In today’s issue of the National Post, Charles Lewis does an interview with John Allen, author of The Global War on Christians.  Towards the end of the article, the discussion gets around to the fact that the most rapid growth in Christianity is happening in those parts of the world where it is the most persecuted.  Charles Lewis asks why.  Here is John Allen’s response:

“Martyrdom is always Christianity at its best.  It’s Christianity stripped of vestiges of power or privilege and it’s people who are forced to confront the essentials of the gospels by dint of circumstance.  And that exercises a power of attraction.”