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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; persecuted</title>
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		<title>Persecuted on All Sides: Christians in the Modern World</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/andrew-harrod/persecuted-on-all-sides-christians-in-the-modern-world/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=persecuted-on-all-sides-christians-in-the-modern-world</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Apr 2013 04:33:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Andrew Harrod]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Middle East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nina shea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[paul marshall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecuted]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=185087</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new book chronicles the shocking global religious cleansing of the followers of Christ. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/andrew-harrod/persecuted-on-all-sides-christians-in-the-modern-world/attachment/1400204410/" rel="attachment wp-att-185089"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-185089" title="1400204410" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/1400204410-229x350.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="350" /></a>“I thank God for the book you are now holding,” scholar <a href="http://www.ericmetaxas.com/">Eric Metaxas</a> writes in the foreward of <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Persecuted-The-Global-Assault-Christians/dp/1400204410"><em>Persecuted:  The Global Assault on Christians</em></a> by Hudson Institute religious freedom scholars <a href="http://www.hudson.org/gilbert">Lela Gilbert</a>, <a href="http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&amp;eid=MarsPaul">Paul Marshall</a>, and <a href="http://www.hudson.org/learn/index.cfm?fuseaction=staff_bio&amp;eid=SheaNina">Nina Shea</a>. As Metaxas elaborates, <em>Persecuted</em> “focuses on a scandalously underreported fact, that Christians are the single most widely persecuted religious group in the world today,” a “terrible trend…on the upswing.” The authors chronicle in detailed fashion all manner of religious repression against Christians, such as laws inhibiting conversion to Christianity, state destruction of unapproved churches, torture of Christian dissidents, and often socially sanctioned vigilante violence.  Among other countries, the authors focus on Marxist-legacy regimes such as China, Hindu and Buddhist hostility in South Asia, and majority-Muslim nations.  The authors stress, however, that “it is in the Muslim world where persecution of Christians is now most widespread, intense, and, ominously, increasing.” With other religious communities facing persecution along with Christians, Philadelphia Catholic Archbishop <a href="http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/272/Biography/CV/">Charles J. Chaput</a> concludes in the afterword that there is a “global crisis in religious liberty.”</p>
<p>The three-fourths of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians in the developing world face hostility from various quarters.  Among atheist Marxist-regimes, for example, Christianity’s “claim that <em>Caesar is not God</em> challenges every authoritarian regime, ancient Romans and modern totalitarians alike, and draws their angry and bloody response.” South Asia’s predominantly Hindu and Buddhist countries, meanwhile, “have a reputation, in many cases well deserved, for peaceful religious coexistence with their stunningly varied neighbors.”  Yet even here various “strong militant traditions” persecute Christianity.</p>
<p><em>Persecuted</em>’s authors, though, note that Muslim persecution of Christians “is so widespread in fact that we have had to devote four chapters to it” out of the book’s ten.  At a <a href="http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hudson_upcoming_events&amp;id=1003">March 27, 2013 Hudson Institute <em>Persecuted</em> presentation</a>, Gilbert even suggested that any post-“Arab Spring” (a term for her always “in quotes”) writing would have given Egypt its own additional chapter.  Here “identity cards make religious anonymity impossible.” While some individuals have won court recognition of their “reconverted” Christianity following a prior Muslim conversion, “no Muslim-born convert has yet won” similar recognition.</p>
<p>Such legal religious identity presents significant problems, given that <em>sharia</em>-based Egyptian family laws prohibit Christian men from marrying Muslim women, unlike the reverse.  Female Christian converts seeking to marry Christian men might seek to circumvent the identity laws with forged documents, but this risks legal sanction and even police brutality.  Upon discovery, authorities in such cases can even compel divorces.  Two Egyptian women who had always lived as Christians, for example, faced penalties and annulled marriages because <em>sharia</em> still applied to them, as their father had merely forged documents upon reconverting to Christianity in the 1960s.</p>
<p>Other examples of Muslim oppression of Christianity, such as Saudi Arabia’s “continuous religious cleansing,” are well-known.  Here “Muslim only”-designated roads lead to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, while under Saudi law Christian plaintiffs receive half the compensation of Muslim plaintiffs.  Similarly in Iran, penalties for murdering Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians are less for murdering Muslims, while the murder of officially unrecognized believers, such as the Baha’i, carries no penalty.</p>
<p>What became South Sudan in 2011, meanwhile, suffered 2 million dead after the central Sudanese government in Khartoum in 1983 imposed <em>sharia</em> law over a country divided between Arab Muslims in the north and black African Christians and animists in the south.  This was “one of the most protracted and brutal civil wars in world history…essentially over religious freedom.” Islamist violence in Nigeria in recent years has likewise claimed that country’s largest death toll since the 1960’s <a href="http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/biafra.htm">Biafra conflict</a>.</p>
<p>Although Islam did not become Pakistan’s state religion until 1973, meanwhile, Islamic extremism there has become “daunting and intensifying.”  Pakistan’s subsequently adopted “<a href="http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/article.asp?t=report&amp;id=139">infamous blasphemy codes</a>” have not yet resulted in any infliction of the mandated death penalty, but perhaps hundreds of accused have fallen victim to vigilante killings.  Even exposition of basic Christian beliefs counter to Islam could lead to “potentially disastrous schoolyard talk,” such that Pakistani Christians grow up without learning their faith.  Many of the accusations, though, stem from “self-centered reasons” such as personal grudges.</p>
<p>Cited by <em>Persecuted</em>, one 2011 <a href="http://www.uscirf.gov/images/Pakistan-ConnectingTheDots-Email(4).pdf">online report</a> on Pakistani education from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) where Shea was previously a commissioner indicates just how dangerous such Islamic blasphemy concepts can be.  Of 250 surveyed Pakistani school teachers, all “believed the concept of jihad to refer to a violent struggle, compulsory for Muslims against the enemies of Islam,” with only 10% of the total referencing “nonviolent struggle” as well. The “overwhelming majority” of these teachers “appeared to hold the view that the call to jihad falls directly upon the individual, as do decisions regarding when and against whom jihad is appropriate.”  These Pakistani teachers apparently have not yet seen the <a href="http://myjihad.org/"><em>My Jihad</em></a> advertisements from the <a href="http://www.cair.com/">Council on American-Islamic Relations</a>’ (CAIR) <a href="http://www.cairchicago.org/">Chicago chapter</a>.</p>
<p>Muslim countries often considered “moderate”  and “even nominally secular” states “favor Islam and repress Christianity and other non-Muslim religions.” Malaysia’s High Court has ruled that Malaysian Muslims may not abandon Islam, and converts have even had to attend reeducation camps. Laws there also mandate burial according to Islamic ritual if a <em>sharia</em> judge so rules, something only requiring one witness to verify that the deceased was a Muslim.  Another 1986 law prohibits Christians from using the word <em>Allah</em> for God, even though Arabic-speaking Christians have used this word for centuries along with Christians in neighboring Indonesia.</p>
<p>The authors find that religious tolerance is “very real” among Indonesians and they often say with pride that “Islam came to us on a breeze, not with a bullet.” Yet the 10-13% of Indonesia’s population that is Christian faces pressures from vigilantes, local governments, and society at large.  Indonesia’s Criminal Code Article 156(a) against dissemination of religious hatred or defamation, for example, “has been enforced almost exclusively in cases of alleged heresy or blasphemy against Islam.”</p>
<p>“Beginning with the apostles,” meanwhile, “the church flourished for fourteen centuries in what today is Turkey, before suffering conquest, genocide, brutal population exchanges, pogroms, and many other persecutions.” Later, “Turkey became a radically secular republic that stifled religion across the board.” Politically ascendant in recent years, Islamists in Turkey have been able to exploit this situation to repress Christians.  While Muslim women may now wear headscarves in public, Christians, with the exception of each denomination’s leader, may not publicly wear Christian attire.  Although the 1971 state closure of the Halki Greek Orthodox Theological School and other measures prevent Christian theological training in Turkey, Muslim theology is mandatory in state schools.</p>
<p>Accordingly, Turkey’s Christians “confront a dense web of legal regulations that thwart the ability of churches to survive.”  One Turkish Christian leader wishing to remain anonymous described the .15% of Turkey’s population who are Christian as an “endangered species.”  Another Turkish Christian leader described favorable comparisons of religious freedom in Turkey with Saudi Arabia or Iran as “damning with faint praise.” Not surprisingly, Turkey became one of USCIRF’s <a href="http://www.uscirf.gov/index.php?option=com_content&amp;id=1456&amp;Itemid=59">Countries of Particular Concern</a> (CPC) in 2012.</p>
<p>Even Afghanistan and Iraq, ruled by American-backed regimes, offer little in the way of religious refuge for Christians.  Afghan government areas, for example, “are better for Afghan Christians than those controlled by the Taliban, but that is not saying much; conditions there are among the world’s most repressive.”  The destruction of Afghanistan’s last church in 2010 put that country in the “infamous company of hard-line Saudi Arabia as a country that will not tolerate any churches.” Two-thirds of Iraq’s 1.5 million Christians, meanwhile, have fled in an “acute crisis” under a post-Saddam Hussein Iraqi government ruled by Islamic provisions in its constitution and often ill-disposed to Christians facing Islamist attacks.</p>
<p>Against developments such as the Afghan church destruction the American government “took no effective measures.”  Rather, Barack Obama’s administration has often reacted to Islamist attacks upon Christians with “vague and generic condolences.” The “watershed” November 1, 2010, Islamist terrorist attack on Baghdad’s Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church during Sunday worship, for example, appeared in a White House <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/01/statement-white-house-press-secretary-robert-gibbs-baghdad-hostage-situa">press release</a> as “senseless.”  Yet this attack <a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/295893/salafi-war-christians-and-us-indifference-nina-shea">discussed by Shea previously online</a> “was all too sensibly a deliberate and horrific act of religious cleansing against Christians targeted for their faith.”</p>
<p>As Shea discussed at the Hudson Institute, rather than “trying to be nice, trying to be liked” among Muslim countries, American policy seek “just the opposite effect” of past human rights successes brought about by political pressure.  Maintenance of religious freedom in general is important because its link to political stability “could not be clearer.”  In the Middle East in particular, Christian minorities in the words of Lebanese Christian scholar <a href="http://sas.lau.edu.lb/humanities/people/hmalik.php">Habib Malik</a> have functioned as “moderators” and “mediators”, forming according to <em>Persecuted</em> a “bridge to the West” with its individual rights and modern education.  Without Christians and other non-Muslims, the “Muslim Middle East loses the experience of peacefully coexisting with others” and “will become even more radicalized and more estranged from the West.”</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Adavid+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank">Click here</a>.</strong></p>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Martyred in the USSR, Militant Atheism in the Former Soviet Union</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 19 Mar 2013 04:39:59 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jamie Glazov]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[documentary]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gulag]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Gonzales]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Martyred in the USSR]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecuted]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://frontpagemag.com/?p=181392</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new documentary sheds light on the vicious terror inflicted on Christians by Soviet communism. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/martyr/" rel="attachment wp-att-181395"><img class="wp-image-181395 alignleft" title="martyr" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/martyr.jpg" alt="" width="280" height="190" /></a>Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Kevin Gonzales, the producer of a new upcoming documentary, &#8220;<a href="http://www.martyredintheussr.com/index.html" target="_blank">Martyred in the USSR, Militant Atheism in the Former Soviet Union</a>.&#8221; The estimated release date is at the end of 2013 and you can view the trailer and get more information on the documentary at <a href="http://www.martyredintheussr.com/" target="_blank">martyredintheussr.com</a>.</p>
<div>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Kevin Gonzales, welcome to Frontpage Interview.</p>
<p>Tell us what your new documentary is about.</p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong><em>Martyred in the USSR</em> is a documentary about religious persecution, brought on by militant atheism in the former Soviet Union. The film dives into the personal and tragic stories of those who survived the persecution and the history behind it. We&#8217;ve only gotten a hand full of testimonials so far and their stories alone are very gut wrenching. One story we have tells of a father who was taken out of his house without warning and had to walk over 40 miles to the gulag in a chain gang. His daughter followed the whole time carrying a loaf of bread because she was afraid he would not have enough to eat in prison. When they finally made it to the gulag, after trudging through 40 miles of snow, the father entered the prison and she was never able to hand him the bread. In desperation she threw it over the fence hoping he would get it. She never saw him again. His crime: he simply attended a church. It is really amazing how the Soviet government hated religion of any kind. Many people don&#8217;t know this but Nikita Khrushchev launched an anti-religious campaign that was worse than Stalin&#8217;s, and that was between 1953 to 1964.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart1/" rel="attachment wp-att-182108"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182108" title="mart1" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart1.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="288" /></a><strong>Nicholai Khamara after being tortured to death in prison in 1964. He was found with a rag stuffed in his mouth and his tongue cut out. He was tortured simply for being a newly converted Baptist.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What inspired you to make this film?</p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>I wasn&#8217;t really looking for it and it kind of just fell in my lap. I’ve done news and corporate video most of my career and I wanted to make the switch to the more creative side so I thought a documentary would be the best way to do it. I was looking for a topic but I&#8217;m here to tell you, this one would have been the last thing on my mind to produce. I was in church one day and was talking to one of the parishioners, Oxsana, and asked her where she was from. She told me she was from a small town in Russia and of course, the first thing I asked, being a nosey producer, was &#8220;How was practicing a faith of any kind during the Cold War?&#8221; and it started from there. She told me she remembers her dad, a local pastor, telling her and her siblings to hide under the bed because the KGB was banging on their front door. Oxsana moved to the US when she was five so she told me I should really interview her parents because they have more first- hand knowledge and so a year later I went down to Orange County, just outside of LA, and interviewed her dad, grandfather and two family friends. Their stories were amazing and I knew this would make a fantastic documentary.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart2/" rel="attachment wp-att-182112"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182112" title="mart2" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart2.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="258" /></a><strong>Ft. Samsomas. Beaten to death during a KGB interrogation.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Why do you think our mainstream culture and our society at large ignores this issue?</p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>Well, I believe there are two reasons for this. First is, the public in general simply does not know about it. Dr. Christopher Marsh, one of our experts who&#8217;s interview is on the website, says that when he lectures in Russia the youth he talks to know nothing about it and will deny that it ever happened. They even go on to say that Stalin had a few faults but he was really an OK guy. I almost fell out of my seat when Dr. Marsh told me that. He went on to say that since the persecution was never taught in the schools, the new generation of teachers don&#8217;t even know themselves. (History is written by the victors.) I have gotten much of my information from the Keston Institute which has hundreds if not thousands of personal hand written documents, magazines, and photos from those that <em>lived</em> during that militant atheist regime, that prove otherwise. To say that Stalin, Lenin, Khrushchev, or any of them were &#8220;OK guys&#8221; is pretty much an oxymoron.</p>
<p>Secondly, many of the survivors simply want to forget and move on with their lives. I tried to speak to get three groups of Russian Jews to tell their story and none of them wanted to speak. This has happened to me with other religions as well, not just the Jews.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart3/" rel="attachment wp-att-182115"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182115" title="mart3" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart3.png" alt="" width="400" height="263" /></a><strong>Congregation meeting outside because their Church was destroyed by the Soviet government.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What is the layout of the film? Will this be the typical Discovery or History Channel style documentary?</p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>No, not at all. Actually that is the one thing I am desperately trying to avoid. Not that I have anything against the History or Discovery channels, I&#8217;m simply trying not to make another boring fact based documentary. So, to avoid that I&#8217;m integrating mini reenactments of personal testimonies from survivors. And not just a reenactment with narration, but short movies within the documentary that could stand on their own if needed. There is no narration during the reenactments. At the end of each vignette the actual person will come on screen and close that reenactment. From their we&#8217;ll go back to the facts, figures and history of the topic. I&#8217;m looking to put about 6 to 7 reenactments throughout the documentary. That&#8217;s one of the reasons the budget is a bit high.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart5/" rel="attachment wp-att-182117"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182117" title="mart5" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart5.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="612" /></a><strong>Ft. B. Povilanskis after being physically beaten and tortured in a Soviet Lithuanian Information Center in 1980.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> What is the budget roughly?</p>
</div>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>The current estimated budget is $450k which, for this type of doc, is normal due to the travel, reenactments, and stock footage needed. Another documentary came out in 2008 called the <em>Soviet Story</em> which was about communism itself in Russia and it&#8217;s dealing with Germany. I spoke with the director of the film and he told me his budget was about $400k and almost half of that went to stock footage. This is why we really need people to give and spread the word. What is great is that the film qualified for fiscal sponsorship through the San Francisco Film Foundation (SFFS) which means that donations are tax deductible. The SFFS is a great organization and is responsible for producing the San Francisco International Film Festival each year.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart6/" rel="attachment wp-att-182119"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182119" title="mart6" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart6.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="245" /></a><strong>Soviet Prison Camp</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP: </strong>What do you hope your film will help achieve?<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>I want to tell a story that has never been told before and to show how the elimination of religion will lead to situations like North Korea, China, and the French Revolution. There have been some articles and brief mentions about it on TV or in a documentary, but no one has dived into the outright attack against the religious realm by the Soviet government. Many focus on the Lenin or Stalin era but the persecution was going on all the way up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.</p>
<p>Rev. Michael Bourdeaux, our other expert and the founder of the Keston Institute, studied in Russia in 1959 and 1960 and he saw the persecution first hand. And the old saying is very true, &#8220;Those who do not know their own history are condemned to repeat it.&#8221; I interviewed a Pentecostal paster from Samara Russia a couple of years ago and he said that in some areas of his own city you cannot evangelize in any way. He said, &#8220;They are watching you.&#8221;</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/jamie-glazov/martyred-in-the-ussr-militant-atheism-in-the-former-soviet-union/mart7-2/" rel="attachment wp-att-182121"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-182121" title="mart7" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/mart71.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="556" /></a><strong>&#8220;New Prisoner List.&#8221; Some churches would put out a list of newly arrested people so loved ones would know. Many times people were arrested and never seen again. Their families never knew what happened to them.</strong></p>
<p><strong>FP:</strong> Kevin Gonzales, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview and thank you for telling the truth about the martyred in the USSR and for keeping their memory alive.<strong></strong></p>
<p><strong>Gonzales: </strong>Thank you Jamie for having me and remember to checkout the website and also please LIKE our Facebook page at<a href="https://www.facebook.com/martyredintheussr" target="_blank"> https://www.facebook.com/<wbr>martyredintheussr</wbr></a>. We are really pushing to get the budget in to produce it this year. Thanks again.</p>
<p><strong>Editor&#8217;s note: To view the trailer for <em>Martyred in the USSR</em>, see below:</strong></p>
<p><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3ZSeGp8BwKs" frameborder="0" width="425" height="325"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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		<title>A Congressman&#8217;s Crusade for Human and Religious Rights</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/a-congressmans-crusade-for-human-and-religious-rights/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=a-congressmans-crusade-for-human-and-religious-rights</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 04:35:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Faith J. H. McDonnell]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Christians]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Islam]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[persecuted]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wolf]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf challenges Church leaders to stand up on behalf of the persecuted.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2013/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/a-congressmans-crusade-for-human-and-religious-rights/olympus-digital-camera-7/" rel="attachment wp-att-173498"><img class="wp-image-173498 alignleft" title="OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/wolf-450x337.jpg" alt="" width="315" height="236" /></a>Evoking the moral apathy and failure of the past, U.S. Representative Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) recently <a href="http://wolf.house.gov/press-releases/wolf-calls-on-religious-leaders-in-west-to-speak-out-on-behalf-of-persecuted-church-globally/">asked church leaders around the United States</a> to use their influence for those who are persecuted. In his January 9, 2013 letter to over 300 Catholic and Protestant leaders, Wolf reminded them of the words of German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis during World War II. Bonhoeffer, when “faced with the tyranny and horror of Nazism, famously said, ‘Silence in the face of evil is itself evil.  Not to speak is to speak.  Not to act is to act,’” recalled Wolf.</p>
<p>“And that is precisely what many in the church did, or failed to do, as Hitler unleashed his murderous plans,” Wolf continued. Writing with passion and urgency to such representative Christian leaders as the U.S. Catholic bishops, the leaders of Protestant denominations, and the pastors of some of America’s largest “mega-churches,” the congressman then told the story of a German Christian shared in the book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/When-Nation-Forgets-God-Lessons/dp/0802446566"><em>When a Nation Forgets God</em></a>:</p>
<blockquote><p><em>I lived in Germany during the Nazi Holocaust.  I considered myself a Christian.  We heard stories of what was happening to the Jews, but we tried to distance ourselves from it, because, what could anyone do to stop it? </em></p>
<p><em>A railroad track ran behind our small church and each Sunday morning we could hear the whistle in the distance and then the wheels coming over the tracks.  We became disturbed when we heard the cries coming from the train as it passed by.  We realized that it was carrying Jews like cattle in the cars!</em></p>
<p><em>Week after week the whistle would blow.  We dreaded to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that we would hear the cries of the Jews en route to a death camp.  Their screams tormented us.</em></p>
<p><em>We knew the time the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow we began singing hymns.  By the time the train came past our church we were singing at the top of our voices.  If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more.</em></p>
<p><em>Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore.  But I still hear that train whistle in my sleep.  God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing to intervene.”</em></p></blockquote>
<p>There are <a href="http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/12/30/yet-another-german-bishop-decries-persecution-of-christians-and-political-correctness/">admirable</a> <a href="http://juicyecumenism.com/2012/12/28/german-catholic-bishops-decry-global-persecution-of-christians-call-for-prayer/">exceptions</a>, but many church leaders have not spoken out for the persecuted consistently and forthrightly or even called their churches to regular times of prayer for the persecuted. Yet Wolf has seen time and time again that committed, organized advocacy can make a difference. The congressman represents Virginia’s 10th District, but he also represents persecuted Christians and other targeted religious believers around the world. He is known for championing religious freedom and other human rights for people in Sudan, China, Egypt, Pakistan, and elsewhere. His advocacy is as long as his tenure in Congress. As he recounts in the book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Prisoner-Conscience-Crusade-Global-Religious/dp/0310328993/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1358191665&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=Prisoner+of+Conscience+Frank+Wolf"><em>Prisoner of Conscience: One Man’s Crusade for Global Human and Religious Rights</em></a><em>, </em>written with Anne Morse, Wolf’s advocacy efforts began with Ethiopia, Romania, and with refuseniks, Christians, and other dissidents being persecuted in the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>Wolf is also known for challenging U.S. Christians to accept their responsibility to speak out on behalf of co-religionists and others around the world. He once declared that church members should be confident of their influence with Congress because “there are more churches than Chambers of Commerce in the United States.” But in today’s morass of moral equivalence and political correctness, it is increasingly difficult to find religious leaders – let alone political ones – who will speak the truth. And when and if they do, there are always repercussions. <a href="http://www.theird.org/issues/religious-liberty/12-11-12-rl-angela-merkel-cites-christianity-as-the-worlds-most-persecuted-faith">German Chancellor Angela Merkel</a> discovered this when her statement that “Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world” in a November 2012 address to the Lutheran Church Synod provoked outrage.</p>
<p>Wolf’s letter revealed that in addition to ongoing advocacy for the persecuted around the world, this new session of Congress he will reintroduce a bill to create a special envoy position within the State Department to advocate on behalf of religious minorities in the Middle East and South Central Asia. His previous bill passed overwhelmingly the House of Representatives, but was <a href="http://frontpagemag.com/2012/faith-j-h-mcdonnell/senate-dems-hold-up-human-rights-legislation/">blocked in the Senate</a> because it was opposed by the State Department and by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.</p>
<p>Arab “Spring” has exacerbated conditions for the Middle East Christians, Jews, Yazidis, Mandaeans, Baha’I, and others for whom Wolf and U.S. Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA) formed the Congressional Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East in 2008. Wolf noted that while there were some 150,000 Jews in Iraq in 1948, today there are less than 10. Likewise, there were over 1.4 million Christians in Iraq in 2003 and possibly as few as 500,000 today. “Over the span of a few decades, the Middle East, with the exception of Israel, was virtually emptied of Jews,” Wolf wrote. “The same thing will happen to the Christian community if the current trajectory holds true,” he lamented.</p>
<p>Conditions are no better for minority believers in Pakistan. Wolf finds inspiration in the late Pakistani federal minister for minority affairs, <a href="http://wolf.house.gov/bhattivideo">Shahbaz Bhatti</a>, who, he said, “boldly followed Jesus in spite of unbelievably hostile circumstances.” Bhatti was brutally assassinated for his outspoken defense of Christians and other minorities and his condemnation of Pakistan’s egregious Blasphemy Laws.</p>
<p>Although Wolf knows a special envoy cannot solve the persecution problem, he told the church leaders, “It certainly can’t hurt to have a high-level person within the State Department bureaucracy who is exclusively focused on the protection and preservation of these ancient communities.” The <em>right</em> envoy can make a difference. For instance, former Senator Jack Danforth, the first Sudan Special Envoy appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001, helped to create the conditions that led to Sudan’s north/south peace settlement. If nothing else, a special envoy would raise the profile of the marginalized. Wolf added, “To do nothing is simply not an option.”</p>
<p>“The Church globally is under assault,” Wolf wrote. “Our response must not be to simply sing more loudly thereby drowning out the cries for help from our brothers and sisters.  Rather we must speak out, advocate and act on their behalf.” But Wolf confessed that from his perspective, “the Church in the West, specifically in America, is failing in this regard.” He said that “the silence of many in the West is deafening” and that stories of religious persecution “receive scant attention in the mainstream media, and perhaps more strikingly, are rarely spoken of from our pulpits.” Wolf admitted that much information about the persecution of Christians and others under Islam is silenced by what British-based think tank Civitas calls “the logical error that equates criticism of Muslims with racism, and therefore as wrong by definition.”</p>
<p>“Can you, as a leader in the Church, help?” Wolf asked. “Are you pained by these accounts of persecution?” he demanded. “Will you use your sphere of influence to raise the profile of this issue—be it through a sermon, writing or media interview?” he challenged. He told the leaders that he welcomed their thoughts and invited their engagement “in this monumental task.”</p>
<p>Although it is tempting to merely express outrage or sadness at the persecution of religious believers and then move on to helplessness and inertia, Wolf does not afford church leaders that luxury. There <em>is </em>something they can do. There <em>is </em>something that they are called to do – and not just by a Virginia Congressman. But their voices and influence can help encourage other members of Congress to join that Virginia Congressman and others like him in legislative and diplomatic measures to defend religious minorities around the world.</p>
<p>Many individual Americans have been defenders of the persecuted and have mobilized other concerned citizens to both prayer and advocacy. But in targeting church leaders, Wolf hopes to spread that influence even more broadly, as well as to encourage church leaders to endorse and bless the advocacy that is already taking place by their parishioners and others.</p>
<p>“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” said Wolf, quoting from The Book of Proverbs. “The Chinese bishop under house arrest cannot speak.  The North Korean believer enslaved in the gulag can’t speak.  The Iraqi nun fearing for her life cannot speak,” he declared. Rather than leading their congregations in indulgent hymns of self-preoccupation, focused only on the local church and its issues, Church leaders must join their voices in advocacy for the persecuted and oppressed – a hymn as ancient as the Church itself.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank" target="_blank">Click here</a>.  </strong></p>
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