Why should the nonreligious care about religious freedom?

 

The Vatican's Faustian secret compact with China and the scandalous silence of Pope Francis regarding the plight of several Catholics who by contrast courageously stand against the tyrannical Chinese Communist Party raises a fair question: If religious organizations kowtow to tyrants at the peril of religious freedom, why should the nonreligious even care?

We should all care about religious freedom because at its heart is our freedom to believe and behave according to our deepest held beliefs. Every one of us depends upon that freedom to live our lives according to our conscientious principles.

America's First Amendment by no accident pairs religious freedom with freedoms of speech, the press, assembly and petitioning the government. That's because once a government intrudes on any one of these freedoms, none of the other freedoms remains safe. Witness China.

The Chinese Communist Party's jackbooted stomping on freedoms of speech, assembly, the press and religion should give us pause before sanctioning any weakening of these freedoms in our own country—even when such suppression might advance our own convictions regarding abortion, marriage, gender issues or any other matter of belief and conscience.

As Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Coronavirus Response Reveals Character of Governments

American novelist James Lane Allen wrote, "Adversity does not build character; it reveals it." The response by the governments of countries around the world to the Covid-19 Coronavirus is revealing the fundamental character of those governments.

As the U.S., state and local governments and healthcare professionals labor tirelessly in compassionate and effective efforts to protect American citizens from the spreading Covid-19 Coronavirus, governments in certain countries instead are reportedly exposing persecuted religious groups to the threat.

So charges the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in a just-released report, "The Global Response to the Coronavirus: Impact on Religious Practice and Religious Freedom."

China demonstrates contempt for religious minorities

China withheld a potentially lifesaving Coronavirus alert.

Chinese Communist officials clearly view religion as a threat to the power of the state. Besides rampant and systematic persecution of individual pastors and believers, the Chinese government literally has dynamited Christian churches. The persecution extends to adherents to virtually any religion besides the state's de facto religion, Communism.

The USCIRF report now notes, "Human rights advocates are concerned that COVID-19 — and the [Chinese] government’s response—risk exacerbating ongoing religious freedom violations. As noted in USCIRF’s 2019 Annual Report, the Chinese government has detained more than 1 million Uighur and other Muslims in concentration camps in Xinjiang since April 2017. The combination of limited access to medical resources and large concentrations of elderly detainees could lead to a humanitarian disaster if the virus reaches any of those camps.

"In addition, there are reports that authorities have forced Uighurs to work in factories throughout the country to compensate for decreased output during the quarantine. In January, authorities quarantined millions of people across Xinjiang without advance warning. There are reports that some Uighur residents in the city of Ghulja have limited access to food and local officials have demanded payments in order to bring supplies."

Iran charged with ignoring risks to religious prisoners

Government officials in Iran, another religion-repressive regime, now are charged with intentionally putting religious minorities at risk.

USCIRF reports, "Iran has long imprisoned hundreds of people who are members of religious minority groups. Activists have expressed concern that prison authorities are not taking sufficient precautions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, which has already appeared in Evin, Urmia, and Ghazalhesar prisons.

"On March 3, Iran announced it would release 54,000 prisoners on furlough, and it later released a total of 70,000. However, 16 Sufi prisoners at Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) reportedly were moved to a ward with known cases of COVID-19, and 8 Sufis from Evin prison were moved to the same ward within GTP. Additionally, eight Sufis in Ghazalhasar Prison were moved to an overcrowded ward at that prison where they are at an increased risk of contracting the virus."

Why American Christians care

Why do Christians in the United States care about the persecution of non-Christians in countries well beyond our borders?

1.      Because religious freedom is a God-given right, we must protect this freedom for all persons.

My friend and colleague Luke Goodrich, an attorney with Becket who has represented the Christian Medical Association in court, explains this right in his book, Free to Believe:

"This understanding is also consistent with how God created us and interacts with us. God never forces anyone to love Him, because forced love is not love at all. And if God doesn’t force anyone to love Him, how much less should the government try to do so?"[i]

"So when the government needlessly interferes in our relationship with God, it is committing an injustice in two respects. First, it’s exceeding its God-given realm of authority and attempting to exercise authority that belongs to God alone. Second, it’s taking away something every human being deserves—an opportunity to respond freely (even if erroneously) to God."[ii]

2.      Because the United States also can lose religious freedom.

The record of other countries and history provide us with a roadmap of how religious freedom can be advanced or restricted.

Consider two revolutions, for example: The French Revolution and the American Revolution. In France, radical secularists guillotined clergy during a merciless purge of religion. China and Iran demonstrate a similar anti-religious, totalitarian character today.

By contrast, after the revolution in America--a country settled by persecuted religious groups--our founders enshrined religious freedom in our Constitution. Though imperfectly implemented through the years, this protection has produced a freedom and prosperity previously unknown in history.

Yet today we face increasing onslaughts in the United States against our historic religious freedom—typically under the guise of eradicating discrimination. For example, the U.S. House Oversight Committee recently held a hearing entitled, "The Administration’s Religious Liberty Assault on LGBT Rights."

But the strong arm of the U.S. government is hardly aimed at oppressing the LGBT community, which arguably has become one of the most culturally celebrated groups in the country. No, government assaults and coercion have been overwhelmingly against persons of faith, who simply decline to comply with demands that compromise their most deeply held convictions. A few examples:

·         Under the vast governmental powers granted by Obamacare, the previous administration attempted to force the Little Sisters of the Poor Catholic nuns to participate in its contraceptives mandate.

·         The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission during that administration attempted to dictate the hiring practices of Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School.

·         In Colorado, the government prosecuted cake artist Jack Phillips for sexual orientation discrimination simply because he had declined to create a same-sex wedding cake, despite serving LGBT customers otherwise.

·         The Obama Dept. of Health and Human Services gutted the conscience freedom rule that helped protect health professionals from coercion to participate in abortion and other morally controversial procedures.

·         The state of Washington prosecuted flower shop owner Barronelle Stutzman for acting consistent with her faith when she declined to use her creative skills to celebrate the same-sex ceremony of a longtime customer.

The list of government coercion of religious conscientious objectors goes on, with each instance holding a corrosive potential to erode our fundamental religious freedoms. Full-blown government persecution can begin with just such a gradual erosion of religious freedoms. Government incursion into our fundamental freedoms will never advertise itself as a path to persecution. These incursions will always be perpetrated under the guise of something that sounds good--like preventing discrimination, ensuring "reproductive freedom" or protecting health.

So as we ponder this new, invisible enemy, let us pray and work to prevent the literal virus we now face from serving as an international transmitter of government coercion.

Thankfully, a number of outstanding U.S. government officials who are persons of faith are leading the charge for international religious freedom. I have had the privilege of meeting with each of them, even on a regular basis, to discuss programs, developments and strategies.

Please pray for these individuals in our government and the many more in the U.S. and around the globe who are working tirelessly to preserve our God-given freedom to believe:

·         Sam Brownback - Ambassador at Large For International Religious Freedom;

·         Tony Perkins – Chair, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom;

·         Mike Pompeo – U.S. Secretary of State;

·         Roger Severino - Director, Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Dept. Health and Human Services.

---

[i] Goodrich, Luke. Free to Believe (p. 153). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

[ii] Ibid., p. 154.

U.S. advocates at U.N. for international religious freedom

An email received from a friend in the White House summarizes this historic advocacy:

"Today, President Trump became the first President to convene a meeting on religious freedom at the UN. He was surrounded by survivors of religious persecution from around the globe, civil society leaders, religious leaders, US business executives, US administration officials (Secretary Pompeo, Ambassador Brownback, and many others), members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), and members of the faith community. Over 130 UN Heads of State and Delegations, as well as UN Secretary Gutierrez, attended the event to hear the President address this crucial issue.

As many of you know, there is no better time for a meeting like this one. More than 80 percent of the world’s population live in nations where religious freedom is threatened or banned. We see people being persecuted for their religious beliefs at an alarming rate. Right now in China, one million Muslim Uyghurs are imprisoned simply because of their faith. In Iran, the persecution of Christians, Sunnis, Bahai’i, and Jews continues. And in Burma, the military continues to target Rohingya Muslims and Christians with discrimination and violence.

Houses of worship – sacred places that should never be a place of violence – have seen unspeakable tragedies in the past year. In Sri Lanka, 300 Christians were murdered during Easter services. In New Zealand, 51 men, women, and children were brutally killed while attending mosque. And in Pittsburgh and Poway, faithful Jewish communities faced deadly and cowardly anti-Semitic attacks.  

Around the world, religious prisoners of conscience continue to be imprisoned, detained, and disappear for their religious beliefs. The trend of religious intolerance is rising around the world.

Today, the President used the full weight of the US government and called out on the world’s stage that we must not ignore this frightening trend. Instead, he called for an end to discrimination and persecution of all people, of all faiths. America stands with believers in every country.

For those of you who were not able to watch it live, I have included the text of the President’s remarks from today, the Vice President’s remarks, and the video of the full event. I also included highlights of the President’s speech sent around by the WH Communications Team.

I hope you will consider sharing. And of course, I hope you will join the President and Vice President in their efforts to advance religious freedom around the globe.

Thank you.

“Today, I ask all nations to join us in this urgent moral duty. We ask the governments of the world to honor the eternal right of every person to follow their conscience, live by their faith, and give glory to God.” – President Donald J. Trump 

Declarations of Faiths in Times of Persecution: What the West Can Learn From Chinese Christians and Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In the United States of America, most battles between our government and our faith take place within courtrooms. However, not all Christians in the world are granted the right to an attorney. In China, under the governance of a communist atheist government, Chinese Christians are facing a type of persecution that most Americans will only ever read about in news articles or watch on tv: churches bulldozed, crosses and pictures forcibly removed from private citizen’s homes, Christians banned from freely gathering.

In response to these injustices, hundreds of Chinese pastors composed and signed a declaration of faith in which they affirm the core tenets of Christianity and condemn their government’s blatant attacks upon their ability to practice their beliefs. The statement reads,

“For the sake of the Gospel, we are prepared to bear all losses—even the loss of our freedom and our lives.”[1]

These powerful words are reminiscent of a similar declaration of faith, signed many years ago by German Christians in response to the horrific deeds committed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime.

In 1934, German theologians and pastors signed the Barmen Declaration in order to declare their allegiance to God before State and the authority of Holy Scripture over National Socialism.

The federation of churches who signed the declaration became known as the Confessing Church; they believed the church in Germany was in a state of “confessing” meaning, a state of crisis in which the “confession of the gospel was at stake.” German Christians had become unwilling to not only publicly profess their faith but authentically live it as well. The Confessing Church was an attempt the wake up their fellow Christians to the reality of Hitler’s evil regime.

One particular individual, at the forefront of this movement, was the German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Many know Bonhoeffer for his involvement in the many plots to assassinate Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Nazis and shortly before the war ended, climbed the steps to the gallows where he took his last breath. The declaration of faith made by Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not just a signed piece of paper but an actualized commitment solidified by his actions and sacrifices.

Bonhoeffer’s story of faith and his fight for freedom involves espionage, assassination attempts, and executions. However, more important than his heroic deeds was the driving force behind them: his personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Bonhoeffer’s relationship with Christ and understanding of the true essence of Christianity was the ever burning flame which sparked his boldness and fearlessness. For Bonhoeffer, it all boiled down to a willingness to “take Christ seriously.” He wrote,

“Understanding Christ means taking Christ seriously. Understanding this claim means taking seriously his absolute claim on our commitment.”[2] 

During Hitler’s rise to power and even during his reign of terror, the majority of German Christians were unwilling to stand with men like Bonhoeffer. For some time, Christians had been exiling Christ

to their Sunday mornings, excluding Him from the rest of their day to day lives. This greatly frustrated Dietrich Bonhoeffer; he believed that the Christian life requires a full and unreserved commitment of oneself. The choice was simple: give Christ everything, or give Him nothing. 

To give oneself to Christ entails choosing Christ in the present moment and serving His kingdom here on earth. Bonhoeffer preached,

“If you want to find eternity, you must serve the times.” [3]

For many of his fellow Germans, Bonheoffer was demanding too much of them. When the “times” in which one lives are as morally depraved as Nazi Germany, accomplishing God’s will could imply making the ultimate sacrifice. Essentially, German Christians had only two options: either take a stand against Hitler or make compromises against one’s conscience and one’s faith.

Bonhoeffer believed every Christian was called to take up their cross and walk the road to Calvary with Christ. He believed that in order to find God, one must go to the cross of Christ.

He wrote, "… whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands. This is not according to our nature at all, it is entirely contrary to it. But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New but also in the Old Testament …"[4] 

In no short measure did Bonhoeffer pick up his cross and respond to God’s call. Bonhoeffer made the difficult decision to fully commit himself to combat Hitler. Already a co-conspirator in the plots to assassinate Hitler, Bonhoeffer joined an anti-Nazi resistance and became a double agent. 

Bonhoeffer’s participation in the resistance was short-lived, however. In early 1943 the Gestapo caught wind of Bonhoeffer’s plans to help Jewish refugees escape and consequently, Bonhoeffer was arrested. Fortunately, they had not yet discovered his association with those who were conspiring to assassinate Hitler. 

In an essay he wrote a few months before his arrest, he writes,

“Who stands fast? Only the man whose final standard is not his reason, his principles, his conscience, his freedom, or his virtue, but who is ready to sacrifice all this when he is called to obedient and responsible action in faith and in exclusive allegiance to God -- the responsible man, who tries to make his whole life an answer to the question and call of God.” [4]

On July 20th, 1944, the famous Valkyrie plot was executed. Unfortunately, Hitler would survive the assassination attempt unscathed, quite satisfied and amused by his luck.  A few days later, the Nazis began arresting and executing many of Bonhoeffer’s brave co-conspirators, many of whom were family members.  In October of that year, Bonheoffer was transferred to a Gestapo prison where he would remain for four months. Upon his arrival, Bonhoeffer was interrogated in regards to his knowledge of the conspiracy and the identities of his co-conspirators. Needless to say, Bonhoeffer revealed nothing.  On the 7th of February 1945, Bonhoeffer was moved again but this time to the infamous Buchenwald concentration camp where he would join a band of 15 misfit prisoners, ranging from army generals and aristocrats to a prostituted woman and a concentration camp “doctor”.

As the war was nearing an end, only a few weeks before Hitler would take his own life, Hitler demanded the execution of all the remaining conspirators. Bonhoeffer was on that list. Bonhoeffer was taken to Flossenburg and on the 8th of April, Bonhoeffer was hung. Bonhoeffer thought of death as “the last station on the road to freedom.” The Flossenburg camp doctor, who witnessed Bonhoeffer’s execution, recalled, “In the almost fifty years that I worked as a doctor, I have hardly ever seen a man die so entirely submissive to the will of God.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s story serves as a well-timed “reality check” for the modern day Christian. We may not be so dissimilar from the German Christians whose complacency and lukewarm faith paved the way for Hitler’s rise to power. In 21st century America, it is rare that we are forced to make formal declarations of faith in the public sphere. Yet, what of our interior declarations of faith? Bonhoeffer made his commitment to Christ clear not merely through his role in the Confessing Church or his participation in espionage. But rather, Bonhoeffer strived to foster a commitment to Christ always and in all ways.

Almost every day I’m confronted with a news headline regarding the continued persecution of my fellow Christians around the world: Christians in China, Indonesia, Syria, and Africa. However, my responses to these stories are not entirely sympathetic but rather, more so, envious. I want what they have. Like many other Christians, I desire to glorify my God through the gift of my complete and total commitment, obedience, and faithfulness. I do not envy their suffering per se, but I desire the opportunity they are given; the opportunity to experience the faithfulness of God during times of great persecution. Those Christians, resistant to their government’s coercion and attacks, are being given the grace necessary to accomplish God’s will on earth. They are experiencing what it truly means to be a serious Christian. What it means to walk the road of Calvary with Christ, to share in His sufferings and take comfort in the reality that they have already been saved.

The excesses we are granted in the western world are at times a blessing and at other times a curse. Our material excess has the ability to numb our spiritual senses. We eventually lose sight of the central message of the Gospel and its serious claim upon our lives. Heroic tales, like that of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, read almost like fairytales rather than the timely wake-up calls they ought to be.

God is calling all Christians to heroic virtue in the here and now. But are we “ prepared to bear all losses” for the sake of the Gospel?   

_______________________________

[1] http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/cwn/2018/september/more-chinese-pastors-sign-statement-affirming-religious-freedom-as-us-govt-holds-hearing-on-persecution

[2] Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, 83.

[3] Ibid, 81.

[4] Ibid, 137.