Scientists from the University of Western Australia, with designers Shark Attack Mitigation Systems, have unveiled two new wetsuits they say could save lives. Based on a breakthrough discovery that sharks are colour blind, one wetsuit, labelled the "Elude", is designed to camouflage a swimmer or diver in the sea.
"The idea is to reduce the risk of the wearer in certain conditions," Professor Collin said. "Many animals in biology are repelled by noxious animals, prey that provide a signal that somehow says `don't eat me', and that has been manifest in a striped pattern. We are using a lot of nature's technology based on high contrast based banding patterns. The wearer will be obvious, and the idea is the shark will see that as an unpalatable food item and swim right by."
Herein is the adopted philosophy of generations upon generations of Christians living in countries where they are the minorities and where the major religion if applied to its full extreme extent would move to wipe them out.
Even a cursory look at the history in the 21st century will illustrate numerous examples of such scenarios and how even some developed into disciplined political movements that attempted yet failed to overthrow evil regimes.
Dietrich Bonheoffer became part of the opposition to the Nazi's in Germany where several attempts on Adolf Hitler's life were missed, the most notorious being 20 July 1944 at the Wolf's Lair right in the heart of his headquarters led by senior Army officers. (au.christiantoday.com)
The opposition to Hitler was as much Christian as it was political in that the German Confessing Church was stridently against the mockery of what Hitler had conviently merged – a new Reich Church whereby its symbols and doctrine became the regimes. Anyone opposing was soon dealt with in a variety of ways.
Minorities
The Christian minorities in nations whereby the major religion was protected for hundreds of years existed side by side as if invisible as described by those new wet suits that are likewise invisible to sharks. In this case the sharks are the persecutors.
We can think of the Christians in Syria who have had hundreds of years of co-existence with their Muslim overlords and have lived and worked side by side with very few incidents raised by either political or religious concerns.
Many back streets of Damascus for example, have seen churches thrive and evangelism somewhat hidden functions very quietly behind the parapets of co-existence.
We can also site the Christians in Iraq who for the most part saw fit to migrate out of that trouble land. Similarly the Christians in Iran, many of whom in recent years have become refugee fleeing persecution of the worst kind. Many have come to Australia and settled.
The political uprising in Egypt too has been in some measure the Copts demanding freedom from the tyranny of one dictator only to find themselves at the mercy of another, a much worse variety, core 101 persecution on the basis of religion. They didn't take to the streets for this, moreover their fellow citizens of moderate Muslim persuasion soon recognised the long term disaster coming their way.
These examples and many others have existed side by side for hundreds upon hundreds of years and have adopted the new wet suit shark model of functioning both within their societies and within their religious framework.
Our prayer from the free world is to:
a) Ensure our commitment to political pressure upon all nations to ensure their citizens have the freedom to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, as we do.
b) Ensure there are refugee intakes into the free world whereby Christians who have been persecuted have a place they too can call home,
c) Work with the Christians in those lands of persecution with care and safety whereby they can be supported knowing that the free world is behind their struggle. Agencies such as Amnesty International has a vital role to play as well.
May we ever be aware of our fellow Christians in such places of persecution and fully recognise the remarkable freedom we have to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html