wfn.org | Presbyterian Congressman Wants Clinton to Protect Persecuted

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Christians 13-September-1996 
 
 
 
96345   Presbyterian Congressman Wants Clinton to Protect 
                      Persecuted Christians 
 
                          by Tracy Early 
                  Ecumenical News International 
 
WASHINGTON--An American congressman is trying to pressure the United States 
government into doing more to protect "persecuted Christians throughout the 
world." 
 
     Republican Frank R. Wolf, a member of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.), has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives 
calling on President Bill Clinton to expand "international advocacy on 
behalf of persecuted Christians" and to appoint a special White House 
adviser on religious persecution. 
 
     Wolf 's resolution also commended the World Evangelical Fellowship for 
designating the last Sunday in September as an international day of prayer 
on behalf of persecuted Christians. 
 
     "I hope to energize Congress, the administration and the Christian 
community," Wolf told ENI. During the days of the Soviet Union, people 
recognized the importance of protecting persecuted Christians, he said, but 
after the communist collapse in Eastern Europe many assumed the problem had 
been solved. 
 
     "This [the persecution of Christians] is a problem which deserves 
attention," Wolf said.  "In China, Sudan, Vietnam, Egypt, Pakistan and many 
other countries around the world, Christians are forced to endure severe 
persecution just because of their faith.  It's time Congress speaks out." 
Wolf also expressed concern about Iran and East Timor. 
 
     Wolf, who visited China in 1991, told ENI that he became familiar with 
the situation by talking with underground Catholics and Protestants. 
 
     However, an official of the National Council of Churches (NCC) -- 
whose members include the mainstream U.S. Protestant and Orthodox churches 
-- told ENI that there was "little evidence to indicate pressure from the 
United States has a positive effect on human rights in China." 
 
     Wolf 's resolution and the day of prayer are part of a broader 
campaign conducted in recent months.  In January, the National Association 
of Evangelicals issued a "Statement of Conscience" expressing dismay "that 
the United States government has been indifferent" to the persecution of 
Christians and asserting that U.S. government policies could be 
"dramatically effective" in "protecting the rights of all religious 
dissidents." 
 
     Carol Finerty, a State Department official in the office of U.S. Human 
Rights secretary John Shattuck, told ENI she had not seen the text of Wolf 
's resolution.  But she said persecution of Christians and other religious 
groups was "something we're very concerned about." 
 
     A number of countries are mentioned in Wolf 's resolution, which 
claims that "there are more documented cases of Christians in prison or in 
some form of detention in China than in any other country." 
 
     Roman Catholics and evangelical Protestant "house church groups" have 
been targeted as a threat to political stability, the resolution states, 
adding: "In recent months, in separate incidents, three Chinese Christian 
leaders were beaten to death by Chinese authorities simply for their 
religious activities." 
 
     However, Victor W.C. Hsu, East Asia and Pacific secretary for the NCC, 
told ENI he had not heard of any Christian leaders beaten to death 
recently.  Hsu said that if China had more Christians in prison than any 
other country, that could be because its population was so much larger. 
 
     Hsu, who took part in a recent visit to China with an NCC delegation 
and in a visit earlier this year with a World Council of Churches 
delegation that specifically examined church-state matters, said the most 
impressive aspect of the situation in China was the large and rapid growth 
of the churches.  "I would definitely not use the word  persecution,'" he 
said. 
 
     Hsu, a native of Taiwan and now a U.S. citizen, said Chinese 
authorities themselves acknowledged that in some cases the "overzealousness 
of local cadres" was directed against Christians. But, he said, the best 
way for Americans to help Chinese Christians was to support the 
strengthening of their programs and institutions. 

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