Christians in Egypt are not safe, despite the authorities’ claims to the contrary. The following tragedy shows the dangers Christians must navigate in Egyptian society, and their disbelief that help will come in the form of justice. Persecution is more than violence; it is also about how the authorities respond to these injustices. On 10 December three Muslim brothers attacked Coptic Christians living in Alexandria, murdering one man and significantly injuring two with knives and clubs, then damaging three Christian shops. The brothers have a history of thuggery and escalated harassment of Christian shop owners. They were arrested, but local Christians fear that they will be declared mentally unstable and not fully punished, as has happened before in similar cases. Violence against Christians is commonplace in Egypt, but this happened in Alexandria, where sectarian tensions are normally subtler than in Upper Egypt.

Wealthy countries should be well-covered with vaccines by the first half of 2021, but low-income countries will still be waiting. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that vaccine access is a huge challenge for low- and middle-income countries. Even when people in high-income countries have access to adequate vaccinations, if Covid is still circulating in poorer countries we will not see an end to the pandemic. Oxfam said, ‘What we want to see AstraZeneca and Oxford do now is to commit to an open licence so more vaccine manufacturers can get on board. We think really the power is in their hands to end this epidemic by the end of 2021.’ Both MSF and Oxfam say that both price and supply challenges can be overcome if we look at more systemic issues of patents. We need to open up intellectual property, including patents, so any manufacturer around the world could produce successful products without fearing sanctions.

Pastor and author John Piper has said, ‘Those who choose to marry non-believers are acting in open defiance of the teaching of the apostles and of God’. Piper is known for strict Calvinist theology. He said not marrying a Christian indicates how deeply compromised the believer’s love for Christ is; Christians who marry non-believers and ignore their pastors’ warnings ‘should be excommunicated from their church community’. Opposers to excommunication might say, ‘You won’t be able to win them to Christ by putting them out of the church’. But elders must be prepared to hear criticism before declaring this is ‘emphatically not what the Bible teaches’. Not everyone agreed with Piper. Twitter comments included ‘quite literally one of the worst things I have ever read’ and ‘I benefited from Piper’s teaching in the past, but this HAS to be the worst’.