A Proportional Response to North Korea

Free Christians everywhere should be considering a proportional response to North Korea.

We had no skin in the game with the satirical movie, The Interview. I’m sure it didn’t carry a message related to Jesus Christ. We’re not missing out on high art if it’s suppressed, but that’s not really the point is it?

Americans this week swallowed a teaspoon of the oppression and fear experienced daily by the people of North Korea. It tasted foul and it should inspire Christians to act on behalf of the people of North Korea.

It’s challenging to be a Christian writer, artist, filmmaker, or musician in America but imagine life as a Christian writer, artist, filmmaker, or musician under Kim Jong Un. Pastors in America who express politically incorrect opinions from the pulpit suffer some measure of public backlash but pastors in North Korea who do the same are silenced. It’s easy to talk about courage from the cheapseats, loved ones, but what happened to Sony this week should drive every believer in America to take action on behalf of the people suffering under the boot of this regime.

At the end of the day, Kim Jong Un is just another dictator-king who will come and go like every other. He is only a man. One day this world leader, like every other, will bow before Jesus Christ. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11 This is a certain outcome.

On that day, we will each be asked what we did during the Great War for Souls on earth. Did we let the enemy and our own lack of love immobilize us or did we access the spiritual weapons at our disposal and engage in warfare for those who suffer in the dark?

The power of evil that fuels North Korea’s reach is a known enemy, already defeated on the cross. We are equipped, as the body of Christ, to offer a proportional response to North Korea in a way no world government can. The suppression of The Interview should galvanize the church of Christ to intercede with all fervor for those who need a kind of courage we can’t even imagine needing.

In memory of the slaughter of the innocents following the birth of Jesus Christ by King Herod who was another small man sitting on a throne, I call on Christians everywhere to PRAY daily for the people of North Korea from December 26^th– January 1^st. Further, I call on every Christian writer, blogger, singer, artist, filmmaker, pastor, and poet to ask God that week how he or she can serve oppressed Christians in North Korea with their gifts.

Brothers and sisters, don’t sit waiting for worldly governments to fight this fight. Our fight is not AGAINST a petty dictator on a small throne. Our fight is FOR the people of North Korea whose voices and souls are held captive by the darkness. “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”^.2 Corinthians 10:3-4 Can you hear them crying out to God for those of us who are free to intercede for them in the hour of their persecution? We’ve felt a frightening chill at the suppression of one film.  Imagine the imprisonment of your entire family because of a sermon, a blog post, or a poem about Jesus Christ.

The exercise of our courage is as important – if not more so – than the exercise of our muscles, especially in these times. So create your art, your poetry, your music, your movies, your prose like moonshine brewed high up in the hills that suddenly spills out in rivers onto the public streets, carrying with it your potent voice, your explosive understanding of the world, your heart which is 100% proof. This is the secret recipe for strength against the pressures of a culture that threatens to excise the poet’s heart, strangle the singer’s voice, and outlaw the storyteller who weaves the thread of truth into every tale.

Will you commit to pray for the people of North Korea every day between Christmas and New Year’s? If you are an artist, writer, musician, preacher, or filmmaker, will you commit to ask God that week if there is a way He wants you to use your gift on behalf of the artists, writers, musicians, preachers, and filmmakers for Christ who have been silenced in North Korea? Let us serve them with our freedom.

One day, when we are united with our suffering brothers and sisters, let us tell them their suffering became the spark that fueled the fire of our prayers and our actions in the battle for souls.