This is What the Media Won't Tell You (Episode 31)

 In this episode, I discuss the critical issue of Christian persecution, particularly focusing on the severe situations in Nigeria and China. I emphasize the lack of media coverage on these issues and contrast the experiences of Christians in America with those facing real persecution abroad. This conversation highlights the importance of awareness, support, and prayer for persecuted Christians, as I urge listeners to take action and spread the word of God.

'52,000 Christians Have Been Murdered in Nigeria — Why Is Nobody Talking About It?': https://relevantmagazine.com/justice/social-justice/report-more-than-7000-christians-killed-in-nigeria-this-year/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction and Purpose of the Podcast
• 2:02 Understanding Christian Persecution
• 5:58 The Reality of Persecution in America
• 12:24 Media Silence on Global Persecution
• 16:22 Statistics on Persecution in Nigeria
• 22:20 Awareness and Support for Persecuted Christians

Transcript

Pedro Espinoza (00:00)
What's going on guys? Welcome back to episode 31. This is carry your cross with yours truly Pedro Espinosa. And thank you all for the, should say thank you to all the long-term listeners of this podcast. ⁓

As a reminder, I'm also on YouTube and I post all of my other video content on other social media handles such as Instagram and TikTok. So if you haven't already, go and check out those other sources as I'm trying to expand this podcast and reach a broader audience, right? Because we are tasked to spread the word of God and make disciples of all nations, right? And technology has made it

easier to do that. So that is my ultimate goal with this podcast and really to bring out the truth and shed light on darkness because most people aren't nowadays. Most people are afraid to express the truth and most people are afraid to hear the truth. So it's really a double-edged sword, right? But I believe that through, through, through honesty and boldness, we can accomplish

that and even more. So thank you guys for listening. If you haven't already, please subscribe to the channel. And of course, if I've earned your subscription, please do consider subscribing and liking these videos, commenting your thoughts as it helps this channel grow. Amen, guys. Well, today I'm going to be talking about a hard topic. ⁓ One thing about being a Christian

content creator and having a podcast is even though we get to talk about fun and interesting topics, we also do have to talk about the more ⁓ difficult and challenging topics. Correct. And today's topic is going to be about Christian persecution, namely in places like Nigeria and China. I have noticed that.

Not many, if at all mainstream American news outlets have really covered the persecution that is taking place in Nigeria. They are under heavy persecution in Nigeria. They are being attacked from all different angles and we just don't talk about it. We don't hear about it. And if nobody else is going to talk about it, then I will. Amen. Then.

Christians who are willing to get down and dirty will ⁓ People who aren't afraid to express the truth as I was saying So I hope to sort of expose what's going on and at least bring awareness to the persecution occurring in Nigeria and One thing if you haven't already Go back to episode 30 and listen to all of the topics discussed by Tim Reed and myself

right. He was also on episode 18 and he was recently on again for episode 30. I highly encourage you to go back and listen. one of something that he said in that episode that really stood out to me was that America does not know persecution. America does not know persecution. In America we think that

If somebody's talking bad about us or if somebody's gossiping, then somehow that is persecuting, right? It's ⁓ belittling. It makes us feel insecure, right? But that is far, far from the case, right? As you'll see in just a few seconds, I'm going to share a Vati Bakam video about this very thing. And I think it's time for us to wake up.

I think it's time for us to understand what real persecution is and what it feels like. Fortunately, by the grace of God, Christians in America have not faced the level of persecution that those say in Nigeria or China have. ⁓ That's just the reality. We haven't faced that daunting reality as of yet. ⁓

We might have faced it in a few different aspects and I will get into it in just a few minutes but not to the level of Nigeria and China and so Let me go ahead and play this video by Vaati Bakam ⁓ and My thoughts and just prayers go out to the family of Vaati Bakam He was a mighty man of God and we recently just lost him unfortunately I believe he had

some sort of a medical emergency and he just didn't make it out of it. So ⁓ if you guys didn't know who Vati Bakum was, go back and look at his content. Man, just a powerful man of God and just gone too soon. Right. man, Christians can't catch a break. It's just one after the other and it's becoming disheartening, but consider it pure joy, right? So.

Again, so let's get into this Vaati Bakam video and let me know your thoughts.

powerful stuff, ⁓ Let me know what you think about this clip. Let me know what you think about his words and his message. But ⁓ he hits the nail right on the head, right? And ⁓ we are not facing intense persecution and scrutiny, but we will. ⁓ Persecution is coming to America and it's coming fast. So we need to be prepared.

to have a defense for the gospel and be bold. ⁓ But I will share with you ways that I believe we are facing some level of persecution in America. And by we, of course, I mean Christians. So persecution will come through legislation, right? And some examples of this include the whole COVID-19 pandemic, right? If you guys remember,

During that time, Gavin Newsom, he mandated that there would be no gathering, no worshiping. Yet ironically, people were able to still gather at bars and nightclubs, right? So what's up with that, you might ask. Well, it's ironic because he ordered that there would be no gathering, namely no worshiping, right?

but that totally contradicts the second part of my statement, which is people were still gathering at bars and nightclubs, right? I believe churches were being shut down and church members and pastors might have even been arrested if they were caught operating church and worshiping. So that's one example. Also in the UK, right? There is

There's persecution happening out there, believe it or not. So they've ordered, they have ordered no street preaching and no praying in public. I believe that's one. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe people in the UK are not allowed to pray in public. ⁓ Definitely no street preaching. Here in America, we are allowed to do that, right? Freedom of speech, freedom of religion and

law enforcement hasn't really cracked down on that. I see tons of street preachers and I'm a little envious of that because I wish I had enough courage to do just that. But nonetheless, I don't see much pushback toward street preachers here in America. And that's great, right?

Another example, so there has been this intense fight against pro-life ideals, right? Namely in the example of abortions. So until very recently, Planned Parenthood was funded for over 100 years, folks. I was doing some research and man, it was like in the early, early 1900s that Planned Parenthood was first a thing.

Right. That's when it became official. And I'm not saying that that abortion started in the early 1900s, but I'm just saying that there was a coalition, there was backing if you were somebody who wanted an abortion. Right. Can you just imagine how evil and demonic that is? That is an agenda straight from the pit of hell, straight from Satan. And

⁓ congressmen and women, ⁓ politics, political individuals, they have made it okay under the covering of Planned Parenthood to get an abortion. And again, this goes straight against our Christian values. We are pro-life. We believe that we were all made in the image of God. Marriage, sex, and intimacy.

are a divine design of God himself. ⁓ He designed it that way for a purpose, right? ⁓ There's never any room, in my opinion, to unrighteously take a life that doesn't deserve to be taken. Another example is that people are getting arrested for making tweets about Hamas and Palestine.

Namely individuals in Israel the UK and Europe. So this is becoming a trend more and more where if you simply make a tweets or a social media gesture about these groups and Just for simply having an opinion you are risking arrest You're you're risking even jail time

I don't have the exact data on this, but if you take time to look this up, trust me, you're going to find cases about this where our very amendment of freedom of speech is being taken advantage of, right? ⁓ It's not being honored. And so what do you do when your rights are being violated just for having an opinion? It sounds ridiculous, right?

It's because it is. So let me share this clip by Bill Mayer. I believe that's how you say his name, Bill, Bill Maher, Mayor. So what I find ironic is that it took an atheist to call out the media about their lack of coverage of the persecution happening in Nigeria. Check this clip out.

Interesting stuff, right?

The media is saying absolutely nothing about these events in Nigeria. And it took Bill Mayer of all people to stand up and say something about it. ⁓ Just as a little bonus for you guys, so there's even been minimal focus on the war in Gaza since the October 7th genocide. So I feel like it's almost like

If it's not directly affecting us, Americans just don't care about what's happening overseas internationally. ⁓ I believe that as Christians, we should care and we should take into account the atrocities that are happening internationally ⁓ to our very own people, right? Because we are brothers and sisters in Christ and the church is not just here in America. It's also overseas and we have

again, brothers, sisters, and families in Christ that are suffering very, very much so. In America, we live inside these bubbles, right? That's kind of sort of what I was trying to explain just now. We report these silly pop cultural soft news, right?

Examples of this are things like celebrity gossip viral social media trends ⁓ unusual political side stories ⁓ Pride events of all things drag shows. It just doesn't make sense to me It doesn't make sense and ⁓ What I mean by that is my flesh cannot make sense of it spiritually though

It makes total sense because scripture says that this is the devil's playground. The world is the devil's playground. Satan is the Lord of this world. And it makes total sense if you frame it in that perspective. Everything that's happening now, whether it be in America or overseas, it's all an agenda of

demonic realm and Satan. So if you look at it through that perspective, it makes total sense. So we need to stay prayerful. We need to read our Bibles, attend church. We need to go out and practice our faith. Freedom of religion, right? And we can't be scared of that. We need to share our religion with others and try to convert people to Christ because that's

That's how I believe real change occurs. ⁓ Tim said something really important in our last episode together. He said that Jesus didn't choose sides. And what he meant by that is Jesus didn't choose political sides. So that is very important because if we are choosing sides, then we are becoming very tribal, you know, where it's us versus them type mentality.

And if we are to make disciples and spread the gospel, that can't be our initial mentality. It just can't because it doesn't bring anything to anyone.

Just some data for you guys. since 2009, 52,000 Christians have been murdered in Nigeria. More than 19,000 churches have been destroyed and millions of believers displaced from their homes by Islamic extremists. And this group is known as Boko Haram. They're an Islamic extremist group and they will

stop at nothing to push their beliefs and agenda amongst everybody who disagrees. If you read the Quran, it has explicit language in there about Jews and Christians, right? I don't know the exact framing. I don't know the exact words. But Muslims are very much against Christians and Jews, and they wish to see us dead, right?

They call themselves the religion of peace, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. are demonic, masqueraded as the religion of peace. Do your research, guys. This is all happening underneath our noses, and this is all happening in our backyards, and we need to learn more about this.

This year alone, check this out, 7,000 Christians have been murdered. Thousands more have been kidnapped. ⁓ Men are being killed. Women and children are being abducted. Churches are burned to the ground. As you'll see here in just a minute or so, I'm gonna show you a video of this burned down Nigerian church that has

a Nigerian congregation worshiping during the aftermath of the fire. Right? It's very touching. It's very sad, but it gives hope. So just keep these stats in mind, you guys, you know, keep this data in your mind and really understand what's going on across the world, but it's soon to come to America. So check out this video.

It totally sucks, you guys. It is heartbreaking to see these types of things and just, it almost makes you feel completely helpless, right? Just because we aren't feeling it here in America doesn't mean that it's not gonna happen. And it's so touching that

Even in times of distress, trial, and persecution, this Nigerian church still has the courage and the boldness to worship in their burned down church.

This is what I call real Christianity, guys. I don't mean that facetiously, but this is honestly what I call real Christianity. In the face of persecution, you are seeing individuals, Christian individuals, stand up for what they believe in and stand up for the gospel and Jesus Christ. I just pray that the Holy Spirit and

our Lord Jesus Christ keeps these individuals from harm and just terror from these extremist groups. But man, just the women, men, and children that are going through this, it's heartbreaking. Like there's no other way to cut it. It's just unbelievable. It's unspeakable.

I want to share some verses with you guys related to all this and then I'll wrap things up. But Matthew chapter 5 verses 10 to 12, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward.

in heaven.

You guys, if you need hope during these times, then there's no better place to receive hope than from the Bible. And it's hard. It's hard to deny our flesh. It's hard not to be scared, nervous. It's hard not to panic. But great is our reward in heaven. ⁓ Tim and I actually briefly spoke about rewards in heaven. So if you want more,

of deeper dive about rewards in heaven. Again, listen to episode 30, but this is just very reassuring. it not? John chapter 15 verses 18 through 20. If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you.

out of the world. That is why the world hates you. You guys, the world, Satan and his hellish kingdom wants us to conform to the ways of this world. They want us to be bound and shackled under demonic oppression. They don't want us to see the light. They don't want us to see Christ.

They don't want us to belong to Christ. They don't want us to be guided by the Holy Spirit. They don't want us to believe in God. The world is very anti-Christ. ⁓ The anti-Christ spirit is showing its face day in and day out. And I believe it's time to wake up and pray for discernment because I hate to say this, but it's only going to get worse.

I want to be somebody who is just bringing awareness to the current state of this world. So, man, just.

Stay prayerful, read your Bible, and join a church, you guys. A small group. Just be with other like-minded Christians, right? I can't stress it enough. Here are some ways to support those in Nigeria. And I almost forgot to mention the persecution happening in China. ⁓ The Chinese are being persecuted. Well, Christian.

Chinese Christians are being persecuted ⁓ for simply having a Bible. If they get caught with a Bible, then they can face jail time or even worse. There are underground churches in China that ⁓ have to operate very subtly and very discreetly because they too, if they are caught worshiping or operating an underground church,

They can face prison time and even worse, they they can be executed. So you guys, it's really time to wake up. America does not know persecution. Here are some ways to support. We can pray, obviously, we need to be faithful with what's in front of us. ⁓ So prayer is one way we can support. ⁓ Other ways to support is to contribute to relief so we can donate funds.

donate items, volunteer with organizations. And last but not least, we need to bring awareness to the persecution happening around the world, right? Namely Nigeria and China. Amen, everyone. So honestly, if I can leave you with anything, it's to be faithful with what's in front of you, right? Support these Christian groups that are being persecuted in any way that you can.

and it's time to start bringing an awareness to the consequences, to the true consequences of what it means to be a believer in Christ.

Amen guys. So thank you all for listening. If I have earned your subscription, please do subscribe as it helps this channel grow. And my main goal and mission is to reach more people and bring them to Christ. So thank you all for listening. Until next time, take care of yourself and take care of each other. Bye.