Conservative political commentator Glenn Beck brought up a controversial issue on Monday, asking why Christians in the United States haven't done more to help their fellow brethren, who are being persecuted in the Middle East.
In a report filed by Erica Ritz of The Blaze, Beck looked at how American Christians reacted when they defended the "religious freedom" rights a pizza parlor in Indiana. He then noticed how little attention was paid in the U.S. to Christians being persecuted across the Middle East.
"Why does no one care?" Beck said. "When we talked about a Christian pizza parlor just the other day, Christians responded in large numbers. ... 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?"
Beck then shared a graphic video released by the terror group known as ISIS murdering Christian captives in Libya.
"This time, Ethiopian followers of the cross were rounded up and brutally executed," Beck said. "This is the greatest persecution of Christians in our lifetime. So why have Americans turned a blind eye?"
According to Ritz, Beck tried to provide some reasons behind that apathy exercised by Americans. However, he noted that he wasn't comfortable with any of the answers.
"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," Beck said, highlighting the cultural differences between Christians in the U.S. and the Middle East. "Would we care if the victims were Methodist or Baptist or Catholic or Mormon? I guarantee you we would."
The commentator then brought up the politically incorrect possibility that race could also play a factor into why people didn't care about the plight of Christians in the Middle East.
"If the victims were white instead of Arab or black would we care more?" Beck said. "[Or] maybe it's too far removed from our creature comforts here in America. It's not even real to us."
Beck contended that Americans lacked "the energy to care about anything happening half a world away because our world is burning down here." Even though he thought it was not "a valid excuse," Beck conjectured at what could be considered the main reason behind that apathy.
"We feel helpless and we don't know what to do, so we do nothing," Beck said.
The commentator then focused on a Bible story he recently taught in his church during Sunday school. He focused on the lesson behind the story outlined in Matthew 15:21-28, where Jesus helps out a Gentile even though His disciples had second thoughts about getting involved.
"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," Beck said. "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."
