N AUTUMN 2001, S.R., AN ADVENTIST pastor, and two church members started a ministry in the small town of Nukus, Uzbekistan. The group purchased a meetinghouse, and four people were baptized. In January 2003 S.R. held an evangelistic campaign, and 35 people attended. Fifteen of them planned to be baptized. I quote from a letter received from Uzbekistan:

"On February 8, when S.R. and his small group of 13 people were gathered in his house, 12 military and police officers came. The group was not holding any services at that moment, but the police made a list of all the participants and asked them to write and sign an explanatory letter about the purpose of their meeting. They then took their literature, including their Bibles. They were prohibited from holding any meetings in the future."

A few weeks later all 13 were convicted and fined because they participated in an illegal meeting.

You may say, "This is not a big problem. They paid the fine, and the problem is over." But imagine this happening every time you have a prayer meeting, a bible study group, or a worship service.

The Global Perspective
Imagine that you live in Turkmenistan. Your only church building was destroyed by the authorities in 1999. Why? Because a new government decided that your church cannot be registered. You invite church members to your home, but police come, fine you, and expel you from your apartment. You now live on the street. Will your pastor be able to help you? No, because he is obliged to work to provide for his family. On Saturday you want to go to church, but there is no church or apartment where you can hold a meeting. The only place you can go is the public park. There you can discreetly meet your brothers and sisters. This is what happens in Turkmenistan.

In Pakistan, Indonesia, or Nigeria you may be attacked by fanatics. Your house or your church may be destroyed. Why? Because some believe that if you don't accept the traditional religion, you should be converted by force. If you are a Christian in North Korea, you live in terror of denouncement.

A Scorecard of Religious Freedom
According to the Religious Freedom World Report 2002,¹ eight countries have no religious freedom at all; in 27 others there are severe restrictions. Religious freedom is protected in many places: the Americas, Western Europe, and the South Pacific. Unfortunately, such places as sub-Saharan Africa are facing more and more challenges, such as interreligious tensions, which can threaten the traditional climate of tolerance. More than half the world's population lives in countries in which it is difficult or impossible to share one's faith publicly.

Countries in which the Orthodox Church is dominant--Russia or Greece, for example--find it hard to accept the concept of religious freedom. Communist nations (North Korea, Vietnam) and nations under strict Islamic rules (Saudi Arabia or Iran) generally have the worst records for religious freedom.

Political or religious intolerance does not spare any group. Muslims as well as Christians may be persecuted, including those who live in Islamic countries where they are dissidents or represent a minority, such as the Shiites in Saudi Arabia.

Religious Extremists and Dangerous Cults
In spite of all the international declarations and conventions that have been supported or signed by many countries, religious freedom is a continual challenge in our world.# Religious extremism is a serious threat in Muslim countries, as well as in some states in India, Sri Lanka, Georgia, and Russia, and in some parts of Eastern Europe, such as Serbia, where Adventists have been attacked and churches burned.² Religious extremists not only attack religious minorities in their own countries, but also export their radicalism to other countries.

Paul Marshall, a senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom, in his article "Radical Islam's Move on Africa," writes: "But more alarming is the spread of rigid forms of Islam, which are historically rare south of the Sahara and which are creating division, chaos and violence in both East and West Africa."³

The anti-sect policy in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg encourages the publication of an official list of "sects or dangerous cults" and targets all religious minorities by the authorities and the media.⁴ The good news is that the new government of France has modified its approach. Does this mean that the danger is over? No! Anti-religious activists are just waiting for an opportunity to put their policy of discrimination back into practice.⁵

Proselytism and Security: New Threats
Proselytism has often been mentioned as a negative consequence of religious freedom; this has been the experience of evangelicals and cults in Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Russia. Authorities often single out religious minorities. The problem is that there is no universal definition of proselytism that does not conflict with the right of expression. Most traditional religions make a distinction between proselytism and evangelism, keeping the term proselytism essentially for the minorities.

What Can an Individual Do? 1. Be confident in God. He is the master of history. Don't be frightened about the future. 2. Be faithful. In Romania 650 Adventist students refused to write their final exams on Saturday. They went to court and won. 3. Pray for those who are persecuted. They need our prayers. They need to see that they have more than 13 million brothers and sisters praying for them. 4. Don't attack other religions. Adventists are not provocative people. "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone," wrote Paul (Rom. 12:18, NIV). 5. Support those who defend religious freedom in the church and in society. 6. Preach the good news. Jesus is the only one who can give perfect freedom. 7. Promote and defend religious freedom. From its beginning the Seventh-day Adventist Church has stood for religious liberty.

Over the past few years the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church have had serious discussions on that issue. Tensions have escalated to the point that the pope was not allowed to visit Russia and Georgia. For the Orthodox, religious freedom opens the door to proselytism, which is seen as "wild competition among confessions, invasion of new religions, sects, and satanism." From this definition it is not difficult to imagine a large alliance of traditional churches and religions allied against proselytism. This alliance would threaten the freedom to practice anyone's faith. It would also target religious minorities, such as Seventh-day Adventism.

Hindus and Muslims see proselytism in every activity that favors conversion. With such an understanding, all Christians are proselytizers. But the number of Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim believers is growing in traditionally Christian countries. Hindus and Muslims don't seem to be concerned about the issue when they are directly involved in sharing their own faiths.

Security is another issue. It is not easy to maintain a balance between the exigency of security and the respect of freedom. The anti-terrorist legislation or regulations may create a real problem for some religious groups. Muslims who practice their faith may be seen by the authorities as potential terrorists. Small Christian churches in Islamic countries are seen as fundamentalists and thus understood to be potentially dangerous. An anti-religious freedom policy may be justified by the need for security.

But we should not be blind about the real danger to peace and security from some radical religious groups. Marshall quotes the statement of a fundamentalist activist: "We get our funds from --- and ---. . . . Officially, the money is used to buy medicine, but in reality the money is given to us to support our work and buy guns."⁶

What Can We Do?
I like the courageous statement of Ellen G. White: "We are not doing the will of God if we sit in quietude, doing nothing to preserve liberty of conscience."⁷ Since the beginning of our church history we have promoted and defended religious liberty. The National Religious Liberty Association was chartered in 1889, and the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA) four years later, in 1893. The IRLA is one of the top associations in the field of religious freedom today. It has just been given United Nations consultative status by the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). This will provide opportunities for us to speak before representatives of world governments in defense of religious freedom. What a fabulous privilege.

A Network of Friends
The basic tool--and one of the most efficient--for defending religious freedom is our network of friends. The more friends we have among government officials, diplomats, legislators, experts, and religious leaders, the better our position to protect the church and its members. We need to know the right people and be able to meet them as regularly as possible. It takes time, work, and savoir faire to build an efficient network of friends. We also need to be in the right places, where influential people are, and understand the legislative and political processes.

We have access to the United Nations, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the U.S. State Department, and many government and religious leaders. To maintain and develop such a network, we need persistence and well-qualified people. By achieving this we can solve many problems. We can work to improve legislation that discriminates against us.

Such was the case in the Philippines, in Brazil, in Uganda, and in Romania. With God's help we solved serious problems related to Sabbath observance. Without a network of friends it would have been impossible. In every country our church needs ambassadors at the top level. Every local community needs ambassadors for the church. This is the function of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director. Be sure you have one in your church. Be sure you have the right man or woman in the right place.

I am always impressed by this prophetic statement of Ellen G. White: "The banner of truth and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by God's witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last conflict, been committed to our hands."⁸

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¹ Religious Freedom, World Report 2002 (Silver Spring, Md.: Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department, Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2002).
² See Ray Dabrowski, "Serbia: Beaten Pastor Still Hospitalized, New Churches Vandalized," Adventist News Network, Feb. 5, 2003; Valery Ivanov, "Russia: Novgorod Adventist Church Burned in Suspicious Fire," Adventist News Network, Oct. 9, 2003.
³ Washington Post, Oct. 16, 2003.
⁴ John Graz, Sects: France Versus U.S.A., Fides et Libertas, 2001 (Silver Spring Md.: International Religious Liberty Association 2001, pp. 64-71.
⁵ John Graz, "No Sects, Please; We're French," Liberty, January/February 2002.
⁶ Ibid.
⁷ Christian Service, p. 162.
⁸ The Acts of the Apostles, pp. 68, 69.

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John Graz is director of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department of the General Conference.