Count your blessings during hardship

If a person spends some time reading a newspaper, he or she will get a quick education regarding the challenges America faces.

For the sake of this column, I'll only focus on our economic problems, but I believe most of us understand our problems are not limited to the recession.

However, the recession is dominating our lives in many ways. The national unemployment rate is 7.6 percent, and the rate is slightly higher than that here in Tennessee.

For those of us who invest our money into a 401k, the return on that has been miserable for quite a while. When I last looked at my money, I wanted to go screaming into the night.

On top of that, we've heard countless stories about home foreclosures and some statistics claim one out of 10 households is behind on its mortgage.

It's all pretty grim. Still, things could be worse. Our fundamental freedoms remain intact, and that is not a claim that can be made by other countries.

For example, the International Christian Concern recently released its annual 'Hall of Shame' top ten list of countries that persecute Christians. Here are the countries on the list: North Korea, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, India, China, Pakistan, Iran, Eritrea, and Vietnam.

North Korea's inclusion on the list should come as no surprise. The regime is well-known for its abuse of citizens when it comes to religion and other aspects of life. During a national famine several years ago, the government chose to let folks starve instead of taking outside help. So, be grateful you are not a North Korean.

Iraq's inclusion on the list is frustrating and for obvious reasons. In the last few years, a lot of American blood has been spilled to provide that country freedom. Unfortunately, their idea of a free society is different than what we have in mind.

Obviously, one country cannot go into another and make it conform to certain types of values. Countries have tried that for centuries and failed. However, one of the most ironic aspects of Iraq's inclusion on this list is that many experts state Christians were actually safer during Saddam Hussein's regime than they are now.

Of course, Hussein was a tyrant and had to go. Still, the plight of Christians there is one of the saddest byproducts of the war.

China is a perennial occupant on this list. The Chinese government did a nice job of making their country look pretty during last summer's Olympics, but the religious persecution continues. The Chinese government's actions during the Olympics were the equivalent of putting a pig in a dress. The dress may have been beautiful, but it was still a pig. And what is going on in that country stinks like a pig.

According to the organization's web site, the ICC's Jeremy Sewall had this to say about this year's list: "This report reminds us of the need for constant vigilance in the struggle to defend the fundamental human right of religious freedom. Instead of allowing religious persecution to be swept under the rug, we call on journalists and all concerned individuals to help shine the light on persecution in 2009."

He is absolutely right. As President Barack Obama develops his foreign policy, religious freedom should be a cornerstone in how he works with countries that have a history of this type of abuse.

If Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton don't do this, they are taking the easy way out.

For the sake of people in those countries, let's hope they don't.