The alarming problems must not be ignored. Thousands of Chaldean Christians and Iraqis called Yazidis have been killed – beheaded, hanged, crucified, yes, crucified by the Islamic radicals who hate everybody not a diehard Muslim. These murderous actions have been underway in Irbil and Mosul in northern Iraq and the people have fled to the Sinjar mountains. Some try to get to Syria for safety.

The networks have never bothered to describe the Yazidis. They are an ancient and small sect which believes God Almighty has forgiven the devil and restored Satan to his angelic position. They take their beliefs from Zoroastrianism, also known as Zarathustraism, Mazdaism and Magianism.

Still, the Yazidis, Chaldean Christians and others should not be forced to give up their teachings at the risk of having their heads chopped off by the Islamic fanatics. Thousands have been killed and maimed and starved to death.

I’ve learned about the Yazidis by people who served in Erbil, Mosul and even Baghdad.

The goodness of American believers, Christians to be exact, should not be callous. The threat of radical Islamists is in the long run aimed at the United States.

Imagine an American preacher railing from a pulpit that the “unwashed” or “washed” must give up long-held beliefs or else be killed? Don’t brush this aside as idle or ignorant chatter. This is very real.

The rapidity by which same-sex marriage has zoomed through the American culture has been nothing short of astounding. Splitting and destruction has skyrocketed in congregations and parishes of Episcopal, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, United Church of Christ and a few others. Many Christians have fought to maintain historic and traditional biblical beliefs that marriage is between a man and a woman, that homosexual and lesbian relationships are anathema to church order.

Are biblical teachings true and accurate in this modern time? Apparently not to many.

“Convert or die.” This is an omen of what may be coming. No, this is a sign of what is going on in every community. Christians as we know them must not have amnesia or act as everything is going to be okay.

Sure, the illuminati can make fun of bible-belt preachers and others who preach the Gospel of Christ. Consider the destruction of traditional values. Ponder the on-going Israeli-Palestinian war. Reflect on the Russian, Ukraine and Crimean situation. Pay attention to the continuing saga in Iraq.

Maybe the end-times are approaching. There is good reason to consider the thought of wars and the rumors of wars. Never in this correspondent’s life has the end of the world been considered. We’ve been taught to be prepared for the day which no one knows.

The upheavals in the Episcopal and Anglican communions of recent years are chilling. To the present time, those who react to a ministerial calling seem to have forgotten their missions. Teach and preach the Gospel. Seems like this is the roadmap to building the church, then the buildings. Times have come to get out of the sanctuaries and quiet rooms and “go tell.”

In all the sermons, homilies, orations and discourses heard and read over a period of three score and ten, never has a learned or self-taught ecclesiastic ranted and raved to an audience that they “convert or die.” Neither have any atheists or agnostics, public or private.

The rate in which radicals are capturing cities, towns and nations throughout the Middle East and Africa should alarm and terrorize every American and especially those who Believe and lead Christian lives. The Bible does not call Christians to stupidity.

Harry M. Covert is a frequent contributor to Virtueonline