That should have been the end to it.

Not so.

Following the verdict, Episcopal Los Angeles Bishop J. Jon Bruno issued a statement calling upon "Orange County bishops, rabbis, and Islamic leaders to come together immediately in renewed solidarity to address the issues and injustices raised in relation to these verdicts.

"Our Episcopal congregations will also increase participation in the Shura Council's Open Mosque Day on October 16 to demonstrate our understanding that Islam is at its core a religion of peace within our shared Abrahamic tradition, and deserving of equal protection under First Amendment freedoms."

One of the protestors was the Rev. Wilfredo Benitez, rector of St. Anselm of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Garden Grove, California, who protested the court decision calling it "a travesty of justice."

"This attack against Muslim students and the Muslim community is an attack on democracy," whined Benitez at a gathering of media representatives following the verdict. "It's an attack on all of those who believe in the U.S. Constitution and in freedom of speech. We stand together today. The Muslim community is not alone in this. On this day I am a Muslim."

This all begs the question about the selective nature of the Episcopal Church's outrage about who is persecuting whom and in whose name it is being done.

Bruno and his priests came out flatly for the Muslim students in what was clearly a case of free speech and discrimination against the Israeli government and its spokesperson. Would Bruno have been so exercised if a dozen white Christians had stood up and blasted Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas for a speech condemning Israel for atrocities against Palestinians in the Gaza? One doubts that.

Selective outrage is the hobgoblin of small minds.

Where are the protests by Episcopal Church officials over Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, a 35-year old Christian pastor in Iran and father of two children, who has been sentenced to death for apostasy, a crime for which he was jailed two years ago?

The brutal regime in Iran continues to inflict appalling levels of barbarity upon its own citizens.

So the question must be asked, where is the Episcopal Church's outrage against Muslims who persecute Christians? The truth is there isn't any.

When I asked TEC's national church communications person if PB Jefferts Schori had or would have anything to say about the persecution of Nadarkhani the answer was a flat "no."

The savage punishment on Nadarkhani is even worse than it seems. For he is deemed to have committed apostasy merely because he has Islamic ancestry. Whether he was ever actually a practicing Muslim has not even been established.

The Washington Post reported, "The 11th branch of Iran's Gilan Provincial Court has determined that Nadarkhani has Islamic ancestry and therefore must recant his faith in Jesus Christ. Iran's Supreme Court had previously ruled that the trial court must determine if Youcef had been a Muslim before converting to Christianity.

"However, the judges, acting like terrorists with a hostage, demanded that he recant his faith in Christ before even taking evidence. The judges stated that even though the judgment they have made is against the current Iranian and international laws, they have to uphold the previous decision of the 27th Branch of the Supreme Court in Qom."

So the question becomes where is the Episcopal Church's outrage against a known Christian believer in the hands of Iranian Mullahs and thugs? The answer is nowhere to be found.

Now the Iranian authorities have claimed he is to be executed, not for apostasy at all, but for a slew of other crimes. What other crimes? As CNN reports, "No one is executed in Iran for their choice of religion," Gholomali Rezvani, the deputy governor of Gilan province said. "He is a Zionist and has committed security-related crimes." He has also been accused of rape. The only question is what is left that they haven't accused him of? Why don't they simply accuse of him of sodomy and be done with it?

It is obvious that, faced with mounting outrage around the world - there have been protests from the White House, for example -- the Iranian regime has resorted to trumping up spurious accusations against a man they are persecuting on account of his Christian faith. By seeking to deny the verdict of apostasy that was handed down two years ago, they are trying to conceal above all that Pastor Nadarkhani has been imprisoned for two years and is sentenced to hang because of an Islamic religious precept.

In other words, this barbarism is yet another religious crime being perpetrated by the regime against an Iranian citizen for no reason other than he has transgressed the laws of Islam being enforced by a fanatical regime of religious zealots.

And the Episcopal Church and most of America's liberal mainline (liberal) Protestant churches are silent because they don't want to offend the silent majority of Islamists in America that they hope will play fair when and if they ever become the majority and perhaps sneak Shari'a Law in under the Constitution. Hopefully, it will never come to that, but still, it is only Evangelicals in the US and UK who have shown any outrage against the Iranian regime's shameless persecution of a single Christian who dared to convert to Christ and who may pay the ultimate penalty for his conversion.

Of course he is in good company with most of the first disciples who died for their faith including the Apostle Paul, but that is hardly reason for America's religious leaders, including Mrs. Jefferts Schori who bleets long and loud about the world's suffering and oppressed, to ignore a single Iranian convert to Christ to remain silent. There are reasons for her silence.

Jefferts Schori doesn't believe or even like the idea of Christian conversion. She is on record as saying she would never try to convert a Muslim to Christ, their religion is just as good as ours. We all need to just get over it and get on with one another and sit down at the table of diversity and see what we can do to live a in peace and harmony with each other while singing Kumbaya My Lord without the "my Lord" part.

Of course when it comes to one of our own, it is another matter altogether. Recently, after much international diplomacy, the residency permits and visas that enabled Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani and his family to reside legally in Jerusalem were reinstated after 13 months of being denied by Israel's Ministry of Interior.

Many international religious leaders - including Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Episcopal Church's House of Bishops, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the Anglican Communion primates, and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem -- joined in diplomatic efforts calling for the documentation to be reinstated.

The House of Bishops in March wrote to Israel's ambassadors serving in nations where the Episcopal Church has dioceses or a presence, calling for their help in resolving the matter as soon as possible. They gave in under pressure, never mind that Israel's Ministry of the Interior believed that the bishop had allegedly sold Israeli land illegally to Palestinians. Dawani was also accused of forging documents. Dawani denied all allegations, none of which have been substantiated by any documentary evidence.

Or what of the son of a Pakistani pastor, who has received death threats from an Islamist organization that is trying to stop his Christian activities and who was severely injured in a drive-by shooting?

The attack follows threats against Pastor Ashraf by a Pakistani Islamic organization, Tehreek-e-Gazi Bin Shaheed (TGBS). They warned him to stop his Christian activities; they also demanded that he pay the equivalent of around £7,000 (US$12,000) as the Islamic jizya - a humiliating "poll tax" demanded of non-Muslims citizens - or else they would kill him and his family.

Following his conversion to Christianity in 1970, Ashraf trained as a pastor and now serves congregations in Kashmore, Sadiq Abad and Lahore. He is also well known for his Christian poetry and books, which he writes to encourage young believers in their faith. In 2004, Pastor Ashraf and his wife started a high school in their home, providing free education to Christian children from poor families. They went on to start a primary school for Christian children in Sadiq Abad and are constructing a high school for Christian boys in Lahore.

Or what about anti-Christian violent rage in Nigeria where a Christian pastor was slain and a village razed recently? The attackers burned not only the church, but the entire village. All living and non-living things were set ablaze. St. Matthias church was destroyed. A Nigerian missionary pastor in Bauchi State was tortured and murdered by a group of Muslims when he refused to renounce his faith in Christ. And an entire Christian village in Kaduna State was burned to ashes by a mob of Muslim militants and its water supply contaminated.

Why do we never hear from Jefferts Schori or TEC's House of Bishops call for any support for the Anglican Church of Nigeria when it faces repeated acts of violence by Islamic extremists?

Political correctness, of course. One dare not say anything negative about Islam for fear they will hit us again with another 911-style attack. Better to appease the snake than kill it.

This goes to show how farcical all the talk of "interfaith alliances" is; making nice with the enemy while they heckle you and, in some cases, kill you.

It is still possible to save the Iranian Christian pastor's life if enough protest is made. Some US lawmakers and Christians (mostly evangelical) leaders have spoken out, but American church leaders have been silent. They should be making their voices heard very loudly against this barbarity by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, stated on Friday, "It is unfathomable to most thinking people that a person in the 21st Century can be put to death simply for espousing a faith that differs from that of his nation's ruling powers."

Graham had harsher words for the international community and its silence. "A man is sentenced to be killed for the 'crime' of a sincere belief in Jesus Christ - a sentence in clear violation of international law. So where is the international outrage?" he posed.

It would be nice if The Episcopal Church was, for once, on the right side of history and spoke up about this obscene and barbaric Iranian action, and then give a resounding lecture to the idiot Bruno on free speech - a sacred American trust guaranteed to all, including those who visit us from other shores including Bruno himself.

END