BY JAMES D. STANDISH

HE CHRISTMAS SEASON HAS COME TO CAPITOL HILL.
In the neighborhoods that cluster around the Capitol, Victorian town homes are decorated with lights, and Christmas trees peek out from the bay windows. It's a beautiful neighborhood--and at no other time more beautiful than during the Christmas season.

As I walk from our little home through the alleys, across the streets, past the park, to our church's Capitol Hill office, the words of a 1980s Christmas song echo in my ears: "It's Christmas time; there is no need to be afraid." Even with all of the added security around the Capitol, the sentiment still seems to ring true.

But for many believers around the world, this Christmas is indeed a time of fear. In Saudi Arabia Seventh-day Adventists won't be enjoying a Christmas service together, because church services are banned.¹ In Turkmenistan Adventist children won't be listening to their parents read them the story of the birth of Christ from the Bible Story, because our literature is outlawed and our church forced underground.² In North Korea believers won't be singing "Silent Night" this Christmas, because any mention of Jesus can result in banishment to a gulag where unspeakable atrocities are meted out.³ In the words of that same Christmas song: "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you."

Even in the United States this Christmas season will not be without hardship for God's followers. This year members of more than a thousand Adventist families were fired because an employer refused to accommodate their Sabbath observance. For many of these Christmas will be marred by uncertainty and financial hardship.

It's customary for Christians to focus with particular intensity on the plight of the disadvantaged and abused at this time of year. But what can we in America do about the plight of believers who are mistreated at home and abroad?

Quite a lot.

Taking the Offense
Living in a democratic society is both a privilege and a responsibility. Our representatives listen to us if we communicate with them. The question therefore is whether we care enough to make our voices heard. Our government has influence over not only domestic issues but also what happens around the world. The United States sits at the apex of world power.

America may not always be loved, but when the U.S. speaks, people listen, and when the U.S. acts, its example has serious ramifications. The Adventist religious liberty work on Capitol Hill focuses on ensuring that the message and actions of this great nation are consistent with its fundamental value of freedom of conscience.

Domestically we're working hard to pass legislation that will protect people of faith, including Sabbathkeepers, in the workplace. Our work is based on a simple proposition: People should not arbitrarily be forced to choose between retaining their job and practicing their faith. At the heart of our efforts is the Workplace Religious Freedom Act, a bill designed to ensure that Sabbathkeepers are accorded the respect in the workplace that our fundamental values dictate.

Our progress on the Workplace Religious Freedom Act to date reads like a novelette on how Washington works:

First, build a coalition. We now have 44 religious groups supporting the bill, including everyone from the American Jewish Committee to the Islamic Supreme Council of America, not to mention the Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Sikhs.

Second, get the right lead sponsors, and build bipartisan support. With Senator Rick Santorum, third-ranking Republican in the Senate, and Senator John Kerry, Democratic presidential candidate, as the lead sponsors, we are off to the right start. To date, we have 21 sponsors in all--10 Republicans, 11 Democrats.

Third, build pressure to get the bill out of committee and onto the schedule for a vote. The best way to do this is to have people write to their senators and ask them to support the bill. To make it easy, we started a new Web site this year, www.religiousliberty.info, from which a letter can be sent in less than a minute. To date, more than 7,500 letters have been sent from the site, not a bad start. (If you haven't sent your letter yet, please visit the site, and add your voice to those who have already spoken up for freedom.) The difference the letters are making is remarkable. As personnel from one office told me after receiving letters from Adventists in their state: "Your bill is getting hot."

God's Guiding Hand
In addition to the usual way Washington works, we rely on something quite different--the power of prayer.

Maybe it is that final ingredient that explains a recent chain of events. Legal Times, a popular publication aimed at lawyers, published an article this summer attacking the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. After some discussion they agreed to carry an article defending the act. Richard Foltin, of the American Jewish Committee, and I coauthored an article that ran at the end of summer.

Soon after it ran, C-SPAN called and asked me to be a guest on Washington Journal to discuss the bill. Senator Hillary Clinton's office saw me on Washington Journal and invited me to meet with her. At the meeting the senator, who is a sponsor of our bill, agreed to appear in the Adventist religious liberty video this year to talk about her appreciation for the Adventist religious liberty work. At the taping of the piece Senator Clinton asked about the Sabbath, which gave us an opportunity to give an overview of why Seventh-day Adventists keep the seventh day holy.

Then, because of the fine work of the young Adventists who are interning in our Capitol Hill office,⁴ I was also asked to appear on National Public Radio to discuss the bill. Sometimes things snowball.

We still have a long way to go until the Workplace Religious Freedom Act goes from a bill to a law. But, under the grace of God, I have faith that it will, because our Lord remembers His faithful children today, just as He did in biblical times.

On the Global Scene
Our work on international issues is just as eventful. In April we held our first religious liberty dinner in the Senate Caucus Room. The room, with its marble columns and gilded ceiling, provided the perfect backdrop to draw attention to the serious religious liberty issues around the world. Diplomats from more than 30 nations attended the event, along with representatives from Congress, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. We work with all of these entities to promote religious freedom overseas.

The U.S. State Department has an office that focuses on international religious liberty, which was established by a bill passed in the late 1990s and supported by the Adventist Church. Our church has excellent contacts in that office, and we are frequently invited to discuss matters with them. It is difficult to influence American foreign policy, particularly when economic and security issues are at the top of the agenda, but it isn't impossible. Knowing the right people, building credibility with them, and doing a lot of praying can work in unexpected ways.

Our work with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has also been satisfying. The commission is funded by Congress, but the commissioners themselves come from the private sector. Over the years we have gotten to know these commissioners and their staff well, and on a number of occasions they have intervened on our behalf. Similarly, some members of Congress are very interested in religious freedom. It is now not uncommon for us to receive calls from congressional offices asking advice on religious freedom issues overseas.

Many of the issues we work with are complex, the solutions are hard to come by, and sometimes it takes years of patient diligence to achieve our goals. But as we look around and see how much senseless suffering is inflicted on the faithful, it is impossible not to give it everything we have. And as we consider God's promises we have to believe that He cares for His people today just as much as He cared for them in times of old.

There's a chill in the air as I walk home from our office on Capitol Hill to my little home down the streets, across the park, and through the alleys. It's Christmas time, and the world seems full of wonder. As I walk I pray that the efforts of our religious liberty team today--somehow, in some way--have relieved the suffering of the faithful, that we have been able to represent the spirit of Christ in the corridors of power, that the end of persecution of faithful men and women is a little closer. And I hope that our work has brought the kind of joy many of us look forward to a little closer to the boys and girls in Turkmenistan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, and yes, even America.

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¹ The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports: "Persons worshiping privately [in Saudi Arabia] have been harassed, arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and deported by the authorities, and forced to go to great lengths to conceal private religious activity from those authorities."
² The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports: "Turkmenistan is among the most totalitarian states in the world today and engages in particularly severe violations of religious freedom."
³ The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reports: "Persons found carrying Bibles in public [in North Korea] or distributing religious literature, or engaging in unauthorized religious activities such as public religious expression and persuasion are arrested and imprisoned. There continue to be reports of torture and execution of religious believers."
⁴ Michael Weismeyer, Michelle Bernard, and Scott Rawson.

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James D. Standish represents the Adventist Church on Capitol Hill. He and his wife, Leisa, are eagerly awaiting the birth of their first child.