If you have siblings, no doubt you have been told by your parents or grandparents to play nice and get along. My grandmother, whom we called Nana, used to say to my older brothers: “Now boys, it is too nice of a day to argue!”

Too often, no matter how gently I tiptoe on social media, I end up offending someone. Maybe it is because I grow weary of that politeness bit and I give vent, and that causes all the you-know-what to hit the fan. Sometimes even when I am polite, I bring up some subject which others understand very differently – and then I get long epistles written to me by my friends.

Many of my friends never talk publically about matters political at all. They post pictures of their pets and let it go at that. I have to say that sometimes I envy that discipline, especially since I am past the age when my blood pressure really loves a good fight. In fact, at this moment in my life, I am exceeding happy. A beautiful glow surrounds me. A new life has been brought into our extended family, and that leaves me anticipating holding the new little one.

But then the haunting terror of the letter that came this last week comes back to me. Yes, it would be easier to just hunker down with the family and not worry about anything else – but my belief in God will not let me be silent about this. I just cannot. If that offends you, I am sorry, but I cannot be silent.

I am talking about Genocide. The slaughter of Armenians was the first genocide of the 20th century.  I have a friend from high school who is Armenian by descent.  Her grandparents fled from Turkey.  The story of that genocide was passed down in her family.  I mention that here – in my tale that touches on a friendship born during the first world war: In time of trial: On Hobbits and Narnians

Then in the WWII, Adolf Hitler committed the shocking second genocide of the 20th century.  Primarily aimed at eliminating the world’s population of Jews – Hitler also was happy to kill large numbers of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Polish people, Catholics, Protestants, Blacks, Gypsies, Homosexuals, the Handicapped and the Mentally Ill.

Thankfully, America’s General Eisenhower insisted that there be lots of photographic evidence to document the horrific extent of the slaughter. He was wise enough to know that people would never believe the level of slaughter until they saw with their own eyes the evidence. They would have to see the bodies of survivors that were shrunken to skeletons, the mass graves, the awful videos that detailed the slaughter.

But genocide continues on. It has never stopped. Just recently I have received a letter about the current genocide of Christians.  It is being perpetrated by ISIS.  Some of you might not believe it. The letter was sent to me by the American Center for Law & Justice in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with the European Centre for Law & Justice in Strasbourg, France, and the Slavic Centre for Law & Justice in Moscow, Russia.

What do we have to know about or hear about before we will stand up and be counted and say we will not allow this to happen without a fight?

It has been going on for years – crucifixions, torture, beheadings, burning people alive – rape and then torture and murder of women. But what I heard this week was worse than all of that. How can it be worse than the public rape of eight women who are then beheaded? These items were in the letter. They made me recoil in disgust. What kind of savage commits this kind of atrocity?

• The letter told that 250 Syrian children under the age of five were put in a dough mixer and crushed to death.    
• ISIS captured a Christian couple’s daughters, then delivered their body parts in a plastic bag, along with a video of the girls being raped and tortured.

We can play nice and hope that the ISIS fighters will play nice with us. Personally, I don’t trust that to happen. I lock my door at night. I am thankful that President Trump wants to secure our country so we can see who is ringing the doorbell before we open the door to let them in. In France ISIS slit the throat of an 85-year-old Catholic priest during mass.

Vice President Pence said:

I believe that ISIS is guilty of nothing short of genocide against people of the Christian faith, and it is time for the world to call it by name.

Don’t walk out on this. I am asking you to take a stand. Stand with persecuted Christians against Genocide. This is persecution. Because of religion. It has happened before. When will we have the courage to stand up and say – not on our watch?

I have read comments on Facebook describing the kinds of people that support the policies of President Trump. Fine. I don’t care what they call me. Some things are more important than labels. It doesn’t matter one iota what people call you, what they think of you, or what labels they assign to you. What is important, is that you pay attention and stand up and be counted. What matters is that if you can do something to stop or slow the slaughter of innocents, you do it.

I would ask you to quit sitting on the sidelines. You can start this easy way: copy and paste this link to your FB page:

ACLJ: Stop the Genocide of Christians

You can donate money here that assists the ACLJ to help those who are being persecuted:

Contribute now to help defend persecuted Christians

You can take a stand against genocide. As for me and my house – we have an obligation to fight the slaughter of innocents. We have a duty to protect even the littlest of God’s creatures.  I am asking you to stand with me.  Please. Don’t. Walk. Out. Call Genocide by its name. Fight the good fight and give money and aid to those who are working to protect Christians from genocide.