It\u2019s possible to buy a Christian slave in southern Sudan for as little as $15.<\/p>\n\n
Last year\u2019s going rate for parents who want to buy back their own kidnapped child was five head of cattle \u2014 about $400. A boy might cost 10 head. An exiled leader in Sudan\u2019s Catholic Bishops Conference reports that 30,000 children have been sold into slavery in the Nuba mountains. In six years, more than 1.3 million Christian and other non-Muslim people have been killed in Sudan \u2014 more than Bosnia, Chechnya and Haiti combined.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cSudan is characterized by the total or near complete absence of civil liberties,\u201d said activist Nina Shea, during recent Congressional Human Rights Caucus hearings. \u201cIndividual Christians, including clergy, have over the past few years \u2026 been assassinated, imprisoned, tortured and flogged for their faith.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The Sudan report went on and the leader of Freedom House\u2019s Puebla program on religious freedom already had described horror stories from China, Vietnam, North Korea and Pakistan. She still had to cover Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Islamic world.<\/p>\n\n
Americans are not seeing news reports about these tragedies or hearing preachers and politicians make urgent appeals for action. But that may change soon. An coalition of human rights activists and religious leaders \u2014 most of them evangelicals or, like Shea, Roman Catholics \u2014 is working overtime to yank this issue into daylight before the November elections.<\/p>\n\n
Events at home and overseas may help. Last weekend, the South China Morning Post reported signs that a brutal crackdown was beginning on underground churches in northwest China. A day later, President Clinton announced that he will renew China\u2019s most- favored-nation trading status with the United States.<\/p>\n\n
Millions of Americans can expect to hear these two issues linked on Sept. 29, when leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention and the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) will urge member churches to observe \u201cPersecution Sunday.\u201d Efforts are underway to encourage Catholic programs at that time.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe pope has been a great leader on issues of religious freedom \u2014 it has been one of the hallmarks of his papacy,\u201d said Shea. \u201cWe can expect him to hear him speak out on this issue again. \u2026 The issue is why the U.S. Catholic hierarchy has been quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
Meanwhile, most of America\u2019s Powers That Be in government, media and religion have looked the other way while Christians have become one of the modern world\u2019s most persecuted minorities, said Michael Horowitz, a former Reagan administration official who has worked frantically behind the scenes on this issue. His passion has led him to take a stance that angers many other Jews \u2014 declaring that evangelicals, and to some extent Catholics, may become in the 21st century what Jews were in the 20th century.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cChristians \u2014 especially evangelicals \u2014 make great demons,\u201d said Horowitz. \u201cMost people think of evangelicals as odd or a even threatening. Obviously, they stand out in Communist and radical Islamic cultures and they\u2019re not the kind of people you can buy off with money and raw power, which are the stock in trade of thug regimes. \u2026 Meanwhile, our own political and media elites maintain a kind of quiet, sneering indifference, if not hostility, toward evangelicals. \u2026<\/p>\n\n
\u201cBut more and more Christians are getting tortured and killed for their faith. That\u2019s the truth. I\u2019ll be damned if I\u2019m going to sit through another holocaust. Absolutely not. One was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
In January, the NAE released a blunt statement calling for specific U.S. government actions \u2014 beginning with President Clinton speaking out on persecution and ending with economic repercussions for offending regimes. One bitter complaint: State Department and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials often shun persecuted Christians.<\/p>\n\n
Behind the scenes, talks continue with politicos working with Clinton and challenger Bob Dole. In March, Clinton ducked out of a commitment to speak at the NAE\u2019s convention.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThis is a chance for Clinton to reach out to some of his fiercest critics,\u201d said Horowitz. \u201cBut it\u2019s also a can\u2019t miss opportunity for Bob Dole. What\u2019s to lose? We\u2019ll have to see who seizes this issue first.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s possible to buy a Christian slave in southern Sudan for as little as $15. Last year\u2019s going rate for parents who want to buy back their own kidnapped child was five head of cattle \u2014 about $400. A boy might cost 10 head. An exiled leader in Sudan\u2019s Catholic Bishops Conference reports that 30,000 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n