Recommended reading, Pt. II

The UK-based Guardian has published four brief sketches of Christians living under pressure in Egypt, Pakistan, China and Israel, respectively. Their individual stories should not seem surprising to any regular reader of World Watch Monitor, but taken together they add to the narrative of rising levels of antagonism toward Christians because of their faith. Striking, too, is the fundamental optimism of each of the men — each of the four subjects is male. “You get used to it,” Xu Yonghai is quoted as saying. “It won’t stop me practising Christianity.”