Spotlight on religious freedom chief highlights problems in Eritrea

(Images courtesy Open Doors)

Eritrea (ODM/MNN) ― The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has a new chair: Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School.

As focus turned to function, the leaders of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom say that religious liberty is an "essential element" of human dignity and that its protection deserves prominence in U.S. foreign policy.

The State Department and the religious freedom commission both named Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan as "countries of particular concern."

It's a designation that Eritrea both disputes and ignores. However, there have been multiple reports of a widespread crackdown on Christians this year, especially for those outside the state-approved churches.
While children were once considered exempt from it, that's not the case anymore, says Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for Open Doors USA. "We believe there's been about 200 Christians that have been incarcerated in military camps. That includes 39 students who had just completed the training for military and for schooling. They were not allowed to go forward. Instead, they were arrested because of their ‘Christian beliefs.'"

According to a statement on the official Eritrean Ministry of Information Web site, 17,000 students of the 26th national service intake graduated on July 13. All of these students had successfully completed eight months of academic studies and four months mandatory military training, according to the announcement. These students will now proceed to Senior Secondary school to complete grade 12.

The group of 39 was taken to the Sawa Military training center. Sources told Open Doors that the arrests came as a result of the students' "Christian beliefs and for their commitment to Christ." Dykstra says, "They now face beatings, hard labor, lack of food and water. But if they renounce Christ, then they can go back to their studies."

Since the beginning of the year, Christians belonging to groups outside of the government sanctioned Orthodox, Catholic, and Lutheran churches have faced a widespread arrest campaign. More than 200 men and women of various ages have been arrested since the beginning of the year, he adds. "They have no judicial system. In other words, they're arrested, there are never any charges, there is no trial. They just disappear into thin air."

One 85-year-old woman is being held in a shipping container and has contracted pneumonia. She is still being refused medical attention because she will not agree to camp authorities' terms for receiving medicine. Military training forms part of the Eritrean curriculum. But after completing school, all Eritreans must also do national service.

Since 2002, worship has been forbidden outside the government-sanctioned Sunni Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC), Roman Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea, with Protestant worship a criminal offense. In 2005, authorities also began persecuting the EOC, particularly those in the church's renewal movement. The flip side, Dykstra observes, is that "where there is hostility toward the church, Christ spreads the church and grows it. That's what's happening in Eritrea."

The fact that it's a seemingly sanctioned campaign is disconcerting, at best. "A government official stated that there are three things that need to be eradicated from Eritrea: HIV/AIDs, the regime of arch-enemy Ethiopia, and independent Christians." At least 105 Christians were arrested in 2012, and 31 Christians were reported to have died in prison.

Dykstra goes on to say that it's likely to get worse before it gets better. There's a new peril. "Another growing threat is the rise of the Muslim terrorists in the country, besides the government. We've seen the increase of that over the past year."

Pray for God's strength for Christians imprisoned in containers, especially those arrested in 2012. Pray for spouses and families who are forced to live as refugees in different countries, and for worldwide awareness of the plight of Eritrean Christians.

U.S. government postpones decision to fund Religious Freedom Commission

USA (MNN) ― After over a month of waiting for re-authorization, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) was told Friday to wait some more.

"Basically, instead of passing real budgets and instead of reauthorizing the commission, they've just given it a lifeline for one more month," explains Lindsay Vessey with Open Doors, USA. "So now the commission is funded through December 18."

Essentially, USCIRF has not been cut out of the budget yet, but no clear decisions to keep the commission afloat have been put into place either.

Why is that important? And is USCIRF really relevant to the rest of the world?

Vessey would respond with an emphatic "Yes."

The job of USCIRF can be likened to a watchdog service. USCIRF focuses exclusively on religious freedom issues around the world, monitoring violations in various nations, bringing them to light in the U.S., and making recommendations as to how the U.S. should respond.

Vessey says that USCIRF was created at the same time as the U.S. State Department Office of International Religious Freedom. Although the State Department itself deals with these religious freedom issues, Vessey explains, persecution, for instance, may be called "sectarian violence" coming out of the State Department. USCIRF would likely call this same incident "persecution," and highlight religious freedom abuses.

With USCIRF gone, this lone government voice for the persecuted would be silenced.

"One of the main things that we're concerned about, if they lose their funding and cease to exist, is that we will lose that really clear voice speaking out on behalf of people of all faiths worldwide who are being persecuted," notes Vessey.

The implications are even more severe than just one voice silenced in the States, though. Ridding the nation of USCIRF could actually affect the whole rest of the globe and encourage high-profile nations' bad behavior.

"We are the only government in the world who has an agency like this--an independent, bipartisan agency that works in religious freedom," Vessey explains. "So if we were to shut down the commission, it would be like saying that religious freedom really isn't a priority for the U.S. government any more. That would make a huge impact, I believe, on many governments around the world who are violating religious freedom."

Vessey fears that nations violating these freedoms would feel justified in doing so if they get the idea that the United States does not care whether or not they provide religious freedom. Tightening of religious restrictions of course could mean preventing evangelistic momentum.

At the end of the day, Vessey says, the December 18 postponement date isn't good enough.

"The commission needs to be reauthorized. They don't need lifelines keeping them afloat month-to-month. They actually need a true re-authorization which would keep them in existence for a couple of years. There is a bill in the senate which would do this, but it's being blocked by one senator."

Open Doors reports that one senator issued an anonymous callback preventing HR 2867 -- the bill which would amend the International Freedom Act of 1998 and reauthorize USCIRF -- from going to a vote. Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois has been named by many as the "anonymous" senator responsible.

Vessey urges concerned Christians to speak out by contacting both President Obama and state senators. To contact the White House,click here. For a list of U.S. senators, click here.