Recently, ISIS, the extremist state in Iraq, has forced Christians to choose between conversion to Islam, paying a fine, or “facing the sword.” Christians began leaving homes and culture that have been in the area since early Christianity. Their dwellings have been marked with an “N” for Nazarene.

A hash tag has appeared: #WeAreN. It identifies with the Christian “other” in Iraq. However, as Jim Wallis wrote in a column in Sojourners, those who take on the N designation are doing it in the name of all those excluded in one place or another: Jews, Christians, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims, Turkmens, Yazidis, and others.

This new form of acceptance has nothing to do with conversion. It simply signifies that we are all other when we identify with the persecuted of the world.