News Release from Christian Aid Mission
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS – Feb 7. 2015)
— In a country where Christians face hostilities from the Buddhist
majority, the upper house of Burma’s parliament recently passed a bill
requiring all people wishing to convert to another religion to obtain
approval from an 11-member government committee. The Religious
Conversion Bill would also force those seeking to convert in Burma
(Myanmar) to provide an extensive list of personal information to
“registration boards,” answer intrusive questions, and wait 90 days for
approval.
The punishment for applying to
convert “with an intent to insult, disrespect, destroy, or to abuse a
religion” would be as much as two years in jail, according to the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). It was unclear
how such intent would be proven, USCIRF noted, and members of the
abandoned religion would have conveniently
vague grounds for filing criminal charges against those who left them.
The legislation, roundly
condemned in the international human rights community, would add a huge
obstacle to furthering the message of Christ in villages where native
missionaries already encounter threats, deprivation and violence from
Buddhist monks, followers of native animistic beliefs, and village
officials. An indigenous missionary whose work led to the establishing
of a new church last month in the town of Pin Da Zah, Shan state,
regularly faces threats of violence.
“By
the grace of God, the Lord’s church has been founded in Pin Da Zah
town, where strong Buddhists are fighting against other religions,” said
the director of a Burma-based ministry assisted by Christian Aid
Mission that trains and sends native missionaries. “Please pray for
them, as their lives are under threat.”
Christian Aid Mission is an
evangelical missionary organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia,
that assists indigenous missionary ministries overseas through prayer,
advocacy and financial support. Since 1953, Christian Aid Mission has
identified, evaluated and assisted more than 1,500 ministries in more
than 130 countries that are reaching the unreached for Christ in areas
of the world where there is no witness for Christ, where Christians
suffer from poverty or persecution, or where foreign missionaries are
not allowed.
Christian Aid Mission assists 16 ministries in Burma.
The native missionary reached
out to villagers by offering school lessons at her home to about 15
children. In that way she became acquainted with their parents and other
relatives, gradually gaining opportunities to share Christ with them.
She and a few other native missionaries then formed a church that began
meeting on Dec. 16 with three families.
The opposition of Buddhists and animists has influenced local officials.
“The township authority has
called her two times and commanded that she might teach only school
lessons, but no songs, no Christian beliefs,” the ministry director
said. “But some parents appreciate her sacrificial work, and she is
known by many now in her area.”
The leader of another indigenous
ministry assisted by Christian Aid Mission said workers have more
freedom of movement than in past years, though they still have to tread
cautiously. They now face only occasional opposition from monks.
“In the past, the monks would
purposely install a loudspeaker facing the church,” the leader said.
“We’d have monks chanting early in the morning – as early as 4 a.m. For
some reasons unknown to us, they moved!”
Most remaining problems arise in more remote areas, he said.
“With our longstanding presence
in the community, more and more parents began to relate with us on a
deeper level, we feel, and rapport has been building with the larger
community,” he said. “This certainly creates a platform for us to speak
to the people.”
On Open Doors’ latest World Watch List (https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/world-watch-list/)
of countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian, only Kenya
had a higher jump in ranking from one year to the next than Burma.
Though its degree of persecution rose only slightly, from 59 points to
60, Burma’s ranking among 50 other countries increased by 21 in 2014, to
25th place from 46th the previous year. (Kenya increased by 24, going
from 43rd place to 19th place).
Religious nationalism is the
primary factor behind persecution in Burma, according to Open Doors. The
ethnic Burmese, who make up the majority of the population, equate
their ethnicity with being Buddhist, and the government promotes that
notion in efforts to unify the country.
Officials permit the hostile excesses of radical Buddhist groups and label non-Buddhists as threats to social stability.
A Burmese missionary leader said
some members of his team are suffering primarily from village officials
who have tacit approval from the national government to abuse
non-Buddhists.
“They beat them, and also they
expel them from the village,” he said. “That’s what we’re facing right
now. In many, many villages we are opposed by Buddhists and opposition
from the village chairman. But we can still go to the next village and
tell the gospel.”
The U.S. Department of State
designated Burma as a “Country of Particular Concern” in July 2014
because of religious rights violations – as it has since 1999.
“In our field,” said the
indigenous missionary director, “children are forced to attend school at
Buddhist monasteries. And there is one thing they do regularly to
persecute our people: if you are a missionary, they say, ‘You cannot
live in our village.’ If you want to be in a church, they say you
cannot. But the Buddhist person can do everything.”
Church-planters find it especially difficult to erect a church
building or a house for a missionary. The missions leader encourages
them to move in with Christian families, so that antagonistic Buddhists
or animists cannot object or deprive them of accommodations. On other
occasions, however, native missionaries are able to win approval from
local leaders.“When we go to a village, we go first to the village chairman to share the gospel and to ask if we can stay in their village,” the missions leader said. “Sometimes we have to give small gifts, such as a shirt, or whatever we can. And after he smiles, we know that everything will be okay.”
Difficulties are small compared with knowing God and doing His will, he said.
“A few people have died, but not
many,” he said. “So if persecutions come, God is working more and more
and giving us more strength to stay there and endure. Some villages
don’t want to hear the gospel right now, but later they will hear. I’m
ready to face any harm; I don’t care, as long as we share the gospel.”
For more information on Burma, click here (http://www.christianaid.org/Interactive_World/countryPages/Myanmar.aspx).
Contact information: Amie Cotton, APR. (434) 327-1240, Christian Aid Mission, amie@christianaid.org
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