The Islamic State beheaded over 20 Ethiopian Christians in a video released last week - but how much coverage did you see about it on the news networks? It seems like the Indiana pizza parlor that refused to cater a (hypothetical) gay wedding generated more interest from the mainstream media and Christians alike than people being executed for their religious beliefs. Why is that? Glenn gave this important story the spotlight on Monday’s TV show.
RELATED: Don't miss 'The Root: Christian Holocaust' Thursday at 5pm ET on TheBlaze TV
Below is a transcript of the opening monologue of Monday's Glenn Beck Program
The video is 29 minutes long, carefully edited, but most importantly, it tells a story, a story that provides a window into the twisted, perverted vision behind the cold-blooded killers that call themselves ISIS.
When we said that they had a mission to end polytheism, what that means is Jesus and God, that is they don’t believe in the Trinity, and they believe that we are polytheists if you’re a Christian. And there is no arguing with them. I want to warn you, I’m going to show you something that is extremely graphic, but I think it is important that we watch at least a part of this video. We will see all kinds of things, but for some reason we always turn away, and that’s how the terrorists win.
For the second time this year, they have captured a group of 30 Christians, and they marched them straight into the seashore before shooting them. The text underneath labeled the captives worshipers of the cross, belonging to a hostile Ethiopian church. There it is there.
In February, ISIS labeled the murder of the 21 Egyptian Christians a message signed with blood to the nation of the cross. The latest video begins with a rant in Arabic about Muslim Christian history and then shows them destroying the Christian churches while declaring Christians will not be safe until they accept Islam.
VIDEO
M: And we swear to Allah, the one who disgraced you by our hands, you will not have safety even in your dreams until you embrace Islam. As Prophet Muhammad stated, our battle is a battle between faith and blasphemy, between truth and falsehood, until there is no more polytheism.
Why won’t we watch this? Why won’t we address this? We watch all kinds of stuff. We watch The Walking Dead, which is just as horrific as what I saw, but that’s not real. So, we watch The Walking Dead, but this is real. This is real. Good God.
The administration did mention Christians by name in their denouncement of the murders this time, something they failed to do in February, but then they called for a political resolution to the conflict in Libya. How do you find a political solution to people who just did that, considering that their goal is to end all worship of any other God besides Allah? That’s a final solution, not a political solution.
Despite the US airstrikes that have been going on for what, seven months now, ISIS continues to gain ground. Thousands of families have now fled Ramadi as US officials admitted the city is at risk of falling into the hands of the terrorists. The question that comes to mind for me is again, why doesn’t it seem that anyone cares? Why? Why does no one care?
When we talked about a Christian pizza parlor just the other day, Christians responded in large numbers when Christian-owned businesses are threatened for their beliefs. Here people are getting executed. Shouldn’t the response be exponentially greater when Christians are literally being beheaded and crucified, children being raped and killed every single day? Why is the response so mute? I don’t have an answer. I have this question, and I cannot find an answer that I’m comfortable with. I don’t know.
I know why China doesn’t care. They’ve been desensitized, trained not to value human life. We’ve seen the results of godlessness in their country. You remember this video? This child is hit by a car, killed, laying there in the streets forever. People walk by, drive by, and no one does anything. So, I get why China. The Middle East, I mean, they’re the perpetrators of this. Body parts are strewn about, chaos, poverty, death, murder, abuse, I mean, this is their everyday life. It’s been this way for thousands of years. They get this. This is what they live. This is nothing new for them.
Europe, why doesn’t Europe get it? Perhaps Europe is so secular, they’re worried so much about multiculturalism, and because they’re so far down that rabbit hole of offending somebody, God forbid Muslims, you’re in trouble. They rarely speak out against anything anymore, let alone Muslims rising up against Christians, or they’ll burn their cities to the ground.
So, I guess I can kind of see how the rest of the world doesn’t react to this, but I don’t understand us. It’s not an excuse. Christianity just isn’t their thing. Okay. I can explain the lack of major action from all of them, but what is our excuse? This is a really bad thought I had this weekend as I was sitting in a Greek Orthodox Church on Saturday. I met these wonderful Greek people, wonderful Greek Orthodox Christians, and I thought maybe we don’t react to these things because we don’t think of the Greek orthodox or the Coptic Christians. We don’t know what the Coptic thing is. Are they Christian?
Because would we care would we care if the victims were Methodist or Baptist or Catholic or Mormon? I guarantee you we would. Is the president right, is it race? If the victims were white instead of Arab or black, would we care more? I thought maybe it’s we’re too far removed from our creature comforts here in America. It’s just not even real to us, and we don’t have the energy to care about anything happening half the world away because our world is burning down here.
The only thing that I come up with that I’m comfortable with is that we feel helpless, and we don’t know what to do, and so we do nothing. A, that’s not an excuse, not from Americans. Necessity is the mother of invention. We’re told all the time, “can’t go to the moon,” “oh, you can’t do that,” “can’t have the internet.” We always think our way out of the box. We’re always told we can’t do it, and we do it. What are you talking about?
There are soldiers right now, we’ve shown you soldiers, American soldiers who have joined the fight, not for ISIS, but against ISIS, going over there on their dime risking their life because they just couldn’t take it anymore. There are churches that are clothing and feeding the Christians over there, people, I’ve talked to them just in the last week. So, I don’t buy into the fact that we don’t know what to do, because—I’m sorry to out my wife on this, and I don’t lecture her on this because she’s the normal one; I am the oddball. She won’t watch those videos.
I can guarantee you if the TV were on at my house today and she was at home, she turned it off before we got to that video. I don’t want to put that in my head. And yet, well watch The Walking Dead. They win if we don’t watch it. They want you to look away. They need you to look away. Did you hear what he said? We will haunt you even in your dreams.
I don’t know why we don’t care. But I don’t believe in coincidence, so let me share a story. Yesterday, I taught Sunday school. It was Matthew 15. Jesus feeds 4,000 people, and prior to that, he has an interaction with a Canaanite woman. Canaanite woman, Gentile, not even supposed to be in that area, just don’t talk to the Jews. Gentiles didn’t talk to Jews back then. So, she comes up to Jesus and she says hey, I need a miracle. The disciples tried to chase her away. She says Jesus, just heal my daughter.
Jesus responds in a really un-Jesus sort of way. I mean, he’s not the Jesus that I know. First, he’s silent. He ignores her, and she’s like hey, dude, I need a miracle. He’s, I guess, testing to see if she would push a little harder. She did, and so then he pushes back. And he reminds her of his primary mission which was tending to the house of Israel. I’m here for the Israelites. That doesn’t sound like Jesus.
And then she persists again. She pushes back, and then he really pushes back, and he says it’s not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs. Is that Jesus calling this woman a dog because she’s not a Jew? What? Why is Jesus treating her this way? And as usual, the answer is he’s teaching us a lesson—not her, not her, the disciples. Have you ever seen anybody treat somebody really horribly and you’re like, “Dude, what are you doing?” And then you realize oh crap, that’s what I’ve been doing the whole time.
He’s teaching the lesson to the apostles. That’s what you’re saying. You’re calling her a dog; chase her away. She’s not a dog. And her faith was even greater than the disciples and the Pharisees. Her answer to him was even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table. Jesus honors this woman that he’s not even supposed to talk to. He heals her daughter, and her story is etched in the Bible. And she becomes one of the first Gentiles to enter the kingdom, something that at the time Jews didn’t even think was possible.
Later in the chapter, he’s being followed by 4,000 Gentiles. They’ve come a long way. They’re exhausted. Many are sick, they’re seeking healing. He’s like oh geez, the doctor is in, but he says I’ve got to feed them. The apostles were like we don’t have stuff. Are you kidding me? I’ve already fed 5,000. How much do you got? What do you got? Show me what you got. We’ll feed 4,000. The disciples doubt that he can feed so many. They still didn’t get it, but again, he does a miracle and feeds them.
One thing about Jesus is economy of miracles; he just doesn’t waste miracles. There’s always several layers of a point in his miracles. He’s already fed. Why is he doing the same magic trick? He’s already fed 5,000. It’s not as great. He fed 4,000 this time. Last week it was 5,000. Why did he do it? Because last time he did it to the Jews. This time he did it to the Gentiles. The whole point is to see people who are completely different than you, to reach out beyond your comfort zone, to reach out to the outsiders, in some cases people who society considers dogs.
So often we cry out for justice. We raise our hands on Sunday. We call for the enemy to be crushed, but then we retreat into our humble abodes, castles by global standards, and go about our daily lives. And we get busy, honestly busy, wrapped up in our own day and our own chaos, honestly busy, and we forget that the second part of justice is mercy and compassion. That’s our job, to show mercy, to have compassion, to kindle it in our heart and the hearts of others.
ISIS sent a message to the followers of the cross. You want to know the worst reason? I mean, I’ve come up with some really bad reasons on why we don’t hear it, but I just want to ask you, could it possibly be that the deafening silence is precisely due to that reason? It’s a message for those who actually follow the cross and not those who just say they’re following the cross.