Lift the Vote, a non-profit project that focuses on Christian voter engagement, is encouraging Christians throughout the Volunteer State and the country to support the “#RedWednesday” effort organized by two Christian organizations based in Great Britain that calls attention to persecuted Christians around the world by using the color red on Wednesday “as a symbol of Christian martyrdom.”
As Breitbart News reported, “On 22 November, churches and public buildings around the world, including the houses of the British Parliament, will be lit up in red as a sign of solidarity with persecuted Christians across the globe,” adding:
Numerous studies have shown that Christians are by far the most persecuted religious group in the world, with some 90,000 Christians killed for their faith in 2016 alone, while as many as 600 million were prevented from practicing their faith.
The event known as #RedWednesday calls attention to the plight of Christians in hostile situations around the globe by using the color red to evoke the notion of Christian martyrdom. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic organization that assists persecuted Christians, has organized the event in conjunction with Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).
“We are supporting this movement and encourage churches and Christians in our home state of Tennessee and across our nation to do the same by wearing red, illuminate buildings and landmarks in red, and join us and so many others around the world in prayer for our brothers and sisters in Christ who are persecuted for being Christians,” Dana Hunsinger Gill, co-founder and national co-chair of Lift the Vote, said in a statement issued on Monday by the Brentwood, Tennessee-based organization, adding:
Let’s pray together for the children born in these nations, the Christian missionaries evangelizing in these dangerous countries, the citizens risking everything, even their lives to follow Jesus; let’s pray for discernment as the body of Christ to pray with and for one another, pray for all world leaders, and pray for our country and that each of us does not miss our opportunity to do our part. #RedWednesday is a start.”
This is the second annual #RedWednesday and we pray that it will continue to expand each year, bringing awareness to the fact that the most persecuted people in the world today are Christians.
“We are proud to join Lift the Vote in calling upon Christians in the U.S. to stand with and pray for our Brothers and Sisters who must endure daily threats because of proclaiming their Faith in Jesus,” Pastor Dale Walker, President of the Tennessee Pastors Network, said of the #RedWednesday effort, adding:
I have spent the past six weeks traveling the Southeast with Dr. Salman Hassan, a convert from Islam who is a Christian leader in the Kurdish region of Iraq and who is a courageous voice for the persecuted Christians in that area, as he has shared his personal testimony,” Walker pointed out. “They are begging for our prayers and support and we should be answering their call. The very least we can do for them on Wednesday is to wear red and pray earnestly for those who share our Faith.
“This is the first that most Americans have heard about #RedWednesday, we hope that by sharing and praying together this year #RedWednesday will grow even greater in this country and all across God’s Kingdom by next year,” Lift the Vote’s Hunsinger Gill said.
