or suffer with the saints?
Victoria Pujdak, Staff Writer
Graphic by Victoria McNorrill.
With the eyes of the world fixed upon the recent reign of terror by ISIS, Christians are faced with the decision to cover or open their eyes to the recent persecution of the Church.
The worldwide web has given people the power to communicate with the entire world. ISIS has taken advantage of this commodity by releasing online videos of executions as promotion for their Islamic extremism views. On February 15, 2014, ISIS released an online video depicting the ruthless execution of 21 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach.
A simple web search can transport a North Greenville University student to a deserted beach a thousand miles away to personally witness the martyrdom of their brothers and sisters in Christ. However, some students feel that viewing the video is not necessary in order to comprehend the situation.
“I was affected even without watching it. It made me rethink my faith, how far I would sacrifice.” said Abbi Willis.
Some students also believe that watching the video only supports ISIS further.
“All it does is create anger. Which is what ISIS wants to happen.” said Ethan McConnell.
“Because they want you to watch it. You don’t need to indulge in the violence in order to know and pray about It.” said Daniel Grubbs.
However, some students take an opposite view, believing that Christians should know the reality of persecution that shrouds the Church.
“I think as Christians we need to be aware of what’s going on. As an American culture we tend to shelter ourselves, we are not aware of the suffering.” said Eli Carnahan.
“We should watch it out of respect for the martyrdom.” said Miles Coster.
Can this message of extreme darkness also be a message of hopeful light? The Bible Society of Egypt has transformed the martyrdom of their Christian brothers and fellow countrymen into a ministry opportunity by distributing gospel tracts to Egyptian Muslims.
Liliane Toss, a professor of modern languages and linguistics at NGU said, who is from Egypt, “Everyone who watched them was touched. Even Muslims felt the presence of God because they saw the peace in those who were martyred.”
