Something terrible happened in Parkland, Washington. A man named Eddie Nitschke was simply standing outside a convenience store with his dog early in the morning. He was not causing trouble. He was not looking for a fight. But a stranger walked up to him and asked him a simple question: “What religion are you?”
Eddie answered truthfully. He said he was a Christian. That’s when the unthinkable happened. The man pulled out two knives and started stabbing Eddie. He stabbed him over and over again. Eddie’s lung was punctured. He was seriously hurt. Then the attacker stabbed Eddie’s dog too, who had tried to defend his owner.
Let that sink in. A man was nearly killed just because he said he believed in Jesus Christ. And his loyal dog, who tried to protect him, was stabbed too. This is what evil looks like. And this is what happens when hatred is allowed to grow unchecked.
After the attack, police found the suspect hiding in a nearby neighborhood. When they tried to arrest him, he came at them with knives. The officers had no choice. They opened fire, and the suspect was killed.
This story should be on every news channel. It should be the headline on every paper. But it’s not. Why? Because the attacker doesn’t fit the story the media wants to tell. There are no marches for Eddie. No candlelight vigils. No one in the press asking why Christians are being targeted. But that is exactly what happened here. A man was stabbed because he was a Christian. That is religious persecution, plain and simple.
This should scare all of us. If a man can be stabbed for saying he’s a Christian while walking his dog, what does that say about our country? This is the United States of America. We are supposed to be a land where people can speak freely about their faith. We are supposed to protect each other, not attack each other because of our beliefs.
Eddie survived, but he is not out of the woods. Doctors found a collapsed lung and a blood clot in his brain. They also discovered something even worse—lung cancer. It’s hard not to wonder if he would have found out about that cancer in time if this awful attack hadn’t happened. That’s one small mercy in a sea of tragedy.
Some people on social media are asking hard questions. Why was this story ignored by the mainstream media? Why is no one talking about the attacker’s background? And why is it always open season on Christians, while other groups are treated with kid gloves?
We are living in a time when good is called evil, and evil is called good. We are told to celebrate every lifestyle, every belief system—except for Christianity. We are told to be tolerant of everything—except for the values this country was built on. That’s not tolerance. That’s oppression.
Our country needs to wake up. We must return to our roots. America was founded on faith in God and on the belief that all men are created equal under Him. That includes Christians. We cannot allow hatred to grow in the shadows. We must shine a light on it.
Eddie Nitschke is a victim, but he is also a reminder. He reminds us that there are still people in this country who will stand by their faith, even when it puts them in danger. We should pray for his healing and for his dog’s recovery. And we should pray for our country, because stories like this show us just how far we’ve strayed from the path.
There is only one cure for this kind of hatred: truth, courage, and a return to the values that made America strong in the first place.
