That's a good question!

The response hinges on whether religious freedom is a fundamental human right. If it is, then any violation is serious, though some are more serious than others.

Roll back the clock a bit. If someone had told Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott that their outrage over women being denied the right to vote was unjustified because women in Asia and Africa were being treated far worse, often in conditions approaching slavery, do you think they should have piped down?

A violation of life (as is sometimes the case for persecuted Christians) is as grave as they come, but a violation of conscience in religious matters is also serious, so much so that it's explicitly protected by our Constitution's First Amendment.

Hopefully this can actually raise awareness among Americans that Christians around the world suffer such unjust persecution. The Internet is very good at bringing us closer to them -- I have friends on Facebook from countries that are extremely difficult for Christians to live in -- and somehow we have something more in common now than before.

Anyway, that's mostly in the realm of personal opinion. Thanks for writing, and God bless you!

- Father Shane