ASSIGNMENT

Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspectives on Public Policy (STEVEN MONSMA, 1ST EDITION COPY WRITTEN 2008)

MONSMA:CHAPTER 10

CHAPTER 10: Violations of Human Rights

“He Has Sent Me to Proclaim Freedom for the

Prisoners and . . . to Release the Oppressed”

(Jesus, in Luke 4 : 18, quoting Isaiah 61 : 1)

IN JUNE 2002 SOON OKLEE, A CHRISTIAN who had been a prisoner in a North Korean prison camp, gave this testimony before the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary:

The cast iron factory was considered the most difficult place to work in the entire prison. Christians were usually sent there to work. I was carrying a work order to the cast iron factory in the male prison.Five or six elderly Christians were lined up and forced to deny their Christianity and accept the Juche Ideology of the State [that Kim Jong Il is god]. The selected prisoners all remained silent at the repeated command for conversion. The security officers became furious by this and killed them by pouring molten iron ore on them one by one.1

These North Korean prisoners thereby joined the “great cloud of witnesses” honored in Hebrews 11 and 12. They are present-day heroes of faith whose faithfulness to Jesus Christ most of us can only pray we too would show, should we ever find ourselves in a similar situation.

I could fill the rest of this chapter with stories of present-day Christian saints who have been martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. The numbers are horrendous. It is likely that more Christians were martyred in the twentieth century than in any other century of Christian history. One scholar estimates that as many as 159,000 Christians are martyred for their faith every year—that is an average of more than four hundred Christians killed every day for their faith!2 Paul Marshall estimates 200 to 250 million Christians face persecution for their faith, and another 400 million Christians live under serious restrictions on the practice of their faith.3

And Christian persecution—as horrendous as what it is—is only a part of the story of human rights violations around the world. Although it is impossible to come up with firm numbers, there are many non-Christians who also are persecuted and killed for their faith, the Baha’i in Iran, the Falun Gong in China, and other faiths in other lands.

In the Darfur section of the African country of Sudan, hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered by marauding bands of Arab Muslims. Millions have been displaced from their homes. Meanwhile the central Sudanese government has encouraged and backed the marauders. In 2004 President George W. Bush declared this an instance of genocide, and the United Nations has struggled to end the carnage.

“I have always envied those Christians who all through the church history were martyred for Christ Jesus our Lord. What a privilege to live for our Lord and to die for Him as well.”4

—MEHDI DIBAJ, AN IRANIAN EVANGELICAL PASTOR IN A LETTER TO HIS SON SHORTLY BEFORE BEING KILLED BY IRANIAN AUTHORITIES

Then there is present-day slavery, dark and evil:

Reena was brought to India from Nepal by her maternal aunt, who forced the 12-year-old girl into a New Delhi brothel shortly after arrival. The brothel owner made her have sex with many clients each day. Reena could not leave because she did not speak Hindi and had no one to whom she could turn. She frequently saw police officers collect money from the brothel owners for every new girl brought in.. . . Reena escaped after two years and now devotes her life to helping other trafficking victims escape.5

Estimates of the number of people in the world today being held as slaves range from a low of 12 million6 to a high of 27 million.7 Either number is horrific. Many are girls who have been forced into brothels; others are domestic or factory workers who are forcibly held against their wills and compelled to work without pay—the precise definition of slavery.

If one needs any proof that the world is not as it is supposed to be but is so broken that the depths of human beings’ inhumanity toward others can defy description, one need look no further than vicious, unrelenting religious persecution, the horrors of modern-day slavery, and other denials of basic human rights.

“Slavery is not legal anywhere but it happens everywhere.”8

—THE ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION FREE THE SLAVES

How should we as American Christians react to the depth of evil revealed by horrendous violations of God-given human rights? As I have discussed this question with various Christians, I have found that almost all are appalled at the violations of human rights—and especially at deadly, bitter religious persecution and slavery—but they also often feel powerless to do anything about it. How can I do anything about what is happening in North Korea, India, China, or Iran? All of us are in danger of stumbling into the trap of despair I discussed in chapter 1.We can try to influence our American government and urge it to oppose human rights violations in countries around the globe. But that is itself a challenging task and still leaves questions of what our government can do, what it should do, and how it ought to go about doing it.

These are the questions this chapter considers. I first consider how basic biblical principles can guide our thinking and actions. I next consider the significant influence evangelical Christians already have in this area. In the last section I consider four key questions that frequently arise when seeking to end religious persecution, slavery, and other human rights abuses in today’s world.

Biblical Principles

I challenge anyone to spend even a half hour cruising Web sites such as those of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and Free the Slaves without coming away with a profound feeling that there is no area where the healing, redeeming grace of Jesus Christ is more needed than in the case of religious persecution and present-day slavery. As we saw in chapter 2, through his life, death, and resurrection Christ is redeeming the fallen, broken world. The world Christ came to redeem surely includes the horrific worlds of torture and death being meted out to those who refuse to disown him. It also includes the sordid world of brothels filled with teenage (and younger) girls who have been forced into prostitution against their wills and factories where people work under oppressive conditions against their wills and without pay. We are called to be God’s agents of redemption—and that surely includes the horrendous worlds of religious persecution, slavery, and other human rights abuses. As we will shortly see, the evangelical church in the United States is beginning to respond to this call—with positive results.

In thinking through our work as God’s agents of redemption in the field of religious persecution and slavery, it is helpful to make a distinction between civil rights and human rights. Civil rights are those that are spelled out and protected by a specific government and its constitution and other laws. They are enforceable in courts of law. Human rights are God-given. They are rooted in all human beings having been created in the image of almighty God himself. As such we are creative, willing, morally responsible beings. The freedom to worship God as we choose, the freedom to express our ideas and beliefs, the freedom to choose our own careers, and in other ways to act as creative, morally responsible beings are inherent in what it means to be God’s image bearer. This means all men and women everywhere possess human rights. No government gives us our human rights; no government can take them away. Specific governments sometimes ignore and trample on our human rights, but what God has given no government can take away.

This means that a teenage girl held against her will in a brothel and forced into prostitution, or a Christian believer facing harassment and arrest in China, or a resident of the Darfur region of Sudan who is raped and forced from her home all possess basic human rights. Their rights are being violated, but they are still image bearers of God with all the rights God intends for them.

This leads us to the biblical principle of solidarity. Solidarity with all of God’s children—rooted in our obligation to love others as ourselves—demands that we do what we can to stop religious persecution, to stop girls being forced into prostitution, to stop people being enslaved in forced-labor factories, and to stop other blatant violations of God-given human rights. This solidarity surely extends to our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being threatened, imprisoned, tortured, and killed because they are refusing to deny their Lord. We should learn from their devotion and faithfulness, and—in whatever ways we can—stand in solidarity with them. But we also should stand in solidarity with those who are not Christians who are suffering martyrdom for their faith or for other reasons being tortured and enslaved. We are commanded by our Lord to love our neighbors as ourselves, not to love only our neighbors who are also our fellow believers.

Justice is another basic biblical principle that applies with compelling force in the case of religious persecution and modern-day slavery. When the freedom to worship God is denied by way of threats, imprisonment, and torture, or when people are enslaved—forced into prostitution or compelled to work long hours under cruel conditions—a dark, evil injustice is being done them. They are being denied what God intends for all his image bearers. One struggles to find words strong enough to describe the depths of the injustice being carried out.

Having been established by God to oppose injustices and to promote greater justice, governments have a God-given duty to work against religious persecution and for religious freedom for all and to work against slavery and “to release the oppressed,” in the words of Jesus quoted in the subtitle of this chapter (Luke 4:18).

But this leaves a question that is not as easy to answer. Most of the religious persecution and most present-day slavery is happening not in the United States, but in other countries around the world. Does the American government have a responsibility to seek to correct the injustices that other governments are carrying out or are allowing within their borders? And do we as American citizens have a duty to try to influence our government to do so?

It is important to begin our discussion by recognizing the enormous power and influence of the United States in today’s interdependent world. We are the world’s sole superpower. As such we have enormous military, economic, and moral, or persuasive, power. This fact leads to two observations, both of which argue in favor of the United States working actively to end the injustices of religious persecution and enslavement.

First, it is almost impossible for the United States to be neutral toward injustices in which other nations are engaging. If we are not actively opposing them, we will be indirectly supporting them. If, for example, we are not condemning and bringing pressure to bear on a nation that is condoning the trafficking in young girls for the sex trade, we will be aiding that nation in its unjust practice. As we trade with that nation, allow our corporations to invest in it, and engage in diplomacy with it, we will be giving it greater legitimacy and strengthening its economy and government. In a very real sense, if we are not against religious persecution and slavery, we will be supporting these horrendous practices.

A second observation can be illustrated by an example. Let’s say you know that a next-door neighbor is abusing a young child. You have observed it; you have seen the bruises; you have heard the screams. But you do nothing about it. “I ought not to be poking my nose into the family affairs of others,” is your attitude. Thus you do not alert the proper authorities or speak to your neighbor about it. Would you not be partly responsible for what is going on? I think so.

In the same way, for the United States, with its enormous power and influence, to do nothing when people are forced to work in slave-labor factories, teenagers are abducted and kept against their wills in brothels, and Christian converts are imprisoned, tortured, and killed is wrong. We would become partly responsible for the horrendous acts that are going on.

This still leaves the question of what we as individual Christians ought to do and what we should be asking our government to do. More on that shortly. But indifference and inaction are not in keeping with biblical principles. God is clearly asking more than this from us.

What Is Already Being Done?

Michael Gerson, an evangelical, worked in the White House as President George W. Bush’s chief speech writer. He has recounted: “During my time in the White House, the most intense and urgent evangelical activism I saw did not come on the expected values issues—though abortion and the traditional family weren’t ignored—but on genocide, global AIDS and human trafficking. The most common request I received was, ‘We need to meet with the president on Sudan’—not on gay marriage.”9 Others have also taken notice of evangelical concern over issues of religious persecution and the trafficking of slaves. Political scientist Allen Hertzke has written: “From the mid-1990s onward born-again Protestants have provided the groundswell for initiatives against religious persecution, trafficking, and other abuses.”10 Another scholar, Walter Russell Mead, has written: “As evangelicals have recently returned to a position of power in U.S. politics, they have . . . given new energy and support to U.S. humanitarian efforts.”11

Anyone who doubts the ability of evangelicals to have an impact on American public policies needs to look no further than their impact on our nation’s laws related to religious persecution and slavery. Evangelicals played a key role in the 1998 passage of the International Religious Freedom Act, which established an Office of International Religious Freedom and a Commission on International Religious Freedom in the State Department. In 2000 evangelical activists and their allies won passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and in 2002 the Sudan Peace Act. Evangelical members of Congress have played key roles in the passage of such laws.

As a result of these successes, Allen Hertzke reports, “Promotion of religious freedom is now statutorily a ‘basic aim’ of American foreign policy. The debate now is not whether but how best to ameliorate the pandemic of global persecution.”13

“Thanks largely to evangelical support (although Catholics and Jews also played a role), Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, establishing an Office of International Religious Freedom in a somewhat skeptical State Department.”12

—WALTER RUSSELL MEAD, FELLOW FOR U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS

But the struggle is not over. When I was elected to the Michigan legislature, one of the first lessons I needed to learn was that the passage of a bill into law was not the end of a process, but the beginning. One of the first (and fairly minor) bills of which I won passage required the Department of Natural Resources to conduct a land-usage inventory. I accepted the congratulations of my colleagues, relaxed, and cast about for other causes to promote. About a year later I discovered that nothing had happened. No land inventory had taken place; none was planned. Bureaucratic resistance, a lack of funds, and other priorities had taken over.

It is almost always this way in the real political world. Passage of a new public policy only means the new policy has been authorized; there is now a legal basis for acting. But those who are charged with carrying out the new policy will often be skeptical of it, have other priorities, and hope that in time everybody will forget about it (so they can carry on as before). All this is to say that concerned citizens and groups need to monitor the new policies enacted by Congress in the past ten years that give new directions to American foreign policy. They will sometimes need to apply public pressure or work to see that Congress appropriates sufficient funding. Christian citizens and their organizations must continue to stay involved and demonstrate their concern. In addition, new legislation may be needed to deal with new problems as they arise or as shortcomings in existing policies emerge.

There is a danger that the attention of Christians will turn else-where; as a result, needed funds or the political will may dwindle away and follow-up actions will languish for a lack of interest and support. As long as religious believers are being persecuted, young girls are being sold into prostitution, workers are being forced to work under inhumane conditions without pay, and other human rights abuses are occurring, solidarity and justice require Christians to remain concerned and involved.

Key Issues Today

Throughout much of the 1990s, civil war raged in Sudan, with the Muslim-dominated central government clashing with the largely Christian south. The central government and its allied Muslim extremists often engaged in the capture and enslavement of southern Sudanese, many of whom were Christian believers. Often they were held as slaves for years. One response to this tragic situation was for Americans and Europeans to purchase the freedom of these slaves. A fifth-grade class in Colorado raised some fifty thousand dollars to purchase the freedom of Sudanese slaves. Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a Swiss-based organization, was especially active in these efforts.

What could be more Christlike than freeing the helpless victims of present-day slavery? Yet this practice proved to be highly controversial. It was feared that purchasing the freedom of slaves with money raised in the United States and Europe would only encourage the enslavement of even more people. The slave traders would make “easy money,” and with the money purchase more weapons and gain other means to enslave even more people. Was purchasing the freedom of slaves improving or making worse the ongoing tragedy?14

As this example illustrates, it is often difficult to develop proper, thoughtful responses to human rights abuses. There are few easy, obvious answers. It is as important for concerned Christians to be “shrewd as snakes” as it is for them to be “innocent as doves” (Matt.10:16).In this section I consider four specific questions that often arise when appropriate responses to the tragedies of religious persecution and modern-day slavery are debated.

Government or Non-government Agencies?

The first question involves the relative merits of relying on the American government versus relying on the wide variety of Christian and other nonprofit overseas relief and development organizations. In the evangelical world, organizations such as World Vision, World Relief, and Samaritan’s Purse are already active in overseas relief and development activities. These and a host of Christian and non-Christian organizations with similar goals often address issues of religious persecution, sex trafficking, and other human rights abuse. Commonly called NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), they are a part of civil society whose institutions play an important role in God’s ordering of society.

This leads to the question of whether we Christians should turn primarily to these NGOs to fight against human rights abuses or rely primarily on our government to deal with them. Government action is not always the most appropriate response, but relying solely on NGOs is also not always the most appropriate response. The need is to sort out which type of response is most appropriate and when a combination of both governmental and NGO action is best.

Often governments themselves engage in or condone religious persecution, or they look the other way as slavery flourishes. Then some action by the American government will usually be needed:Economic and diplomatic pressures may help, as well as positive in-ducements, such as offers of trade or economic assistance. Sometimes our government’s bringing to light and publicizing human rights abuses can have an impact. In such situations we as Christian citizens need to discuss this issue with our representatives in Congress and in other ways bring the need for our government to take action to the attention of our officials.

But there are situations where NGOs—with or without the support of our government—can take the lead. This often is the case when educational and economic development efforts are the most effective answer to sex trafficking, other forms of slavery, and religious persecution. Human rights abuses can develop or be made more severe when people are without hope for the future and conclude their only way to get ahead is by exploiting their fellow human beings. Those who are being exploited may give up and feel there is no alternative but to accept the trap in which they are caught. In such cases educational and economic development programs may be a better answer than threats and sanctions. And government-to-government assistance often will be less likely to lead to positive results than NGOs directly offering help to local communities. In addition, NGOs can offer help to victims while waiting for governments to work out more basic, continuing solutions. Often the American government can best offer assistance by channeling it through NGOs that are already on the ground in countries with extreme need. Doing so is in keeping with the principle of subsidiarity and supporting, not ignoring or undercutting, organizations that make up civil society.

Governmental Pressure or Dialogue?

When the American government becomes directly involved in addressing human rights abuses, the question often arises whether to put economic and diplomatic pressure on the offending country or to establish dialogue and create cultural and economic ties. How, for example, can American policy best work to stop the persecution Christians continue to face in China? Should we strengthen our economic, diplomatic, and cultural ties with China by encouraging young Chinese to study in the United States, having exchange visits of students or businesspeople, opening more consulates in China, encouraging more American investment in China and more Chinese investment in the United States?Those taking this position argue that as ties develop, the Chinese government may become more moderate, and we can informally, gradually influence the government toward greater religious freedom.

Others believe we should bring pressure to bear on China. We could threaten to cut Chinese imports to the United States unless the government allows greater religious freedom. We could with-hold other trade advantages. We could threaten to reduce diplomatic ties and offer more support for an independent Taiwan (bitterly opposed by the mainland Chinese). Those taking this position argue that threats against the self-interest of a country such as China are the only language it is likely to understand. Anything less will be seen as weak and easily ignored.

“There were multiple viewpoints. One camp believed that you attract a lot more through honey than vinegar, so forget about sanctions. You go to these countries and you say, ‘How can I help you promote religious freedom?’ You don’t wave sticks over their heads. Others said, ‘Look, this constructive engagement stuff has proven to be a dismal failure. Let’s start leveraging our authority and throw our weight around.’ ”15

—AN UNIDENTIFIED EVANGELICAL LOBBYIST COMMENTING ON THE PASSAGE OF THE 1998 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM ACT

There is no right answer between these two positions. Both can be effective in some situations and ineffective in others. One cannot say one is more “Christian” than the other. And equally sincere Christians will sometimes disagree on which one ought to be pursued in which situations.

It is important, however, for the wise Christian to note that impure motives can attach themselves to both of these positions. We need to be aware of other people’s possible hidden agenda. Sometimes strong business interests oppose cutting trade and cultural ties as a means to stop Christian persecution, sex trafficking, and other evils, not because they genuinely think such efforts will be ineffective, but because their business interests will suffer. Similarly people who favor threatening the cutoff of economic and diplomatic ties may be motivated by a macho swagger and a nationalistic pride that makes them feel good, rather than by a realistic belief that doing so will be effective.

Christians should ask themselves whether either of these traps is lurking unexamined in the back of their minds. They might be influencing the positions they take more than a heartfelt desire for greater justice for the peoples of other lands.

Our Government Alone or a Coalition?

A third issue that frequently arises is whether the United States can best act alone or act through the United Nations or other large coalitions of nations. When the United States acts alone, it can act more quickly and decisively but with less “moral authority” than when it acts in concert with other nations. When the United States acts through the United Nations or other international bodies, months and even years may drag on while it works to develop a consensus on the issue. Meanwhile, the killing goes on, sex slaves languish and die in brothels, or people face imprisonment and torture because of their religious beliefs. Here we need, carefully and prayerfully, to balance the urgency to act against the greater authority and greater likelihood of success if we wait and work with other nations.

Military Action or Not?

A fourth issue that sometimes arises is whether or not American military action—or its threatened use—is called for. North Korea is probably the most evil regime on the earth at this time. It actively tortures and kills Christians because they refuse to recognize its ruler, Kim Jong Il, as a god, and tens of thousands of its citizens suffer and die from starvation while its rulers live in luxury. There is no freedom. Should the United States threaten to use military force to achieve a change in the regime and unite the north with South Korea, which is democratic, prosperous, peaceful, and Christian to a significant degree?

After the difficulties and lack of progress following our overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime in Iraq, few Americans—Christian or otherwise—would advocate this path. Neither would I. And yet . . .We must also be careful not to live our comfortable lives of peace and plenty, where our biggest deprivation is not having an HD television set, while our brothers and sisters in Christ are being imprisoned, tortured, and killed. An overly aggressive, we-can-right-all-the-wrongs-of-the-world foreign policy is wrong. But an overly passive foreign policy that ignores our fellow human beings who are grievously hurt and bleeding can also be wrong. At some point some Christians may conclude military action against North Korea or other especially evil regimes can be justified in biblical terms. Fortunately there usually are many options between passively ignoring great evils and using military force in an effort to put a stop to those evils.

Conclusion

Whenever I consider the enormous evils present in human rights violations, the chief lesson I take away is that complacency is not a permissible option for us. There are many areas of the world where people’s God-given human rights are being trampled on. As Christians there are things we can do—through our churches, our missionaries, and our overseas relief and development agencies. There are also things we can do as Christian citizens. Our country is probably the most powerful country in the history of the world. It has enormous economic, cultural, and military power that potentially can right some, even if not most and surely not all, human rights abuses. This puts a huge responsibility on us evangelical Christians, who have the potential for much influence on American policies. We should use the God-given influence we have as Christian citizens to move our country’s public policies so that they make every effort to stop what human rights abuses they can. Solidarity and justice require no less. They should be our first response.