Page 529 – Christianity Today (2024)

UPDATE

Logos To Be Replaced

Operation Mobilization (OM) has announced plans to purchase a new ship to replace the ill-fated M.V. Logos, which ran aground earlier this year near the southernmost tip of South America. OM officials say news of the Logos’s misfortune resulted in widespread sympathy and financial support.

“From the moment the news broke our offices have been inundated with phone calls from both the media and anxious supporters of the Logos ministry,” said Peter Maiden, OM’S associate director. “Gifts large and small began to arrive almost immediately.” OM’S leaders say they will replace the Logos with a bigger and more efficient vessel.

The Logos was operated by OM as a worldwide evangelistic ministry, OM’S founder and director, George Verwer, recently announced that negotiations are under way with Chinese authorities to obtain permission for the sister ship, Doulos, to dock in Xiamen in China next fall.

TRENDS

Military Spending Soars

World military spending reached a high of $900 billion in 1987, according to a report by Ruth Leger Sivard, a former official with the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. According to Sivard’s analysis, the world now spends about two-and-one-half times more on militaries than it did in 1960.

Arms spending by the United States and Soviet Union totals more than $500 billion. The U.S. spends 6.4 percent of its gross national product (GNP) on defense, while the Soviet Union spends 11.4 percent of its GNP. Yet military spending in the Middle East accounts for 18 percent of that region’s GNP.

Sivard also reports that 22 wars were going on in the world in 1987, more than at any other time in history. Cumulative recorded deaths in these conflicts now stand at 2.2 million—more than 80 percent of them civilian.

VATICAN

Pope Blames Superpowers

In his seventh encyclical letter, Pope John Paul II accused the superpowers of playing out their competition in the Third World and thus reducing developing nations to “parts of a machine, cogs on a gigantic wheel.” He also characterized both capitalism and Marxism as “imperfect” systems “urgently in need of radical correction.”

An encyclical is the highest form of papal teaching. This most recent one, entitled “The Social Concerns of the Church,” was intended to provide an authoritative Roman Catholic analysis of contemporary global politics.

Though the document noted improvement in the area of human rights, it contended that relief-and-development aid to poor nations inflicts tremendous ideological pressure on those nations. The result is often internal conflicts that result in civil war.

In a brief reference to the church, John Paul said the needs of the poor must come before “costly furnishings for divine worship.” He also suggested that churches may need to sell such adornments in order to provide food and shelter to the poor.

MOZAMBIQUE

Churches Get Books

World Vision International will begin providing books, pastoral libraries, and qualified leaders to growing congregations in war-torn and drought-ravaged Mozambique.

In spite of discouraging conditions in the Southeast African nation, the Christian community reports steady growth. But congregations there often must share only one Bible and hymnal, according to Chuck Stephens, a World Vision staff member who has lived in Mozambique since 1985. World Vision’s new program of assistance to churches is an extension of their food and humanitarian aid program that has been conducted there since 1984.

UPDATE

Ordination Fight Continues

With the Anglican Conference of Bishops just around the corner, 44 bishops from around the world issued a statement against the ordination of women. The declaration warns that ordination of women to the priesthood and the episcopacy threatens the future of the worldwide Anglican communion.

The document has been under preparation since last summer when 12 British and American bishops met in London and discussed the issue. Its drafters say they hope it will “provide a focus for traditional Anglicans” in advance of the Lambeth Conference of Bishops, which opens in July in England. In defense of their position, the bishops say ordination of women is “inconsistent with the tradition of the church since New Testament times and is opposed by the greater part of the church today.”

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Diagnosed : As suffering from leukemia, Bishop Festo Kivengere of the Anglican Church of Uganda; he has received treatment in London and Nairobi, Kenya. When told of his condition, which is described as “terminal,” Kivengere said, “I consider it a rare opportunity for a brother to know that his time is limited in this world so that he can plan and pray and look up into heaven.” Many consider Kivengere the leading black evangelist of Africa today.

Launched : The Korean Partnership Missions Fellowship, a new effort by Korean evangelicals to establish a missions policy independent of Western mission societies. Sun Hee Kwak was elected chairman, and Myung Hyuk Kim was elected general secretary of the group, which encompasses six denominations.

UPDATE

Center Makes Final Payment

Ten years ago, the U.S. Center for World Mission, headed by Ralph Winter, entered an agreement to purchase the Pasadena campus of Point Loma (Nazarene) College in San Diego, California. By all accounts, it was a daring move by both the missions group and the college.

Earlier this year, Jim Bond, president of the college, received a $6.5 million payment from the center. The payment culminated a ten-year effort by Winter to establish the missions study center. College officials were especially pleased to have the complex sale agreement completed. The final payment “will enable us to completely liquidate the mortgages on this fine campus we purchased in 1973 on virtually 100 percent financing.”

Winter is even happier. “It is clearly a miracle and a wonderful thing for us,” said Winter. “It reflects a new interest in missions and a groundswell of support for what we are doing.” About $700,000 in pledges must come in before the center is truly debt free.

TELEVISION

More Sex On Television

A recent Louis Harris & Associates study concluded that 65,000 sexual references a year are broadcast during prime afternoon and evening hours. And the sponsors of the study, Planned Parenthood Federation of America, notes that viewers are rarely reminded of the results of sex.

The study, based on videotapes of 129 programs broadcast at the beginning of the 1987–88 season, found more visual sexual explicitness and less verbally suggestive material. The researchers also found, for the first time, occasional portrayals of intercourse.

In spite of increased references to sexual activity, the study found no advertisem*nts or public service announcements for contraceptives during the programming. Planned Parenthood’s Faye Wattleton called the network’s portrayal of sex “a tremendous disservice.”

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

Adults Skip Sunday School

Since 1970, Sunday schools have lost nearly 14 million names from their enrollment lists, according to church-growth specialist Win Arn. And the 34 percent decline has him worried. “The prognosis for the Sunday school in America is not good,” he said.

Part of the problem is that fewer church members attend Sunday school. In 1970, 31 percent of the number of church members attended Sunday school. In 1986, that percentage slipped to 18.

Arn believes this trend also helps explain why larger numbers of American children are missing out on religious training. In 1970, “10 percent of the population said they received no religious training as a child,” said Arn. “In 1987, 27 percent responded the same way.”

Declining Sunday schools can reverse this trend, Arn noted, by operating with a mission. “The most important issue in moving a Sunday school forward in growth is a clear purpose that reflects the mission and priority of Christ.”

TRENDS

More One-Parent Homes

Nearly one American youngster in four lives with just one parent, according to a recent Census Bureau report. Moreover, the percentage of children living in one-parent homes has more than doubled since 1960.

According to Arlene Saluter of the bureau’s Marriage and Family Statistics Branch, as many as 60 percent of today’s children will spend at least some time in one-parent households. Divorce rates and the growing number of unmarried mothers have contributed to this change, added Saluter.

Most one-parent youngsters (89 percent) live with their mothers. And it is more likely for Hispanic (30 percent) and black children (53 percent) to live in one-parent households than it is for white children (18 percent).

MEDICAL ETHICS

Baby Kept Alive For Organs

Amidst a continuing ethical debate, a brain-absent (anencephalic) baby was kept on a respirator after being declared brain dead in order to preserve its organs for a possible transplant. This marks the first time such a procedure has been used in the United States.

According to officials at Loma Linda Medical Center where the baby was taken shortly after birth, the infant was given artificial life support and medication until his brain stem stopped functioning. At that point the baby was declared officially brain dead, though he was kept on the respirator. Without artifical support, anencephalic babies die slowly.

For ethical reasons, doctors at Loma Linda decided to remove artificial life support after seven days if a recipient could not be found. At press time, the infant was still on the respirator. In the meantime, ethicists continue to raise questions about keeping such infants alive solely for organ harvesting.

PEOPLE AND EVENTS

Briefly Noted

Recommended: As next president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, S.C., Lewis A. Drummond. Currently, Drummond, 61, is on sabbatical from his post as Billy Graham Professor of Evangelism and director of the Billy Graham Center for Evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

Named: In a civil suit filed by his mother-in-law, Walker Railey, the former United Methodist minister under suspicion for attempted murder of his wife. The suit accuses Railey of “maliciously” and knowingly trying to choke his wife to death. Mrs. Railey has been comatose since the April 21, 1987, attack.

General Synod / Flickr (Used with permission)

Though the Anglican Church in Canada last week failed to amend its canon to sanction same-sex marriages, in the wake of the narrow vote, dioceses have opted to continue with them anyway.

The amendment, first passed in 2016, required a two-thirds majority vote among lay delegates, clergy, and bishops at two triennial general synods in a row. While it met the threshold among lay and clergy (80.9% and 73.2%) during this year’s synod, the bishops’ vote last Friday fell just short of two-thirds (62.2%).

On Monday, Archbishop Fred Hiltz, the Primate of Canada, read a statement to the delegation saying the bishops “are not of one mind” on the issue, but that “we are walking together in a way which leaves room for individual dioceses and jurisdictions of our church to proceed with same-sex marriage,” according to Anglican Planet.

The initial rejection came as a blow to the majority of Canadian Anglicans, who support same-sex marriage, which has been legal in the country since 2005. But after Monday’s announcement, several bishops indicated that they would be taking advantage of the “local option,” which permits dioceses to follow their “contexts and convictions” on this issue, the CBC wrote.

The conservative minority in the Anglican Church in Canada has raised concerns over the decision to permit same-sex ceremonies despite the failed vote.

“In a church that affirms the ‘One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church’ I can’t make sense of what local option means in this context or in the global Church,” Bishop Joey Royal, a suffragan bishop of the Arctic, told Anglican Planet.

“This is something that has not yet been fully acknowledged despite repeated pleas from all across the Communion to not proceed with same-sex marriage. The truth is we’ve unleashed a monster and no one—not conservatives, not liberals—can predict how this will all play out in the coming years.”

It’s been 15 years since the denomination first passed a measure to “affirm the integrity and sanctity of committed adult same-sex relationships.”

Susan Bell, bishop of the diocese of Niagara, which will continue to marry same-sex couples, told the CBC the narrow vote offered a “realistic portrayal of where the Anglican Church of Canada is right now.”

The amendment would have officially declared that the church’s marriage canon applies “to all persons who are duly qualified by civil law to enter into marriage” and would use “parties to marriage” instead of gendered terminology.

Among the bishops, 23 voted in favor, 14 against, and 2 abstained—close enough to draw scrutiny over who opposed the measure. Some had suggested indigenous leaders (who make up a dozen of 43 total bishops) were more likely to vote against.

“There’s an assumption there that all Indigenous bishops, for instance, voted against the marriage canon change. That’s not true at all,” National Indigenous Anglican Archbishop Mark MacDonald said in the Anglican Journal. “We are concerned about the implications of that kind of scapegoating, and we’re trying to deal with it as gently and serenely as possible.” (At the general synod, MacDonald was given the title of archbishop following a historic vote to establish a self-determining indigenous church within the denomination, and the church also issued an apology for mistreatment of indigenous people.)

Though the amendment didn’t pass, Anglicans opposed to same-sex marriage see little to celebrate, given how divided their church has become on the issue.

“We strive for unity and mutual understanding as Christians because all of us together have a mission to proclaim the gospel and make disciples of all people,” Cole Hartin, assistant curate at St. Luke’s in Saint John, New Brunswick, wrote for The Living Church. “Our fractiousness not only consumes time and energy, but diverts us from the mission God has given to all of us.”

The issue has been a tough one for Canadian evangelicals. Last summer, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Trinity Western University’s planned law school for a student covenant that confined sex to traditional marriage; after a five-year legal fight, the school dropped the requirement.

CT reported on research that indicated that Canada’s Anglican churches and mainline congregations with conservative theology were growing faster than their liberal counterparts; the Anglican Church of Canada is the second most popular Protestant denomination in the country after the United Church of Canada, though both have experienced declines over the past two decades.

“As we seek to move forward in this time of great change within the Church, we must remember that ultimately the Church is God’s,” wrote Hartin. “Our hope is not in our planning or strategies but in God who is making all things new. We must respect the way the Church is ordered, even as we groan with all creation, eagerly awaiting our adoption and the redemption of our bodies. We live in faith, looking forward in hope.”

Recently our president made the latest in a long line of comments demeaning immigrants and minorities. The furor brings to mind two biblical prophets, both for their differences and for what they hold in common.

Nathan was an advisor to the royal court and a messenger of God. He pronounced God’s covenant with David, supported the ascension of Solomon, and wrote histories of the legendary kings. The Bible rarely speaks positively of court prophets, who often serve as apologists for rulers who flout the will of God. Yet Nathan was a court prophet, and a good one. Most memorably, he approached King David and convicted him of his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah. Nathan might have lost his head. Instead he won a repentant king.

John the Baptist is the very image of a wilderness prophet. His ministry raises a clarion cry in the desert, far from the center of political power. He wore a camel-hair shirt, ate locusts and honey, and heralded the kingdom of God. John the Baptist condemned the marriage of Herod Antipas. Unlike Nathan, he ultimately paid with his life.

One was a court prophet and the other a wilderness prophet. One was welcome in the precincts of power. The other was not. What does this have to do with us today?

Some of our readers voted for Trump, in enthusiastic support or in reluctant pragmatism. Others rejected him. Christianity Today should be a place where brothers and sisters in Christ reason with one another passionately and charitably. Let’s seek to understand as much as we seek to be understood.

As for me, I wonder if we have too many court prophets in an era when wilderness prophets are needed. I also wonder if our court prophets are willing to call out sin when they see it. Whether you view Trump as a David or an Antipas, whether you serve at the court of the resplendent king or stand over against the court from the wilderness, one thing Nathan and John the Baptist held in common was that both were willing to condemn unrighteousness in their rulers—even if it cost them everything.

The racial inflection of our political drama adds deeper significance to the moment. White Christians have a long and lamentable history of silence (or worse) when people of color are under attack. On the one hand, I sense today an authentic desire among white Christians to build bridges of relationship and reconciliation with their friends and neighbors of other ethnicities.

On the other hand, I sense a profound frustration among non-white Christian friends that their white brethren keep silent as the president aims ugly and demeaning statements at people of color. These friends don’t like what the silence of the white church is saying, and neither do we.

If white Christians wish to stand on the bridge with brothers and sisters of other colors and backgrounds, they need to stand with them first in the foxhole. We should all stand so close that attacks on “them” are attacks on “us,” until there is no longer a distinction between “them” and “us” remaining. If we abandon our sister in the foxhole, we cannot expect her to attend our potluck.

So let us not be silent. We are not captive to political party. We are accountable to a higher authority. We expect better of our leaders, and we stand in the foxholes with our brothers and sisters when they are taking fire. We hope court prophets and wilderness prophets alike, and Christians of all political persuasions, will speak the truth and stand with those who suffer unjustly.

Timothy Dalrymple is president and CEO of Christianity Today.

Grammy Award-winning artist Michael W. Smith hopes to share the secrets of his success with students at Liberty University this coming fall.

He'll be joined by Kevin Jonas, the father and original manager of the Jonas Brothers, the megapopular sibling rock trio.

Both will play key roles at the new Michael W. Smith Center for Commercial Music, which opens August 1 at Liberty, in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Smith will direct the center. Jonas' role is still being defined but will involve working with Liberty students to record and promote their work and connecting with mainstream artists interested in signing with the new music label it plans to launch alongside the center.

The school hopes the center and label — working name: Liberty Music Group — not only will give students experience recording an album but also will attract artists — both mainstream and Christian — from across the country, according to Vernon M. Whaley, dean of the School of Music.

“Our mission for the university is training and equipping champions for Christ," Whaley said. "What I tell my students is it doesn't matter what kind of music you're going to go into, God's called you to take worship to the nations."

Liberty’s School of Music has about 980 resident students, according to the dean.

When it opened its music and worship program in 2005, it grew exponentially semester to semester — 89 students, then 210, then 318, now nearly 700.

So, he said, “We decided, OK, we're going to claim the territory for training and equipping for worship majors and worship pastors and those who are going to be involved on a vocational basis in the area of worship.”

The new center will take that training to the “mainstream market,” which the school views as a place for evangelism.

“The passion we have is not just to train a bunch of people to go into the music industry — or just go into the Christian music industry, for that matter — but to be equipped as musicians that go into the music industry fully equipped to do what they believe God's called them to do, whether it's the mainstream market or the faith-based market,” said Whaley.

The center will house several existing programs, including a Bachelor of Music in commercial music with emphases in artist development; songwriting; recording, engineering and producing; publishing and producing; or film score production.

It will also be home to a brand-new $2 million recording studio for its label, according to Whaley.

Former Christian artist and music industry executive Al Denson will be the center's commercial music industry liaison.

Denson has served on the advisory council for the School of Music for 14 years. He helped bring Smith and Jonas to the center and is expected to attract more artists who want to give back to budding musicians.

“These artists remember how hard it was starting out, working years and years to have the opportunity to record on a major label,” he said in a written release.

“So when they have a chance to give back to those who are really wanting to seek what they did, and walk down the same path, they are more than willing and excited to invest in them.”

Denson called Jonas "a liaison to the other side of the coin."

Jonas, a music prodigy-turned-Assemblies of God pastor, met his wife, Denise, on their first day at the Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas. He went from directing worship for Christ for the Nations and Assemblies of God churches to directing their sons' music careers, according to Good Housekeeping.

Early in their careers, brothers Kevin, Nick and Joe wore purity rings — jewelry indicating one's desire to save sex for marriage that was popular in the Christian purity movement in the 1990s — while singing mainstream pop songs like “Burnin’ Up.”

Smith found success on both the Christian and mainstream charts with songs like 1991's “Place in this World.”

Last year, he performed at the funerals of evangelist Billy Graham and former President George H. W. Bush.

The opening of the new center follows reports Liberty cut staff at its School of Divinity at the end of the last school year.

Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. — more often in the news for his vocal support of President Trump — told Inside Higher Ed at the time that those cuts were part of a “cultural shift from full-time ministry workers to Christians in all professions working to make a difference.”

Jesse Miranda, a Pentecostal leader and the “granddaddy of US Latino Protestantism,” died last Friday at the age of 82.

Several weeks ago, Miranda learned that he had inoperable B-cell lymphoma and entered hospice care.

As founder of the National Alliance of Evangelical Ministries (AMEN, Alianza de Ministerios Evangélicos Nacionales) and then executive director of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), Miranda was known for bringing together Latino leaders and elevating their voices within American evangelicalism.

A 2002 CT profile called him “the primary visionary uniting disparate US Hispanic evangelicals” and praised his “reputation as a sharp listener and bridge-builder who has put his vision, imagination, and wit to the service of the Latino church.”

“His commitment to Christ, real. His prophetic voice, renewing. His love for the marginalized, relentless,” wrote current NHCLC president (and a CT board member) Samuel Rodriguez in tribute this week. “I love and forever will honor you Bro. Jesse! You changed my life!”

Assemblies of God pastors and National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NaLEC) cofounders Gabriel and Jeannette Salguero considered him “a mentor to our generation of evangelicals.”

One of the most important lessons Miranda passed down was showing how to lead in both Hispanic and majority culture spaces, said Dennis J. Rivera, director of the Office of Hispanic Relations for the Assemblies of God.

“Jesse modeled and taught young leaders that Hispanics are not either/or, but are both/and, bilingual and bicultural, and therefore can navigate and serve in two worlds,” Rivera said.

Miranda’s organization, founded in 1994, brought together 27 denominations, 70 parachurch agencies, and 22 nationalities across the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Canada. Miranda also built out institutional structures to support Hispanic leaders in his denomination and on Christian college campuses.

Yet, at times, the New Mexico native said he still felt like he was on the outside looking into the evangelical world.

“I was watching a cable television station that was carrying a meeting of evangelicals on racial reconciliation. I was excited to see this demonstration of Christian unity. But then my phone rang, and a Hispanic leader on the other end asked if I was watching this,” said Miranda in a 1998 CT interview. “When I told him I was, he asked, ‘Is your TV in black and white? Because mine is; it looks like a rerun from the 1960s. Why aren't we part of this discussion?’”

Miranda was sensitive about the ways that Hispanics interacted with African Americans on issues of justice and reconciliation.

“Hispanics owe a lot to the black community for taking up the baton of human rights and of civil rights,” he told CT. “It isn't the Christian way to take a free ride or to sit back and see how things do or don't get worked out. Whatever the consequences, we need to get into the dialogue, and perhaps we can bring something to the table that would help us all work through the differences of skin pigmentation, culture, or history.”

Born in 1937, Miranda grew up in a poor neighborhood in Albuquerque. His father worked at a lumber mill; his mother did not finish third grade. He converted after his Pentecostal neighbors prayed for his ill mother, who was later healed.

“My parents were my first mentors, even in reconciliation," he told CT in 2002. “I remember I was 13 or 14, and I said, ‘Dad, Catholics never read the Bible,’ because I never saw him read it. ‘Mother, you read the Bible but never come to the Book of Acts.’

"And then they would turn around and say, ‘And you Pentecostals never leave the Book of Acts.’ So I saw my shortcomings and I saw differences. Yet we loved and respected one another so that we really enjoyed our fellowship. And we all affirmed one another."

By age 20, Miranda had become a minister with the Assemblies of God (AG) and went on to earn degrees at a number of Southern California universities, including a bachelor’s at Vanguard University, a master’s at Biola and another at Cal State Fullerton, and a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary, a process that took 20 years of attending class on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.

Miranda served as an instructor at the Latin America Bible Institute from 1959 to 1978. Within his denomination, Miranda oversaw 400 Latino churches when he served as the AG’s Southern Pacific Latin American District superintendent from 1984 to 1992. In 1995, he began serving as an AG executive presbyter, a position that he held for 22 years.

Doug Clay, the general superintendent of the Assemblies of God described Miranda’s impact as “immeasurable.” “Beyond the enormity of his influence, he was equally known for his humility and eagerness to serve,” tweeted Clay. “Heaven is rejoicing to welcome him home.”

After a tenure at Azusa Pacific University, Miranda returned to his alma mater, Vanguard, where he supported the campus’s Latino students as the director of the Center for Urban Studies and Ethnic Leadership, later renamed in honor of him. (His son, Jack, later succeeded him as executive director of the Jesse Miranda Center for Hispanic Leadership.)

Miranda was also the author of The Christian Church in Ministry and Liderazgo y Amistad (Leadership and Friendship). But Miranda’s greatest gifts lay in his ability to bring diverse groups of people together and build institutions. He was passionate about creating unity within the Latino church—and outside of it.

“He will be remembered for his profound influence on racial reconciliation, theology, and leadership in the church,” tweeted Biola University president Barry Corey.

In 2013, Miranda partnered with Christianity Today to develop Christianismo Hoy, a digital publication for Hispanic Christians.

“The church must not see diversity as a problem to be solved but rather as the way to complete its prophetic identity,” wrote Miranda in the announcement. “To this end, racial and ethnic groups are the social and spiritual capital of the Body of Christ.”

Beyond his evangelical ties, Miranda was also politically connected. An advisor on immigration to the Clinton and both Bush presidential administrations, he encouraged Latino pastors to work with President George W. Bush’s faith-based initiatives.

Leith Anderson, the outgoing president of the National Association of Evangelicals, where Miranda had served on the board, described him as “a warm, humble and gracious Christian brother.”

“When I first met him … I didn’t realize what an amazing and influential leader Jesse Miranda was and became,” said Anderson in a statement. “He blessed so many, so significantly for so long.”

Miranda was married to his wife, Susan, for 62 years and was survived by three children and nine grandchildren.

By now, the church has come to recognize the challenges faced by pastors’ wives, a role weighed with expectations, attention, and personal sacrifice. But as women rise in prominence across areas of ministry, another question comes up: What about their husbands?

There’s no template in our minds for what it looks like to be married to women in today’s generation of influential Christian teachers, writers, artists, and more.

It’s not unusual for ministry husbands to have jobs outside traditional church settings: Ann Voskamp has blogged for years about her husband, The Farmer, and Beth Moore’s mister is a plumber. “Never been a deacon or church leader,” she once tweeted, “but as I live & breathe, this Bible study ministry wouldn't exist w/out him.”

CT reached out to a handful of men whose wives are serving the church in increasingly visible ways to hear their perspectives from behind the scenes.

These husbands contribute to God’s kingdom work in their own unique ways—including by helping their spouses do theirs. In fact, Roy Prior, husband to teacher and writer Karen Swallow Prior, and Doug Johnson, husband to pro-life activist Abby Johnson, said they view their primary calling as in part to support their wives.

“The kids will always be my top priority, to make sure Abby can travel and do what she needs to do,” said Johnson. “She’s the go-getter. She has a deeper passion for something out there that’s really changing the world.”

Ministry husbands find themselves called to be sounding boards, sources of inspiration, prayer partners, and even just extra hands to keep the household running while deadlines and travel keep their wives away.

“I just want to create the space for her to have what she needs to do really rich spiritual work,” said John Freeman, husband to author, blogger, and podcaster Emily P. Freeman. “It’s like a dance. … Sometimes she has to spin off and move in other places, and I just have to hang at home, and vice versa.”

Here’s what we learned from four ministry spouses about how they make their “dance” work.

John Freeman

Married to: Emily P. Freeman: Christian blogger, speaker, host of the podcast The Next Right Thing, and author of several books, including The Next Right Thing (2019), A Million Little Ways (2013), and Grace for the Good Girl (2011).

Home base: Greensboro, North Carolina

Background actors: 15-year-old twin girls and a 13-year-old boy

His work: John took over a local discipleship/counseling nonprofit a few years ago. “It looks a lot like counseling, but really it’s spiritual direction for young families and young guys,” he said.

The dance (how they work together): John and Emily own a second home that they use as their “ministry house.” Emily uses the house Mondays and Tuesdays to research, pray, and record and edit her podcast. John meets clients there the rest of the week.

John sees his role in Emily’s ministry as part encourager, part housework assistant, and part sounding board. Sometimes that means taking care of responsibilities at home to free her up to work and encouraging her pursuits. “It’s in our daily conversations,” he said. “It comes up in our meals, in our time when she’s driving the kids somewhere and talking to me on the phone.”

“Even though we’re not always in each others’ presence, there is this kind of dance, and it’s very conversational. I think that’s the beauty and the gift of a close marriage, that it’s really built on a spiritual life in Christ.”

The tricky part: John likes to categorize his home library by author or theme; Emily does it by color. (The winner is as yet unclear.)

How does she take her coffee?: “She does not let me make her coffee for her,” John said. “Well, I always pre-make it the night before, so it comes up with a timer—but she has to be the one who fixes in the almond cream. So she uses almond creamer.”

Roy Prior

Married to: Karen Swallow Prior: English professor at Liberty University, senior fellow with the Trinity Forum, writer and author of multiple books including On Reading Well (2018), Fierce Convictions (2014), and Booked (2012).

Home base: Lynchburg, Virginia

Background actors: Dogs Ruby and Eva, chickens, horses, as well as Karen’s parents who live nearby.

His work: Roy teaches building trades at a local high school: carpentry, plumbing, electrical work, the gamut.

The dance: “When she’s teaching, she’s totally immersed in it,” Roy said. “And writing is pretty much the same thing. … She’s just really dedicated to whatever she’s doing.”

Karen writes from home, a beautiful old farmhouse built in 1912. He mostly leaves her to her work. “I don’t pretend to be any help with that,” he said, though they do chat about her writing and share goofy student stories.

More than the house and the conversations, though, Roy sees his role in Karen’s ministry as a lifetime commitment. It was when the couple moved to Virginia from New York in the late ’90s when he felt a nudge from the Lord about Karen’s calling. “It just became clear as time went on that God was using Karen in a great way,” he said. “I was convicted that I needed to support that more than anything else that I was doing.” Roy views his teaching job as a ministry, he said, inasmuch as any Christian’s life should be viewed as ministry. But mostly he feels he’s here to support Karen.

“There’s no room for pride or ego in a sound marriage,” he said. He’s not at all put off by the reality that Karen’s work is more visible than his. “I am overjoyed with Karen’s successes. … Every person has strengths and weaknesses,” he said. “No one puts a pitcher behind home plate or has a drummer play guitar.” He’s just fine, then, if that means Karen’s on lead vocals most of the time.

The tricky part: Karen’s visibility on social media and in the world of evangelical Christian theology has often made her a target. Sometimes people are cruel. Roy stays off of social media in part because he values his privacy, but also because it’s too difficult to see people attack Karen. “I naturally get defensive and protective,” he said. “She is totally capable of taking care of herself in those realms, but there’s still sort of an instinct to protect.” They talk about her interactions, and he sometimes encourages her to stay away from the conflicts. But “she has a great ability to engage with people who have opposing views,” he says. “She’s far better than I am at that.”

How does she take her coffee?: Karen likes to make her own coffee, but after her accident last year—she was hit by a bus while walking down the street—Roy had to step up. “I was the nurse attendant for a few months here,” he said. She takes her coffee black, but thanks to her continued recovery, she’s back to grinding the beans herself.

Doug Johnson

Married to: Abby Johnson, pro-life activist, founder and CEO of And Then There Were None, a nonprofit ministry helping abortion workers to leave the industry, author of UnPlanned (2011).

Home base: Austin, Texas Background actors: It’s a whole theater company: three girls and five boys from 12 years to five weeks

His work: Before Abby left her work as an executive at Planned Parenthood and joined the pro-life movement, Doug was a special ed teacher at a local high school. Now he stays home with their eight children. “I love it,” he said. “If you were to ask me when I was 16 what I wanted to be when I grew up, I didn’t have a very good answer. But I always wanted to be a dad and a husband, so I guess I decided to make that my profession for now.”

The dance: Doug and Abby dove head-first into a new life together after Abby’s unexpected exit from Planned Parenthood. “We’ve always been a kind of go-with-it and make-it-work kind of family,” he said.

As Abby’s story gained attention, her work became more visible and more demanding. That was just fine with Doug. Abby takes summers off but spends a lot of time traveling throughout the year. “We just built a really good village around us,” he said. “It’s not just Abby and I. It’s our parents that help us, and we have so many great friends.”

Doug said when some onlookers suggest their arrangement seems to buck some sort of system, he shrugs it off. “I know what I’m doing is unusual, but is supporting my family really all that unique?” he said. Abby’s powerful drive and ambition are part of what attracted him to her in the first place, he said, and he wants to help that part of her flourish. “I don’t ever want to stand in front of my Maker having to explain why I stood in the way of what he called her to do,” he said.

Doug views his role as stay-at-home dad as just another iteration of being his family’s provider. And he shares the feats and foibles of (big) family life with an online community on Facebook, which he also views as ministry. “It’s about showing people that yes, this is challenging, but it’s so much fun. When I show people how much other people help us, and how much we can help others, that’s what Christ calls us to do anyway. And it’s just more fun this way.” They want to show people that big families aren’t always a hardship but a blessing.

The tricky part: Abby’s political work attracts a lot of criticism, which often devolves into bullying. “I think it’s really mostly my job to make sure she has a soft space to land at home,” Doug said. He tries to stay away from Abby’s social media because it’s difficult to see others post nasty comments about her. “She has her friends that help her,” he said. “We talk about it. … We just have to understand that people are angry and hurting.”

How does she take her coffee?: She’s not a big coffee drinker, but when she needs it: “lots of cream and lots of sugar.”

Jeff Wilkin

Married to: Jen Wilkin: Bible teacher and author of multiple Bible studies and books, including In His Image (2018) and None Like Him (2016). Jen is the full-time classes and curriculum director at The Village Church, which has multiple campuses in the Dallas area.

Home base: Flower Mound, Texas

Background actors: Four grown kids in their late teens and early 20s: Matt, Mary Kate, Claire, and Calvin

His work: Jeff is an IT consultant with a tech company.

The dance: Jeff said Jen is busy. She does her writing on nights and weekends while she works full-time at their church during the week. Her work has grown since she first fell in love with teaching Sunday school in Houston in the late ’90s, when her kids were younger. “It’s been fairly organic,” Jeff said of Jen’s career evolution.

Jen likes to bounce her teaching and writing ideas off of him, and they enjoy talking about what they’re each learning. “It’s nice if I’m doing something completely different,” he said. “Our conversations can kind of cross-pollinate. It doesn’t feel as much like I’m helping her as that we have a relationship where we’re just … learning about the Lord together.”

The tricky part: Jen’s travels were tough when the Wilkin kiddos were younger, and he’d be a solo parent for a few days. And he said her absences were hard for her, too. Like any woman suffering from #momguilt, Jeff said, she often felt the tug of what she was missing at home.

These days, Jeff sometimes gets to travel with her. But when that’s not an option, Jeff has a new problem: “I’m home alone now!” he said. “Before, Jen would be gone, and my son, or whoever was home, we’d go see superhero movies that she didn’t want to see or watch TV shows she wasn’t interested in.” Now that they have an empty-ish nest, Jeff said he’s working at cultivating other friendships and solo plans for his weekends alone.

How does she take her coffee? Black and first thing in the morning.

MALAWI

Saturation Evangelism

A team of 37 evangelists from eight countries led an intensive 15-day evangelistic effort in the Malawian capital of Lilongwe. More than 4,000 persons registered public decisions for Christ during the “Lilongwe for Jesus” mission, sponsored by African Enterprise.

“We have been to every residential area, every market, and almost every factory in this [East African] city,” said mission leader Stephen Mung’oma of Kenya. “Almost everyone you meet in the streets has heard of ‘Lilongwe for Jesus.’ ”

Public rallies were held nightly in six locations. In one area, people poured out of a tavern to find out what was happening. “Just give us one evening to tell you the gospel,” Mung’oma told the curious onlookers, many of whom decided not to return to the bar.

At open-air markets, where hundreds of people buy and sell goods, evangelists used portable loud speakers to preach to large crowds. Many meetings held in homes turned into open-air meetings when the houses overflowed and crowds moved outside for more room.

At Saint John’s School, evangelist David Peters told students that those who wanted to make a commitment to Christ should come to his room the following morning. At 6 A.M., some 150 young people arrived at his doorstep.

UGANDA

Gunfire Kills Two Christians

Two people were killed and two others, one a young girl, were injured when antigovernment guerrillas opened fire on a truck loaded with Christian workers in Uganda. It was not clear why the rebels attacked the group, which had been helping produce the Ateso-language translation of the evangelistic film Jesus.

John Aluru, one of the men killed in the attack, had served as the voice of Jesus in the translation project. “This [film] is the kind of thing Uganda needs,” Aluru told a colleague before he died. “Never, ever get scared—just carry on the project.”

The Jesus film, a two-hour docudrama based on the Gospel of Saint Luke, was produced in the late 1970s by the Genesis Project and Campus Crusade for Christ International. More than 315 million people in 110 countries have viewed the film, which has been translated into 107 major languages.

CHINA

Religious Printing Press

The United Bible Societies has turned over printing and binding equipment worth more than 6.7 million dollars to the new Amity Printing Press in Nanjing, China.

The printing facility, established by the United Bible Societies and China’s Amity Foundation, will give priority to producing Bibles, New Testaments, hymnals, and other Christian literature. Project coordinator David Thorne said the press should begin printing Bibles and New Testaments by November or early December.

The press will be housed in a new building constructed on an 8.8-acre tract in an industrial park outside Nanjing. The global United Bible Societies partnership, which includes the American Bible Society, entered into an agreement with the Amity Foundation in 1985 to finance the purchase of the printing and binding equipment.

The United Bible Societies will also help train a Chinese staff to operate the printing facility.

The Amity Printing Press has already received orders for 100,000 copies of the Chinese Union Version Bible, and 100,000 copies of the Chinese Reference Bible.

CHILE

Sect Combats Immorality

Chile’s military government discontinued a weekly cabaret-style revue that had been broadcast on state television after an unorthodox sect mobilized street actions against the program.

The Revolutionaries for Christ, which is not affiliated with any established denomination, targeted the variety program Sabor Latino (Latin Flavor). The program featured scantily dressed women who sang romantic songs and sometimes engaged in suggestive banter with men from the audience.

The Revolutionaries for Christ organized demonstrations against the program. And streets in the television studio’s neighborhood were covered with condemnatory graffiti. Chile’s National Television Council canceled the program, citing the “prominent display of female anatomy, especially the buttocks.”

The Revolutionaries for Christ—led by 33-year-old Christian Casanova, a former left-wing activist—has issued calls for a theocratic state whose leaders are directed by “prophets who transmit the word of God.” Casanova says he had a conversion experience in which God told him to “rise up and form a revolutionary army.… Marxism gave me the strategy, and God gave me the spirit.”

EAST GERMANY

A Thriving Bookstore

East Berlin’s Evangelische Buchhandlung bookstore attracts attention with a sign that spans the width of the storefront. The Christian publishing and bookstore ministry, founded in 1946, continues to prosper in East Germany’s capital.

“About 300 customers per day come into the store,” said store manager Wilfried Weist. “But not all of them buy anything.” The store carries 8,000 titles, including Bibles and about 1,000 different Christian books. The ministry also publishes evangelistic pamphlets, hymns, choir music, Sunday school literature, training materials for youth workers, and a monthly Christian magazine.

The ministry operates within East Germany’s legal code. Like other bookstores and publishers, it is required to pay taxes and to obtain special licenses. The store, which belongs to the Union of Free Churches, also sponsors some 250 book tables in East German churches.

At this week’s Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, billed as the largest human rights event the US State Department has ever held, 23 people were invited to share their or their loved ones’ stories of religious persecution.

Below are the 10 Christian survivors from 10 nations, followed by the non-Christian survivors.

Christian survivors of religious persecution:

China: Ouyang Manping is the wife of Pastor Su Tifan, who on December 9, 2015, was placed under administrative detention after law enforcement raided the Three Living Stone Church.

Cuba: Reverend Mario Félix Lleonart Barroso is currently the pastor of the Iglesia Bautista de Waldorf (Baptist Church of Waldorf), where he ministers to the Latino community. While in Cuba, he planted and pastored Baptist churches in the province of Villa Clara and in Havana. In 2016, after years of being harassed, detained, and arrested multiple times because of his faith activities, Pastor Leonard, his wife, Yoaxis, and his two daughters sought asylum in the United States. They arrived in the United States on September 11, 2016.

Eritrea: Helen Berhane was held in a container for almost three years because of her faith. She is now a gospel singer and wrote a book about her experience.

Malaysia: Wife of Pastor Raymond Koh, the pastor kidnapped on a highway by at least 15 men in three black SUVs on CCTV in February 2017 with no proof of life since. Police say one demand for money was opportunistic but that there is no evidence to the pastor's whereabouts. There are possible links to Koh's role as a Christian activist at a time when Malaysia was moving to enforce stricter Islamic laws.

The pastor was accused of proselytizing Muslims in 2011, and a box containing two bullets, with a note in Malay threatening his life, was sent to Koh's house. On April 3, the country’s civil rights commission ruled that that the disappearance probably was the act of the national police intelligence branch.

Iraq: Father Thabet Habib Yousif, Chaldean Catholic Priest from Karamles, Ninevah. When ISIS came, the residents of Karamles fled. Fr. Thabet remained behind to ensure everyone fled and ensure his congregation was cared for in displacement. He helped organize accommodation, food, and work. When Karamles was liberated, he was one of the first to return home and help coordinate rebuilding. These efforts included extending assistance for the small remnant of Shabak families also returning.

Nigeria: “Esther,” 20, is from Gwoza in southern Borno. She was held captive by Boko Haram for over three years. During her captivity, she experienced terrible trauma—from witnessing how people died to surviving sexual abuse. She escaped and was rescued by the military. But her escape did not bring the freedom she had long hoped and prayed for. She was kept in near-prison conditions until a Christian doctor was able to reconnect her with her family. Her family now welcomes her but local gossip attacking her daughter Rebecca as a “Boko Haram Child” was very hurtful. With some help, she has become stronger and ignores the public hate.

North Korea: Ill Yong Joo is a 23-year-old student who defected from North Korea in 2008 at the age of 12. Joo has been an active advocate in the past year. He visited the Department in October 2018 as a Liberty in North Korea Advocacy Fellow. For 10 years, his family listened to South Korean radio, including Christian broadcasting, which was one of the motivating factors for their escape.

He said, “Even listening to foreign radio is considered a crime against the state. If I had been caught, I could have been executed.” His father escaped first, years before he, his mother, and sister crossed the Tumen River, trekked across Southeast Asia, and finally resettled in South Korea after five months of traveling. His father is now a missionary in South Korea.

Sudan: Meriam Yahia Ibrahim was charged with apostasy and adultery in May 2014 for marrying a Christian man. She was raised by her Christian mother and identified as Christian but her father was Muslim and left her to be raised by her mother. She refused to renounce her Christian faith and was sentenced to death row. She was detained when she tried to leave the country after her release in July 2014 and now lives in the US.

Turkey: After practicing his faith in Turkey for more than 20 years, Pastor Andrew Brunson was imprisoned in October 2016 on false charges without a trial until the spring of 2018. The Turkish government presented no evidence that he was guilty, when finally indicted in April 2018, on charges referencing “Christianization” and religious activity, which raised questions about religious freedom in Turkey and indicated that he has been targeted because of his faith. He was released in October 2018 after a few “show” trials.

Vietnam: Pastor A Ga oversaw 12 house churches associated with the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ of Vietnam in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. After several detentions and over 40 police interrogation sessions involving torture, he and his immediate family fled to Thailand in 2014. In 2017, the Vietnamese government issued an arrest warrant against him. The Thai police arrested him, his wife, and their son. Due to US intervention, Pastor A Ga and his family resettled in the US as refugees in September 2018.

Non-Christian survivors of religious persecution:

Afghanistan

Hazara Shia: Farahnaz Ikhitari is a survivor of ISIS attacks. Ikhitari is a Hazara Shia from Lashkargah in Helmand Province, who lives in Afghanistan and is fluent in English. She received a BA in law and an LLB in law from American University of Afghanistan, and got engaged with another Hazara studying computer science at American University. On the first day of Nowruz on March 21, 2018, her fiancé, her future brother-in-law (12 years old), and her own brother (18) went to Karte Sakhie to celebrate the New Year, along with many other Hazaras. ISIS planted a bomb near the shrine in Karte Sakhie, and all three were killed, along with 30 other people.

Bangladesh

Secular: Rafida Ahmed, who survived a 2015 ISIS-inspired assassination attempt but lost a thumb to the assailant (her husband, Bangladesh American atheist Avijit Roy, was killed in the same attack) is a prominent blogger. In November 2017 Bangladesh arrested the attacker.

Hindu: Priya Biswas Saha is General Secretary of Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council. Priya Biswas Saha is a well-known figure in Bangladesh, both among the Hindu and human rights communities. She recently addressed the IRF Roundtable and Ambassador Sam Brownback, describing the situation of her ancestral home in Firozpur being burnt by arsonists in 2019. Priya is a human rights specialist in Bangladesh and focuses on religious minorities in Bangladesh. She has authored and provided insight for numerous reports on the plight of Bangladeshi minorities, particularly women who suffer sexual and physical intimidation. She has a current visa to travel to the United States.

China

Uighur Muslim: Jewher Ilham is the daughter of Uyghur scholar, Ilham Tohti, an internationally noted moderate voice who was dedicated to bridging the gap between the Uyghur people and the Han Chinese. Jewher’s father was given an unprecedented life sentence based on the writings on his website, Uyghur Online. As an advocate for her father, she testified before the US Congressional-Executive Committee on China, wrote op-eds in The New York Times, met with a number of government officials including Secretary of State John Kerry, and received numerous awards worldwide on behalf of her father. In 2015, she recounted her experiences in the book, Jewher Ilham: A Uyghur’s Fight to Free Her Father (University of New Orleans Press). Currently, Jewher is finishing her degree in political science, Arabic (Near Eastern Studies), and Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University.

Tibetan Buddhist: Nyima Lhamo, a human rights activist and the niece of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, a renowned Tibetan Buddhist lama who died in a Chinese prison while serving a life sentence. She was born in Tibet but is now based in the US. She has testified before the Congressional Lantos Human Rights Commission and briefed numerous UN Special Mandate holders.

Falun Gong practitioner: Yuhua Zhang is a former professor in China whose husband was arrested, tortured, and has been disappeared by Chinese authorities.

Germany

Jewish: Irene Weiss is a Holocaust survivor born in Bótrágy, Czechoslovakia (now Batrad, Ukraine). She moved to northern Virginia in 1953. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in education from American University and taught in the Fairfax County Public School system in Virginia for 13 years. Irene is a volunteer at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Iraq

Yezidi: Nadia Murad won the Nobel Prize last year for her work as a Yezidi survivor.

Pakistan

Ahmadiyya: Abdul Shakoor, elderly prisoner of conscience released March 18, 2019. Was detained since December 2, 2015, on charges of propagating the Ahmadiyya faith and stirring up “religious hatred” and “sectarianism”; sentenced to three years in prison for blasphemy and five years under the Anti-Terrorism Act on January 2, 2016. Shakoor ran a bookshop in Rabwah, Punjab province, a city of 70,000 that is 95% Ahmadiyya. Police and elite counter-terror forces raided his shop, accusing him and his Shia assistant of selling an Ahmadiyya commentary on the Quran and possessing sensitive materials. His conviction was for “printing, publishing, or disseminating any material to incite hatred” as well as for acts and speech that insult a religion or religious beliefs or defile the Qur’an, the Prophet Muhammad, a place of worship, or religious symbols. His appeal was listed on the High Court docket in Lahore several times but never actually heard. On March 18, 2019, he was released from prison, but the charges against him were not dropped.

Advocate: Shaan Taseer is an advocate of international religious freedom and based in Canada. He is the son of Salman Taseer, the former governor of Punjab, Pakistan. Taseer called for repealing Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and was then assassinated by his bodyguard Mumtaz Qadri in January 2011. Shaan Taseer has since been an advocate against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws and has supported Pakistani NGOs working on blasphemy cases.

Sudan

Minority Muslim: Badreldin Yousif Elsimat writes and practices a moderate version of Islam advocating separation of mosque and state and did not have a communal space to meet with his followers. He wrote many books about his beliefs that are sold around the world except in Sudan. He was arrested at his home on January 12 with five followers regarding his sermons and the recent protests in Khartoum. When detained he was asked about his religion and was placed with ISIS fighters. He was not tortured but was forced to watch his followers be tortured. Minority religious groups, including Muslim minority groups, express concern they could be convicted of apostasy if they express beliefs or discuss religious practices that differ from those of the Sunni majority group.

Vietnam

Cao Dai: Luong Xuan Duong is a Cao Dai follower, currently in Texas. He is a member of the Popular Council of Cao Dai Religion. Due to his advocacy for religious freedom for his religious organization, he was jailed for 30 months in 1996. In 2008, he was issued an arrest warrant after he tried to convene a general assembly of Cao Dai followers. He went into hiding for eight years and escaped to Thailand in March 2016. In late 2017, he reunited with his wife and daughter in Dallas, where he continues to fight for religious freedom in Vietnam.

Yemen

Jewish: Rabbi Faiz Grady was a rabbi in Raydah, Yemen, and was forced into hiding in Sanaa and then ultimately fled Yemen for speaking out publicly after the murder of Rabbi Moshe Nahari in 2008. US Ambassador Seche assisted United Jewish Organizations with his rescue in 2009.

Editor’s note: This public list has been shortened, per the request of the US State Department.

This week, the US State Department invited more than 100 countries to come to DC and discuss how to stop the dramatic decline of religious freedom worldwide.

CT’s global director, Jeremy Weber, interviewed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on what has changed between last year’s first-ever ministerial on international religious freedom (IRF) and this week’s second, bigger event.

CT: Why hold a second ministerial on religious freedom?

Pompeo: This is America’s first freedom, and we want to work to make sure other countries understand how central it is to the individuals that are in their country to have the opportunity to worship as one chooses or chooses not to worship, and to know that their government is not going to restrict, impose, impede, or punish those activities is central to human dignity. And so we believe that here at the State Department, we can lead this conversation. We can encourage other countries to recognize this most fundamental human right. And when we do so, we will make life better for millions and millions of people around the world.

What successes came out of the first ministerial?

We saw a couple of things. First, we saw a marked increase in the level of discourse around this as a central right. Lots of conversations. It spurred satellite groups and others to hold similar related conversations inside their own countries. In November of 2018, we sponsored something with the United Kingdom; in February 2019, the United Arab Emirates hosted a conference to discuss the challenge of promoting interfaith understanding. The list is long. There were examples in Taiwan and other places where the elevation of the conversation has taken place. And we’ve actually seen governments continue to increase the place they put, inside of their own decision-making process, the central notion of religious freedom. There is more work to do, for sure, which is why we’ll hold the ministerial again this year. We think this is an ongoing process that is very, very important.

Between this ministerial and last year’s, what’s been improved upon or changed?

We think two things. One, we think there’s an even greater focus. The work that’s been done in the run-up to this ministerial has been enormous compared to the one last year. I think in some sense, because it was the first one last year, I think a number of countries didn’t know precisely what to expect. And I think some suspected there were ulterior motives that just don’t exist. So we saw a much higher level of engagement and preparation for this year’s meeting, and we think we’ll get an even better outcome. Second, this is bigger. There are more countries that will attend this year and will do so at higher levels. We think, too, following this second ministerial, we’ll even see more activity take place in many of the countries that have traveled here to participate in this.

How do you respond to concerns that a whole ministerial solely dedicated to religious freedom impacts the State Department’s focus on other human rights?

I’m convinced we can do more than one thing at a time. This is an important freedom, for everyone. We’re focused on it. It doesn’t exclude the State Department’s efforts across a broad range of human rights. So, holding this religious freedom ministerial in no way diminishes or excludes our capacity to continue to push other human rights. I think you’ve probably seen the Unalienable Rights commission that we’re going to begin to move out on here in the next month or two. It’s looking at a related issue, which is to define appropriately for our time the set of basic human rights that are inherent in each individual human being, and then to begin to articulate—consistent with our founding principles here in the United States—how the State Department ought to support that fundamental set of unalienable rights for everyone.

Last month, you elevated the status of the Office of Religious Freedom. Why?

We did, and we did the same for the monitor for combating anti-Semitism. When leaders identify things that are real priorities, I think that helps institutions like the State Department. And folks around the world will see it too. These are very, very important fundamental rights and the work on anti-Semitism is essential. We see the risk around the world for that. So elevating those two [issues]: First, I think it signals appropriately where they fit into the priorities for the Trump administration; and second, it will provide some incremental resources for them so that they can perform their mission even more effectively.

In the wake of last year’s ministerial, Uzbekistan was removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern, though many advocates still rank them high on religious freedom violations. Why remove them now?

When we hold this ministerial, we’ve made it clear that there will be countries that attend the ministerial that are imperfect with respect to these issues. But what we’re seeking to do here is taking countries that are good and make them better. Countries that are only average, and help them improve. This is the case that we’re looking for countries that are desirous of improving the scope of religious freedom inside of their nation. And we want them to be part of this. We want them to come see what that looks like, what religious freedom really looks like as practiced by the countries that do it really, really well. It shouldn’t ever keep us from critiquing or criticizing any country that falls short of that. But we want countries here who are desirous of improving religious freedom within their own nation. So that’s how we have made our analysis of who’s appropriate to be part of this conversation here.

At last year’s ministerial, there was a focus on Andrew Brunson. I imagine it must be very pleasing to have him officially on this year’s program as someone who’s now released?

It is. It’s fantastic, and we’re looking forward to hearing from Pastor Brunson during the ministerial. It also reminds us of the work that remains ahead, and of others that during this year we were unable to get released; those that were detained during this year as well. So it is the case that you want to celebrate successes and you want to talk about the good work that’s been done, and then you want to learn from the processes that helped achieve those good successes. At the same time, it reminds you that the challenge—the threat to religious freedom around the world—remains. So we must remain diligent to continue to work hard at it.

A number of religious freedom advocates have concerns that while persecution is on the rise worldwide, America’s acceptance of refugees from the same nations has dramatically decreased. How do you respond to concerns that the US is closing off one of the avenues that people of minority faiths have to escape their persecution?

This administration appropriately is incredibly proud of how we treat those who are at risk around the world. I think there’s no nation in history that has accepted as many refugees as the United States has, nor whom has an even broader acceptance of people coming from around the world—both to come here to study and to learn, but those who want to come here permanently as well. Our focus here at the State Department has been to do our level best to do what we believe these people actually want: to help them stay inside of their own country, to deliver them goods and services and benefits, and to help shape their government policies in ways that permit them not to have to flee the country but allow them to exist safely and securely inside of their own country. And we’ll talk about that some in this ministerial as well. But I’m proud of what this administration has done with respect to taking care of the least among us around the world.

The latest IRF Scorecard by Wilberforce21 found that the top religious freedom advocates in Congress are quite bipartisan, yet out of 115 pieces of related legislation, only 6 were brought to a vote and passed. What could be done to make IRF legislation less partisan and quicker to pass?

That’s a good question. Through my time in Congress, I saw that there was broad, broad bipartisan consensus for religious freedom, and I hope that we can continue to work in that vein. The Trump administration certainly works closely with Democrats on Capitol Hill as well as with Republicans to get this right—to get this legislation right. As for how to convince the leaders on Capitol Hill to move that legislation forward, I’ll leave that to them. But I hope everyone will recognize that this administration will be incredibly supportive of those efforts by the legislature to push bipartisan international freedom legislation across the board.

Recent reports have shown an increase in the persecution of Christians worldwide. How does the State Department balance concern for Christians experiencing religious freedom violations without over-identifying Christianity—or them—with the US?

As I said at the outset, you’ll see leaders from nearly every religious faith here at the ministerial. We are equal opportunity when it comes to ensuring that religious freedom is protected. The data you described about the risk to the Christian faith in certain parts of the world is real. There is enormous Christian persecution in many parts of the world. As you know, we work diligently to make sure that those individuals, those human beings, have the capacity to practice their faith that they have chosen—in this case, Christianity. But you watch, too, this administration work on behalf of Muslims or the work we do on anti-Semitism. We want every person of every faith to have the capacity to practice their faith or choose not to.

Is the issue of religious freedom of personal interest to you?

It is. Look. I’m a Christian evangelical believer. This is something that’s been important in my life and the life of my family, and I have had the enormous benefit of being a citizen of the United States of America where I’ve been able to practice my faith personally and freely. I separate that from my obligation as Secretary of State, to the Constitution and the support and protection of all Americans. And I think this notion that has been so important in my life personally means for me—when I travel around the world and I see people who are living in nations where they don’t have that same blessing, that same opportunity to practice their faith—I think is something that does resonate with me.