Johnnie Moore says when he became aware of the persecution of Christians in the Middle East by groups like ISIS, he thought of his young children, and how they would look back on this moment in history.

"I thought, what am I going to tell my children when they ask me someday what I did when Christianity was eliminated in the Middle East," he said.Moore, who inspired students at Liberty University for a decade as a pastor and vice president of communications, now works for reality TV mega-producer Mark Burnett and has become one of the leaders of a cause to help Christians under persecution by ISIS. He shared his message with members of the Lehighton 9/12 Project at Penn's Peak Friday night.For the last two years Moore has been trying to rally Christians to pay more attention to a situation that he says has the roots of what he calls a genocide of Christians, in the land where their religion was created.He said the state department still fails to classify the situation as a genocide, despite the fact that all of the presidential candidates have.The Christian populations in the Middle East have existed for hundreds of years, and worship in cities that were named in the Bible. But their very existence has been threatened in recent years.Moore first traveled to the Middle East prior to ISIS. He said even at that time, Christians in Iraq and Syria were suffering under the oppression of ISIS' forebears. Since that time, the population of Christians in Syria has dropped to about 400,000 from 2 million, Moore said."They're still slaves, and everyone has someone in their family who died in the most gruesome way possible. And this is our world," Moore said.While he cautioned that not all Muslims are terrorists, Moore said the sole mission of terrorists in the Middle East is to eliminate Christianity and the United States.He shared terrifying anecdotes from Christians living in Iraq and Syria - a first hand story from a Christian pastor who was under mortar fire. The pastor grappled with whether to hide in his basement or to greet his death in bed.In another instance, he shared the story of a pastor who was imploring a Christian family to flee before ISIS entered their town. The pastor related that he told the family, if they stood their ground as Christians, it would mean their end, but it would only hurt for a moment."That's what happened. ISIS came to the house, husband and wife and two kids came to the door, they refused to convert - and it only hurt for a moment."Moore said he believes ISIS will not be content persecuting the Christians of the Middle East. He related the words of ISIS' leader, who said it is his goal to march to Rome, breaking the crosses and enslaving the women along the way.So what can Christians in the United States do?Moore said that prayer is a start. But having a dialogue about politics in church is important - it shouldn't have to be a partisan dialogue, but people can talk about the political forces affecting Christians around the world."Being involved in politics for a pastor is not a sin, it's an obligation. But it doesn't mean we need to be partisan," he said.