c. 1996 Religion News Service
WASHINGTON (RNS)-A diverse coalition of church leaders and human rights advocates is challenging the U.S. government to take a stronger international leadership role to combat ongoing persecution of Christians in many regions of the world. “Clearly, the United States government has been woefully negligent in dealing with the issue of the persecution of Christians around the world,”said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Christian Life Commission, in testimony Thursday (Feb. 15) before a congressional panel.”This issue has not occupied a significant plane in American foreign policy,”Land said.”That must change.” Land and 11 other witnesses testified at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights. Committee Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., said that while the subcommittee has done much work on religious persecution generally, this was the first hearing to focus specifically on persecuted Christians.
According to the witnesses, millions of Christians under communist, Islamic and totalitarian regimes continue to suffer harassment, imprisonment, torture, enslavement or execution because of their religious beliefs.
Nina Shea, director of the human rights group Freedom House’s Puebla Program on Religious Freedom, testified about ongoing repression of Christians in China, Vietnam and North Korea.”These three governments continue to persecute Christians, as well as other religious groups, for simple acts of worship and witness,”said Shea.
China currently has more Christian prisoners than any other country, Shea said. Her New York-based nonprofit organization has documented about 200 Christian clergy and church leaders imprisoned or detained because of their religious activities.
Shea also alleged that since July, the Religious Affairs Bureau has been”implementing a fierce campaign to stem the growing tide of Christian belief”in China. At least four prominent Roman Catholic bishops have been arrested in recent months, and unofficial evangelical house churches have come under increasing harassment and surveillance.
Also expressing concern about the situation in China was Joseph M.C. Kung, president of the Cardinal Kung foundation, a Connecticut-based group that supports Chinese Catholics who remain loyal to the Vatican.
Kung described numerous incidents over the past year in which churches were destroyed, Masses interrupted by police, and church leaders arrested and tortured. He said he is especially concerned about new religious regulations, including a prohibition against conducting Mass in private homes, that will take effect in Shanghai on March 1.
Shea also testified that despite the 1995 normalization of relations with the United States, Vietnam continues to restrict Christian activities in many areas. During the first week of February, three American Christians traveling in Vietnam with the evangelical group Youth With a Mission were placed under house arrest after meeting with eight young Vietnamese Christians from Ho Chi Minh City. They were held for several days before being released.
Rev. Tran Qui Thien, a Catholic priest who spent 13 years in a Vietnamese”re-education”camp, presented the committee with a list of 68 religious leaders imprisoned in Vietnam because of their faith.
Several witnesses testified about the growing hardships faced by Christians in Islamic countries. Morton Winston, chairman of the board of directors of Amnesty International, highlighted the situation in Saudi Arabia, where all public and private non-Muslim worship is banned.”Persecution of religious minorities, particularly that of Christians and Shia (Shiite) Muslims, has increased dramatically in Saudi Arabia during the years following the Gulf War,”Winston said.
According to Abe Ghaffari, executive director of the Colorado-based Iranian Christians International, Christians-and particularly Muslim converts-continue to be arrested, imprisoned and tortured in Iran because of their religion. In 1994, three of Iran’s most prominent evangelical pastors were murdered under still-unexplained circumstances.
Ghaffari alleged that many Christian refugees who manage to flee Iran continue to face persecution and discrimination as they await asylum processing in Turkey and other nations.”Strangely enough, much of the refugees’ persecution is related to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service procedures and the treatment refugees received at the hands of these officials,”he said.
Under U.S. policy enacted in 1994, all refugees seeking asylum in America must first be recognized by the U.N. refugee commission. In Turkey the United Nations has turned over all refugee processing to the Turkish government. According to Ghaffari, Iranian Christian refugees are being interviewed by Turkish Muslims who hold little sympathy for conversion to Christianity. Some Iranian refugees have been harassed in Turkey following their interviews, he said.
Ghaffari said that in the past 18 months not one Iranian Christian has been allowed to immigrate to the United States from Turkey.
David Forte, professor of law at Cleveland State University, criticized what he considers the inappropriate use of Sharia (Islamic law) in many Muslim-dominated countries. He cited Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, which imposes a mandatory death sentence. Several Christians and Ahmadi Muslims have been convicted under the law.
Forte called on the U.S. government to”let our allies know that these kinds of law are against international law.”Said Forte,”Our inaction helps create regimes and forces whose ultimate aim is to destroy the West and the great tradition of Islam as well.” Witnesses called for several new policy initiatives by the Clinton administration and the Republican-led Congress.
Rep. Smith, a longtime human rights advocate, said the performance of the U.S. government in response to Christian persecution”has been a bitter disappointment.””This is an issue that should unite liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats, even internationalists and isolationists,”he said.
(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL TRIM FOLLOWS)
In recent weeks, many religious groups have embarked on a new grassroots campaign on behalf of persecuted Christians. On Jan. 23, the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) issued a”Statement of Conscience”urging the U.S. government to take more forceful action to defend persecuted Christians and other religious believers.
On Feb. 10, the executive council of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church adopted a resolution endorsing the NAE statement.
The National Council of Churches (NCC), which represents mainline Protestant and Orthodox denominations, has not formally endorsed the NAE statement. NCC Associate General Secretary Albert Pennybacker, who testified at the hearing, said that while”there is much in that statement that we agree with, we would have some different points on strategy.” While the NAE statement calls for the appointment of a special advisor to the president for religious liberty, the NCC believes such an appointment would be”premature,”Pennybacker said. The NCC first suggests that a commission be established to investigate the situation of religious persecution and recommend”an appropriate course of action”to the president, he said.
However, Pennybacker echoed the overall concern about religious persecution.”Sometimes it’s better to have different voices speaking from a little different angle but addressing essentially the same issue,”he said.
The Institute on Religion and Democracy, a Washington-based conservative advocacy group focusing on religious freedom and church renewal, had called on the NCC and all mainline denominations to endorse the NAE statement.
MJP END LAWTON
