Saturday, August 2, 1997

The persecuted church

By Mike McManus

Nina Shea, in her book, "In the Lion's Den," asserts that "more Christians have died this century for being Christians than in the first 19 centuries after the birth of Christ."

Fresh evidence surfaced last week in an unprecedented report by the Department of State, focusing on the persecution of Christians in 78 nations. Many nations torture and kill Christians.

In Sudan "forced conversion to Islam of Christians" is government policy. The 14-year-old civil war between the mainly Islamic north and the Christian south "has claimed more than a million lives. Many Christians are victims of slave raids," said the DOS report.

Outside the recent Episcopal General Convention in Philadelphia, 150 people gathered in a "Persecuted Church Rally."

Atilio John, who fled Sudan gave a first-hand account: "Because they refused to go into the fields and work on Christmas Day, 1,800 were killed in a massacre."

"Islamic militants armed by government go into southern areas inhabited by Christians and raid those villages. All men are killed. Young boys are taken and sold into slavery. Young girls are sold into concubinage." His voice broke as he added, "Work with us on this painful journey. The road is long, littered with corpses of our brothers and their crying for their children who are going into slavery. Please work with us and pray for us."

One of the signs held at the rally shouted, "Egypt kills Christians." Why? Several million Coptic Orthodox live quietly amidst the predominantly Muslim nation. But in 1856, an Ottoman Decree requires nonMuslims to obtain what must be a presidential decree to build or repair a place of worship.

When I was in Cairo in 1995, I visited the city's most historic Coptic church and was shocked to see the ancient building was falling down. Its arches were held up with boards.

President Mubarek, fearing criticism by Islamic militants, is clearly refusing to permit Christian churches to be repaired.

However, there have been rumors of repairs without permits that so infuriated Muslim terrorists, they attacked churches and properties belonging to Christians and killed 22 Christian believers in 1996 and 30 in 1995, the State Department reports.

My question is why is the United States not even threatening to cut or eliminate its $2 billion worth of federal aid in Egypt to push Mubarek to begin protecting Christian lives?

In China, the government is cracking down on Catholic and Protestant churches not registered with the government. Former "Time" correspondent David Aikman, who speaks Chinese, told the Philadelphia rally he visited Wenzhou, a city where a tenth of the people are Christian: "You see crosses on doorways of private unregistered home churches. Four weeks ago, a bulldozing campaign destroyed 200 of those churches."

Four underground Catholic bishops are among the many Christians who remain imprisoned, DOS acknowledges. But State delayed issuing its report until Congress had approved China's "most favored nation" trade status.

You can do something about this. Get the DOS report off the Internet underwww.state.gov under "Hot Topics." Write Nina Shea at Freedom House (1319 18th St., Washington DC 20036) to be updated. Join other churches in holding a service on Nov. 19 for "The Persecuted Church."

In a July 11 column I broke a story predicting that "freedom of religion, which has flourished in Russia since 1990 is likely to die within a week." Both houses of Russia's Duma or Parliament had overwhelmingly passed a law that would terminate the legal status of all religious groups not officially registered with government 15 years earlier.

The column held out "one slim hope" that President Boris Yeltsin would veto the bill, despite its strong support by Russian Orthodox and nationalistic leaders. I urged readers to write to Yeltsin c/o Russia's Ambassador to the U.S. Many of you did so.

President Clinton's had already appealed to Yeltsin in Denver and top Congressional leaders led by Sen. Richard Lugar and Rep. Frank Wolfe had written to Yeltsin to veto the bill -with no result. The issue had not even been reported by The New York Times.

Your letters may have helped tip the balance. But there were two new factors last week. The Senate passed a resolution calling for a cutoff of $200 million aid to Russia if religious freedom disappeared. And the DOS published its persecution report, pointedly noting that Yeltsin could veto the bill. Within three hours he did so.

American protests can influence foreign governments.