September/October 2004 Issue

COVER STORY:
Persecuted... But Not Defeated
By Debra Fieguth

Christians around the world are persecuted for their faith in alarming and sometimes horrifying ways. Yet they continue to meet, worship and inspire with a faith that is strong and steadfast.

One day last September, the female pastor of an Assembly of God church in Kotadeniyawa, Sri Lanka was building a fence on church property with three other young Christian women. A Buddhist monk ordered them to stop work. He threatened them with violence and death. Undaunted, the women lodged a complaint with the police and planned to continue their fence-building the next day.

Later that night, about 30 men destroyed the new concrete fence posts and forced their way into the adjacent house where the church workers were staying. They dragged the women out, physically attacked them and attempted to sexually assault them. Though greatly outnumbered, the young women managed to fight off their attackers—who then forced the women to march a kilometre to the police station, beating them and shouting that they had captured four prostitutes.

Eventually the humiliated women were released, only to see their church burned down a few weeks later. The pastor has been threatened with death. She cannot return to the village.

Over the past couple of years the Christian minority in Sri Lanka has increasingly come under attacks like this one. Homes are burned, pastors are forced to leave, and accusations abound that Christians—whose 500-year history is much shorter than that of the Buddhists composing the dominant religion—are bribing people to convert.

“We are living in difficult times,” writes Godfrey Yogarajah in an e-mail interview with Faith Today. Yogarajah is general secretary of the National Christian Evangelical Alliance in Sri Lanka. “The local church is facing challenges it has never faced before.”

A push to pass anti-conversion legislation was shelved during an election in March. The new government is viewed as even less friendly to Christians, says Glenn Penner, communications director for The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). VOM is an interdenominational organization assisting persecuted Christians around the world. Penner was in Sri Lanka during the election. He explains that the legislation, reintroduced in July, could make it illegal to change from one religion to another.

“Evangelicals are growing at a fairly good pace,” says Penner, which is one of the reasons they are being persecuted in Sri Lanka. The same is true of the global picture. “The Church is exploding around the world,” Penner explains. Where there is an active and growing Church, there is often an effort to stop that growth.

Suffering for the cause of Christ is nothing new: Stephen was stoned and Paul was jailed several times before he was beheaded. In fact, Paul’s letter to Timothy suggests persecution should be expected: “And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12, NAS).

In the world today, some 200 million people live in countries where there is overt persecution, according to Paul Marshall, senior fellow for Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C. The Center monitors cases of religious persecution around the world. They estimate that an additional 400 million people face varying degrees of faith-based discrimination.

Some statistics even suggest that more Christians died for their faith in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries put together. Church statistician Dave Barrett estimates 100,000 people are martyred for their Christian beliefs each year, but these numbers are understandably difficult to verify.

Over the centuries, Christians have suffered at the hands of Communists, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others. In some places, Christians are also persecuted because their ancestors were oppressors in earlier times (for example, in the Crusades). Today there are Christians suffering for their faith in China, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Egypt, Vietnam, Sudan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and many other nations.

Eritrea has also experienced an increase in incidents in the last months. In May a popular young recording artist was imprisoned in a shipping container when she refused to sign papers requiring her to recant her faith and stop singing. Ten days later, two key leaders in Eritrea’s Full Gospel Church were jailed. A third pastor was arrested and taken to an undisclosed location.

Police were involved in the Eritrean cases, but “much of the persecution in the world is mob-oriented, just like the first century,” notes Penner. Most acts of violence against Christians are not government-sanctioned—although governments might tolerate it.

What exactly do we mean when we talk about religious persecution? “Persecution occurs when people’s lives or security or property are threatened because of their faith in Jesus Christ,” says Janet Epp Buckingham, director of law and public policy for the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. Buckingham and other observers say there is often a pattern of escalation to persecution: first there is misinformation used against Christians, then discrimination and finally persecution.

Despite heightened awareness of what is happening in the global Church and noted improvements in some areas, such as southern Sudan and Indonesia, persecution is increasing in many countries. “In the Islamic world, generally it’s getting worse,” says Marshall. He cites Nigeria, Egypt and Pakistan among the countries where Islamic fundamentalism makes life extremely difficult for Christians. Last May, two Pakistani Christians died after being jailed and beaten on trumped-up charges of blasphemy. Clashes between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria are becoming disturbingly frequent.

Marshall sees radical Islam as the biggest threat to Christians. Communism still affects believers in several countries, particularly China, where there are upwards of 50 million unregistered Christians. But it is no longer the greatest global threat to the safety of Christians. “Communism is not a force for the future,” Marshall says. “It’s not inspiring zeal in people.”

So far, the Canadian Church has remained virtually free of persecution. “Maybe we just don’t create enough of a ripple,” Penner says. However, there are worrisome incidents: when students aren’t allowed to participate in Christian clubs on school property or when Christian businesses are fined for standing on principles. This was the case for Toronto printer Scott Brockie, who refused to print stationery for an organization that advocates homosexuality. “I think in Canada we’re at the stage of misinformation,” says Buckingham, “and in some cases starting to move into cases of discrimination.”

Of greater concern to persecution watchers is the backlash that arises overseas when news of controversial North American church action reaches Muslim countries. When a practising gay man was elected as an Episcopal bishop in New Hampshire and the diocese of New Westminster in Canada voted to allow same-sex blessings, there were repercussions for Christians in other countries. An official from the Lambeth Commission of the worldwide Anglican Communion told Canadians at their general synod this summer that those decisions have had an effect on brothers and sisters elsewhere. In Pakistan, Uganda, Nigeria and Egypt, Christians “have been publicly pilloried and physically attacked, and their homes set on fire, and people physically assaulted,” Canon Geoffrey Cameron told delegates.

“Sometimes Christians [overseas] are persecuted because they are perceived to be immoral,” Penner explains. When Muslims hear about the liberal attitudes of North American Christians, it confirms their suspicion—rightly or wrongly—that all Christians are immoral. “We mustn’t think that somehow what we do doesn’t have an impact somewhere else,” Penner warns.

Positive action on behalf of the persecuted church can also have a huge life-giving impact overseas. In recent years, Western organizations have worked hard to show the suffering church that North American Christians care. International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the Persecuted Church is observed each fall in many countries. Six organizations have come on board IDOP in Canada (see sidebar on p. 22).

Some groups focus on providing Scripture, training and material support to churches that are suffering. Christian Aid Mission goes a step further and brings leaders from overseas churches to North America to preach and tell their own stories. Chinese pastors Freddie and Dorothy Sun, now settled in the U.S., have shared their experiences of imprisonment and hard labour in many conferences and churches.

Bringing survivors here to tell their personal stories can be helpful for Christians in the free world to better understand persecution, but it can be a risk, says James Eagles of Christian Aid Mission (now Intercede International). His agency sponsored a Christian from a Middle Eastern country to come for a visit, and even though they used a pseudonym when he spoke, the man was arrested and interrogated as soon as he got back to his home country. “You have to be careful,” warns Eagles.

Living on the edge—never knowing when the knock on the door means you will be taken away; whispering hymns for fear of being heard; being arrested, imprisoned or tortured—one might expect the persecuted to be resentful or in despair. But reports and pictures that come back from China, Sudan, Indonesia, the Middle East and other parts of the world show Christians who exude joy. They seem to go about their tasks with peace in their hearts. They appear to be strong in their faith. And they pray for those who persecute them.

A recent visitor to Sri Lanka put it this way after meeting with Christians who were suffering: “I was deeply touched by their understanding of Church as a community of faith, hope, love and solidarity.”

The visitor, who didn’t want his name used because he hopes to travel there again, was impressed by the way Christians in Sri Lanka lived out the idea of the Church as the body of Christ. “They cope with persecution as a community,” he observes. “They pray for each other and comfort each other. They walk with each other in suffering.”

And suffer they do—in many other countries around the world and particularly in these dark days in Sri Lanka. But for the young pastor kept away from her church in Kotadeniyawa by death threats, knowing that the global Church is watching, speaking up—and most of all praying—is a comfort that is beyond compare.  

Debra Fieguth is a freelance writer in Kingston, Ont.

How You Can Help the Persecuted Church

Pray. That is the single most important thing that Christians in the free world can do to support brothers and sisters who are suffering, according to those who work most closely with the persecuted church.

“For a pastor or a family standing among the charred remains of what was their home, or for a congregation that cannot meet for worship for fear of physical attack, it is a great encouragement to know that there are people out there praying for you,” says Godfrey Yogarajah of Sri Lanka.

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) is a time set aside each November to focus prayer and attention specifically on places where Christians are suffering at the hands of religious extremists or intolerant governments. This year the Canadian IDOP date is November 21.

Prayers on behalf of the suffering should not be limited to one day a year, say IDOP leaders. Prayer on a regular basis is “very, very powerful,” says James Eagles of Christian Aid Mission.

In some cases political pressure on governments can also be effective. Paul Marshall, senior fellow at Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom, says external pressure has worked in places like Sudan and Indonesia, where government-sanctioned violence against Christians has eased in the last couple of years. Public exposure of specific issues can make governments and groups back down from repressive policies and practices.

Material or financial support can be good if it’s strategic, says Glenn Penner, communications director for The Voice of the Martyrs. But churches are sometimes accused of getting too much funding from Western sources, he cautions.

Writing to those who are jailed or struggling helps them realize they are not alone.

But it always comes back to prayer. “We need to keep praying for people,” says Marshall.          —DF

To learn more about the persecuted church

The Voice of the Martyrs (Canada) publishes a weekly electronic newsletter, Persecution and Prayer Alert (see www.persecution.net to subscribe), as well as a monthly print magazine called The Voice of the Martyrs. Call 1-888-298-6423 to order.

Other useful web sites are: International Day of Prayer (www.idop.ca) and its member organizations: Christian Aid Mission, now Intercede International, (www.christianaid.ca); Open Doors (www.opendoors.ca); International Christian Response (www.christianresponse.org); The Bible League (www.thebibleleague.ca); The Voice of the Martyrs (www.persecution.net); The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/pch).

Recommended books:

By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century (2nd ed.), by James and Marti Hefley (Baker Books, 1996).

Their Blood Cries Out: The Worldwide Tragedy of Modern Christians Who Are Dying for Their Faith, by Paul Marshall with Lela Gilbert (Word Publishing, 1997).

Religious Freedom in the World: A Global Report on Freedom and Persecution, Paul Marshall, General Editor (Broadman and Holman, 2000).

For a classic look at early martyrs, written in the 16th century and revised to include recent events, read The New Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, John Foxe, rewritten and updated by Harold J. Chadwick (Bridge-Logos, 2001).

A book that helps young people understand more about the suffering Church is Jesus Freaks, by dc Talk and The Voice of the Martyrs (Albury Publishing, 1999).