The Buddhists of Burma may want to bump off the baptized according to a recent article.

Burma 'orders Christians to be wiped out'

By Peter Pattisson in Kayin State, southern Burma, Sunday Telegraph

The military regime in Burma is intent on wiping out Christianity in the country, according to claims in a secret document believed to have been leaked from a government ministry. Entitled "Programme to destroy the Christian religion in Burma", the incendiary memo contains point by point instructions on how to drive Christians out of the state.

The text, which opens with the line "There shall be no home where the Christian religion is practised", calls for anyone caught evangelising to be imprisoned. It advises: "The Christian religion is very gentle – identify and utilise its weakness."

Its discovery follows widespread reports of religious persecution, with churches burnt to the ground, Christians forced to convert to the state religion, Buddhism, and their children barred from school.

Human rights groups claim that the treatment meted out to Christians, who make up six per cent of the population, is part of a wider campaign by the regime, also targeted at ethnic minority tribes, to create a uniform society in which the race and language is Burmese and the only accepted religion is Buddhism.

In the past year, an estimated 27,000 members of the predominantly Christian Karen tribe were driven from their homes in eastern Burma.

In Koh Kyi village, in Arakan State, a monk backed by the military burnt down the local church. In another state, 300 monks were allegedly sent by the regime to forcibly convert the populace, all of whom belonged to the Chin ethnic group, which is mostly Christian.

...

Eha Hsar Paw, a Karen Christian, who fled her village while heavily pregnant to a refugee camp near the border with Thailand, said: "The journey here was very difficult. It was hard to leave our village, but if we had stayed there we would all be dead."

Christians are persecuted all over the world. Try reading a Bible, or holding a private worship service to God in your lounge room, in North Korea, Saudi Arabia, or China (amongst others) and see what happens.

People complain about religion and politics getting in bed with each other in the West- I'm sorry, but even in Bible belt America it is not as bad for atheists as it is for Christians in the many countries where Christian belief/practice is seen as action against the state, and punishable by death and other severe penalties. Estimates are at 200-400 million Christians under the threat of persecution at the moment, but it doesn't get a lot of air time for many reasons (e.g., fear of offending foreign countries, ignorance, etc.).

For those Christians who are concerned with supporting their persecuted fellow Christians around the world, http://www.opendoors.org.au/index.cfm?page=1 is a good place to start.

I have heard about the illegality of Christianity in Saudi Arabia. That surprised me as I considered Saudi Arabia to be a moderate Islamic country given that they assisted America during the Gulf War.

The article currently under discussion I also found interesting as the media like to hold out Muslims as the ones persecuting Christians yet in a Buddhist country it seems to be at least as bad and actual Monks are involved by burning down Churches. Having said that I guess Buddhist monks are the obvious choice for taking direct action as most Eastern Martial Arts were originally the pastimes of Buddhist Monks.

Actually, there's been some issues with "extremist" Buddhists in Sri Lanka persecuting Christians as well- they're worried about them converting everyone to Christianity.

"Buddhist clerics wanted to prevent the further advancement of Christianity in Sri Lanka, while attention was directed to winning back those who had professed the Christian faith. In addition the powerful Sinhalese Buddhist lobby is demanding privileges for themselves at the expense of the Christian minority. Over the years there has also been a clamor by high-ranking Buddhist clergy that the government introduces legislature to control religious conversion

The small communities of Christian evangelicals working mainly in the rural areas are often the targets of organized religious oppression. Those creating the anti-Christian attitudes use the public platform and the influence of the local monk to rouse the villagers to violence, and this has often resulted in damage or physical injury. While they generally demand that Christians leave what they call "Buddhist villages", they view some areas as Buddhist preserves where no Christian place of worship will be tolerated. The apathy of the law enforcers, who are mostly Buddhist, has resulted in the burning of 24 churches during the past two years.

To date, over 200 pastors/Christian workers have been threatened; over 90 pastors have been assaulted and hospitalized; four pastors killed and no arrests have been made."
http://www.opendoors.org/content/srilanpro.htm

Bhutan is also quite closed to religious freedom.
http://www.portesouvertes.ch/index.php?supp_page=bt&supp_lang=en

YngNLuvnt, is this persecution aimed at people that practise Christianity themselves, or those that are trying to convert? Some missionaries are extraordinarily zealous in their attempts to convert "heathens". I know of one such idiot that is trying to set up an evangelical Christian school in Iran. I guess he'll be called a martyr - I say he'll get whats coming to him.

There is a problem when people who are simply trying to practise their religious beliefs are prevented from doing so. Its a slightly different story when the "victim" has bene actively trying to convert others to their own religion. Who cant do that without expecting to get some negative opinion. I dont condone violence in any aspect, but there is certainly a distinction and I do see one as being worse than the other.

Could we have the rhetoric toned down a notch, please.

mjpb, your post begins with the claim that “The Buddhists of Burma may want to bump off the baptized” while the article you refer to accuses the Burmese military regime, not the “buddhists of Burma,” of planning a campaign against christians. (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/21/wburma21.xml)

This may seem like a picky point, but this is precisely how racial and religious vilification works. In previous posts you have objected to others making claims about christians attacking gays, arguing that because attacking any minority is against christian teaching, it is unfair to talk generally about christian wrongdoings.

The least you can do is apply the same standards to yourself.

Like despotic rulers throughout history, the rulers of Burma have shown themselves very willing to use persecution of minorities, such as the Karen people, as a means of consolidating their power. If they are planning to extend this strategy to the christians of Burma, this needs to be soundly condemned, and the minorities affected (*all* the minorities affected) need to be supported as much as possible.

Blaming buddhists for the sins of a nasty regime is not a way to support those minorities.