The May 2 release of three American prisoners, two of whom are Christians, was welcomed news, but their captivity shines a spotlight on the increasing persecution facing Christians worldwide.
According to Open Doors USA, an organization that tracks persecution of Christians worldwide, North Korea is the worst country in the world for Christians. Some 300,000 North Koreans are Christians, some with a faith heritage dating to pre-Korean War days and others who have come to faith in other ways.
Open Doors reports that if Christians are discovered, they are either deported to the country’s notorious labor camps as political criminals or are killed on the spot. Family members usually share their fate.
Though North Korea is the worst offender when it comes to restrictions on religious freedom, it is certainly not the only country where Christians face persecution for their faith. And the global situation appears to be worsening.
In a report released April 25, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) cited more than two dozen countries as main contributors to an “ongoing downward trend” in religious liberty worldwide and called on the Trump administration to prioritize the release of religious prisoners and assist in resettling refugees fleeing persecution.
“Sadly, religious freedom conditions deteriorated in many countries in 2017, often due to increasing authoritarianism or under the guise of countering terrorism,” said USCIRF Chairman Daniel Mark.
In China, for example, the communist government of Xi Jinping has clamped down on house churches and other Christian activities not sanctioned by the government. Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), another group that monitors Christian persecution, reported that a Chinese court recently sentenced North Carolina pastor John Cao, age 58, to seven years in prison and fined him $3,000 for “organizing illegal border crossings.”
Attempt to control
The pastor, who has been detained since his arrest in March 2017, allegedly crossed the China-Myanmar border to minister to 2,000 impoverished minority children in Myanmar’s northern Wa state. He also helped build 16 schools there after building more than a dozen schools in China, according to VOM. Experts believe his arrest and sentencing are related to government attempts to control the house church movement.
The USCIRF report noted the range of severe abuses in 28 countries, including the so-called Islamic State’s continuing “genocidal campaign” against Christians, Yazidis and Shiite Muslims; Russia’s harsh treatment of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Muslims and Scientologists; and “the continued unjust detention” of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson in Turkey.
Commissioners traveled to a dozen countries in 2017 and early 2018 to assess religious freedom conditions, prioritizing religious prisoners of conscience, blasphemy laws and the connections between women’s equality and freedom of belief. Two commission members visited Brunson in late 2017, becoming the first Americans to visit him outside family and consular staff, Mark said.
“This is a man who had just gone about his business peacefully for more than two decades and with no warning whatsoever was swept up in this horrible thing, accused of aiding terrorists and extremism and so on and facing a life sentence,” he said. “So the chilling effect is incalculable.”
As it did in 2017 the commission asks the State Department to re-designate 10 nations as “countries of particular concern,” or CPCs, for egregious religious freedom violations: Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
It also reiterated its request that the department add six countries to that list: Central African Republic, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Syria and Vietnam.
Continued monitoring
Mark told reporters in a conference call that the repeated requests should not be viewed as a “status quo move” but rather the result of ongoing monitoring of each country. He pointed to the example of Russia, which was added to the list of suggested CPCs last year.
“All the news has only confirmed that move and suggested that the State Department should take a very serious look, for example, at Russia and the others as well,” said Mark, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University.
In addition to the CPCs, the report also cited 12 “Tier 2” countries that are considered to be less problematic but still violators of religious freedom: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Laos, Malaysia and Turkey. The commission also recommended the State Department designate as “entities of particular concern” organizations its members consider severe religious freedom violators: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS; the Taliban in Afghanistan; and al-Shabab in Somalia.
In their report commissioners requested that the Trump administration provide sufficient funding for the office of the international religious freedom ambassador, former Sen. Sam Brownback. They also called for prioritizing the release of people “imprisoned for their religious beliefs, activity, identity or religious freedom advocacy” and the resettlement of refugees fleeing religious persecution.
Ongoing concerns
The report also noted the commission’s ongoing concerns about the administration’s expansion of “expedited removal” procedures in which Department of Homeland Security officials deport some noncitizens.
“We find that those in charge are not sufficiently sensitive to concerns of religious persecution at home,” Mark told reporters. “It’s important that when people come with credible fear of persecution if they return home, that be acknowledged and treated appropriately under the law.”
In a note of optimism in an otherwise bleak report, Mark noted that 20 years after the passage of the International Religious Freedom Act, persecution does not remain hidden.
“The importance of this foundational right is appreciated more now than ever, and egregious violations are less likely to go unnoticed.” (TAB, RNS contributed)
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