Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth.

For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street.

In 2015, ISIS murdered 21 Christian migrant workers on a beach in Libya.

This is the story of the men who died, as told by those who loved them and those who hated them. That is the opening line of a new short animated film, The 21.

This past weekend marked the 10th anniversary of this mass martyrdom,

which was made public by a video that was released by ISIS

and showed the brutal beheading of men lined up up, and dressed in orange jumpsuits.

The history of the Coptic Orthodox Church goes back to Mark, the apostle and author of the

gospel, who first brought the Christian faith to Egypt.

According to tradition, Mark was arrested in Alexandria on Easter Day of 8068, and then

condemned and dragged to his death. Thus, he is considered both the father

of the Coptic Church and the first of the Coptic martyrs, a group of millions that the 21

joined just a decade ago. And in fact, only 20 of the 21 were Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Christians.

The 21st man was actually a Christian man from Ghana,

also captured by ISIS during a separate raid. When given the opportunity to be released, he refused,

saying that the god of the 20 was his god, not the god of ISIS. In fact, the entire group of 21 were

given numerous opportunities to be released.

Like millions of martyrs before them, all they needed to do was deny Christ, and they would

be spared.

Over weeks, they were beaten, sleep deprived, worked until exhaustion.

In the end, they were martyred on the beach one at a time.

Isis hoped that at least some of the 21 would deny their

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