The General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, Denton Lotz, was honored with four other worldwide religious leaders for his work for religious freedom.
One of the other persons was Robert E. Seiple, who served as the first United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
The special award, presented at the Fifth World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) held in Manila, Philippines, June 10-13, 2002, was “for support of human rights and interreligious understanding in general and the Fifth World Congress on Religious Liberty in particular.” The IRLA’s purpose is to disseminate the principles of religious liberty throughout the world, defend and safeguard the right of all people to worship and adopt a religion or belief of their choice.
Attended by hundreds of representatives from 33 countries, the religious liberty gathering focused on the theme “Religious Freedom: A Basis for Peace and Justice.”
The event coincided with the tragic martyrdom of The New Tribes Mission missionary Martin Burnham as Philippines government forces tried to free him from the Abu Sayyaf Muslim guerillas. “Christians around the world mourned the death of this committed servant of God, and this gives us all the more reason to work to promote religious tolerance and beyond that, religious freedom,” said Lotz.
Lotz, who was chair of the Congress, spoke on “The Baptist Tradition of Religious Freedom” and the concerns around the world where Baptists currently must struggle to worship without harassment from either majority or opposing religions.
Lotz listed among Baptist contributions: freedom of religion, separation of church and state, soul liberty or freedom of conscience, democratic congregationalism and a prophetic witness.
Of religious freedom he said, “It is a sad fact that even today many countries do not guarantee freedom of religion to all its citizens.
Speaking of a prophetic witness, he said, “Every religious institution must have the freedom to proclaim its faith without hindrance or coercion from the state.” A resolution at the conclusion of the Congress called for respect for religious freedom, “which plays a leading role in giving rise to a culture of peace and justice.”
(BWA)
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