John Cleese Blasts Black Lives Matter, Liberal Silence amid Easter Massacre of Nigerian Christians by Islamist Terrorists
Islamist terrorists massacred Nigerian Christians on Easter Sunday while Western progressive media and organizations maintained conspicuous silence — a pattern Scripture identifies as the world's deep-seated hostility toward the name of Christ and those who bear it.
John 15:18-20
Prophetic Fulfillment“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
Why this passage
In the Upper Room Discourse, Jesus was preparing His disciples for a post-resurrection world in which His name would be a dividing line. The 'world' (kosmos) in John's vocabulary is not simply geopolitical — it is the order of humanity organized in opposition to God.
Christ explicitly grounds the hatred directed at believers in the prior hatred directed at Him — making persecution of Christians not a social accident but a theological inevitability traceable to the Cross. The fulfillment is therefore not exhausted in the first century; it extends to every generation where His followers bear His name.
The Lord Jesus warned His disciples plainly: 'If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you' (John 15:18). The blood of Nigerian believers shed on the very day the Church celebrates the Resurrection, met with silence from those who loudly champion other victims, is not an anomaly — it is the ancient pattern Christ foretold.
The double standard that John Cleese publicly named is itself a witness to the truth of the gospel: Christ's name provokes a unique hostility the world cannot fully explain. Let the Church mourn these martyrs, pray for persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria, and take courage that their suffering is seen by the One who conquered death on that same Easter morning.
Today's Prayer
Pray that the Church in Nigeria and across the persecuted world would know the comfort of Christ's risen presence, that Western Christians would refuse the silence of indifference and speak boldly for their suffering brothers and sisters, and that justice would come for the families of those slain on Easter Sunday.
Further Scripture
Additional passages that illuminate this event, each grounded in a distinct interpretive lens.
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice, 'O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they had been killed.”
Why this passage
The fifth seal in Revelation 6 reveals that martyrdom is not an interruption of God's plan but a component of it — the souls under the altar represent believers slain specifically 'for the word of God and for the witness they had borne,' language that echoes John's Gospel and the epistles.
The divine response — 'rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants… should be complete' — implies that history will continue to produce martyrs before the end. This is not fatalism; it is sovereign acknowledgment that Christian blood cries out and is heard.
How it applies
The Nigerian Christians slain on Easter Sunday join a host Scripture has already anticipated. Their deaths were not invisible to heaven, even when invisible to Western media.
The text calls the watching Church to grieve with biblical realism: these martyrs are known, numbered, and robed in white before the throne — and their cry for justice will ultimately be answered by the Sovereign Lord who holds history.
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.”
Why this passage
Peter wrote to dispersed believers living under Roman suspicion and social hostility, using the image of a 'fiery trial' (pyrōsis) — a metallurgical word for the refining fire. The command 'do not be surprised' is a pastoral corrective against the assumption that faith insulates believers from suffering.
The specific phrase 'for the name of Christ' is critical: Peter distinguishes suffering that comes because one bears Christ's name from suffering that arises from wrongdoing. Easter Sunday killings in Nigeria fall precisely in this category — the motive was the believers' Christian identity.
How it applies
Peter's exhortation is a direct word to the Nigerian Church and to global Christianity watching from a distance: this fiery trial is not strange, it is the shared path of those who bear the name Christ bore to the Cross.
The Western silence noted by John Cleese is itself an 'insult for the name of Christ' in the public square — and Peter's text assures believers that the Spirit of glory rests on those who endure it, not on those who ignore it.
“Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Why this passage
Psalm 44 is a communal lament in which Israel cries out over defeat and suffering that came not from their unfaithfulness but 'for your sake' — because of their covenant identity before God. Paul quotes this verse in Romans 8:36 to describe the ongoing experience of New Covenant believers, giving it explicit cross-testamental application to the Church.
The image of 'sheep to be slaughtered' captures the vulnerability and apparent passivity of victims chosen not for what they did but for who they are before God.
How it applies
Nigerian Christians on Easter Sunday were not slain for political provocation or armed resistance — they were killed 'for your sake,' targeted as worshippers of the God of the Bible. The Psalm gives the Church language to lament without despair, bringing the carnage before the throne of the God who receives such laments.
Paul's citation in Romans 8:37 — 'in all these things we are more than conquerors' — ensures that Psalm 44:22 never becomes the final word, only the penultimate one.
Related by Scripture
Other events we've interpreted through the same passage or hermeneutical lens.
For Christians in Israel and Jerusalem, intolerance is becoming normal - Al Jazeera
Persecution of ChristiansShares 1 Peter 4:12-14Pushback in Nigeria over ex-Boko Haram fighter reintegration
Persecution of ChristiansShares Revelation 6:9-11Egypt Placed on 'Special Watch List' for Persecuting Christians - Elizabeth Delaney - Crosswalk.com
Persecution of ChristiansShares 1 Peter 4:12-14What Country of Particular Concern status could mean for persecuted Christians in Pakistan - Mission Network News
Persecution of ChristiansShares 1 Peter 4:12-14New mantle at Pilar highlights global Christian persecution - aleteia.org
Persecution of ChristiansShares Revelation 6:9-11
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Source: Breitbart News— we link to the original for full context.