ZURICH, Switzerland—Advocating for religious liberty in eastern Ukraine, protecting women and girls, and keeping immigrant families together were the focus of resolutions the Baptist World Alliance General Council approved at its meeting in Zurich July 2-6.

Religious Liberty in Eastern Ukraine

The first resolution expressed concern about the curbing of religious freedom in an occupied area of the Lugansk region in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces have taken control of the area and abetted its reorganization as the Lugansk People’s Republic.

The “Resolution on the Freedom of Religion in the Lugansk Region in Eastern Ukraine” notes that a new law imposed by the LPR requires that “all religious organizations within the LPR, except the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church, must now prove their loyalty to LPR authorities through a re-registration procedure in order to maintain their legal status,” as well as “to report in detail their activities.”

The statement observes that the law “violates universal human rights, restricts religious freedom, and threatens the existence of existing religious groups and organizational networks,” which violates several articles of international law. Enforcement of the law threatens the futures of 43 Baptist churches in the area.

“All people are created in God’s image and endowed with freedom to worship and practice their religion according to the dictates of their own hearts,” the resolution states, urging the Lugansk Peoples Republic “to change the law in order to make it compatible with freedom of religion or belief as stated in the international declarations, conventions and agreements.”

The resolution further calls upon the UN special rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief to gather information, visit the region, and pressure LPR authorities to bring the law in line with international standards.

Protecting Women and Girls

A “Resolution Opposing Violence and Abuse of Women and Girls” responded to issues recently brought to the fore by the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements. It “affirms that women and girls are created in the image of God and invested with inestimable worth and dignity as gifts from God, and are essential to the health and vitality of families, churches, communities and national life.”

“The church has at times stood silent,” the resolution states, “or has been guilty of perpetuating biblical and theological interpretations regarding women and girls that render them vulnerable to violence and abuse in the home, the church, and society; and hinder their ability to live into the fulness of God.”

The resolution “Notes that the harassment and violence against women and girls worldwide are immoral,” and that “the church has too often been guilty of abusing and demeaning women and girls, and of covering up instances of abuse.”

In response, the resolution calls on BWA member bodies to “enhance the appreciation of the worth and dignity of women and girls in all aspects of family, church life, and in society;” to “provide access to counseling and safe places for women and girls who are victims of abuse;” to “ensure a system of transparent accountability that includes reporting of suspected abuse to appropriate authorities both inside and outside the church;” and to “design and implement culturally contextualized curricula to educate ministerial leadership and congregations about the multi-faceted problem of violence on women and processes to prevent such violence.”

Separating Immigrant Families

The resolution on immigrant families was inspired largely by U.S. actions that have separated many children from their parents at the border, but family separation was recognized as a global problem. The “Resolution on Preserving the Primacy of Family in Immigration” notes that “the human desire to preserve and protect one’s family from violence, disease, economic depravity, and other threatening conditions is universal and drives millions of people to leave their homelands seeking better lives for themselves and their family members.”

The resolution further “affirms the biblical mandate to welcome the stranger” and asserts that God created the family as integral to a healthy society. It, “Calls upon individuals, churches and religious organizations to be involved in immigration issues, supporting the primacy of family solidarity;” and “encourages all Baptists to prophetically challenge immoral policies that seek to undermine the rights and dignity of immigrants, migrants, and refugees.”

Finally, the resolution “urges all governments to follow international law regarding the proper treatment of immigrants, migrants, and refugees, and to uphold the primacy of the family unit.”

NEPAL (BP)—He grew up feeling unsettled in his destiny. As the firstborn son in his family, he thought he would have to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a Buddhist monk.

But music intervened into this cultural tradition that should have dictated his future.

‘There was no peace’

The former Buddhist monk, now a Christian pastor, recounted his past and the persistent fear that once plagued him: He had been afraid of dying.

“There was no peace. There was no meaning in life,” he said in an interview in Nepal. “It compelled me to ask the question: ‘What am I here for? And how long? And what happens after I leave this earth?’”

He didn’t have answers, so he turned to local religious leaders for guidance. When he voiced his concerns, Buddhist monks tried to assuage his fears by telling him that it was natural to go through storms.

“You may have to go through lonely places,” they counseled. “You may have to go a very dangerous way. But do not be afraid. Just keep continuing. Carry on your journey.”

But he wasn’t buying into the “keep calm and carry on” mantra. Buddhist teaching says some people are born into suffering, live in suffering and die in suffering. This way of understanding existence seemed hopeless to him. What if his destiny were defined by continual suffering?

Christian music touched a heart

The turning point in his story happened deep in the jungle when he went for a walk with a friend. As they walked, his friend starting singing and asked him to close his eyes and listen to the words.

He thought it a bit strange, but he obliged.

As he listened, a sense of peace overcame him. He wondered if the songs themselves brought peace, so he began spending more time with his friend and listening to him sing. Along the way, his friend shared the gospel while explaining the meaning behind the songs. His friend told him if he received Jesus as his Savior, he’d have freedom—spiritual peace and eternal security.

“Thinking nothing about my family or any other thing, I just decided to follow Jesus,” he said. “This is what I’m looking for. This is what I need. So, I accepted the Lord as my personal Savior.”

A smile spread across his face as he spoke of his transformation.

“My heart filled with joy I never experienced before,” he said. “I was so delighted. I forgot all of my questions and all my fears, everything. My whole life was completely changed then.”

Peace but not freedom from persecution

He had a premonition that trouble was ahead, but it didn’t keep him from sharing the message behind the Christian worship songs with others.

While believing in Jesus gave him spiritual peace with God, it didn’t shield him from persecution—quite the opposite. Almost immediately, his family began persecuting him for turning his back on Buddhism.

His entire village turned against him. Several of his uncles were witch doctors, and they tried casting spells on him. He had to flee and was forced to wander. Eventually, when he returned home, he was arrested and held five days. His father convinced the local authorities he could make a monk out of him.

Forcefully, they carried out the rituals to make him a monk in front of the community. He was handcuffed. He was threatened. He faced humiliation and danger, but he trusted nothing could separate him from Jesus.

Found faithful

He remained faithful despite those days of painful trials. He went on to plant churches, and now he is pastor of a church where music is an integral part of the worship services. In his church, worship songs continue to bring people to a closer understanding of Jesus, just like they did for him.

Music has a way of weaving itself into the fabric of people’s memories, into their present-day realities and into their hopes for the future. While Christian may struggle to remember a Bible verse they memorized, song lyrics seem to cement themselves into our long-term consciousness.

Many followers of Christ remember the songs they began singing as children in church, the songs that encouraged them during dark days in their lives, and the songs that were symbolic of God’s faithfulness through difficult seasons.

And, for one former Buddhist monk turned Christian pastor, the songs he plays give persecuted believers the courage to remain strong in their faith.

NAIROBI, Kenya (RNS)—Christians who convert to Islam in East African countries often become targets for recruitment by extremist groups such as the Islamic State and al-Shabab, the al-Qaida affiliate in East Africa.

Such is one finding in a June report from PeaceTech Lab, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that works to reduce violent conflict using technology. The report comes at a time when governments and religious leaders in East Africa increasingly are concerned about Islamic radicalization in a region that includes Somalia and the Kenyan coast.

The finding is based on research conducted from May to July 2017 examining how violent extremist groups use hate speech on social media and online messaging to recruit youth. The 100 participants came from various backgrounds, including ranks of the unemployed, as well as students and mosque attendees. Survey questions probed participants’ relationship to hate speech and social media habits.

“Efforts to counter violent extremist recruitment have to start with an understanding of the narratives and terminology driving radicalization,” said Caleb Gichuhi, a senior specialist at PeaceTech Lab. “When we understand how recruitment unfolds, we can develop alternatives.”

Research conducted in the coastal city of Mombasa focused on community and individual resilience to violent extremism. Mombasa has a history of extremist activity, including bombings by suspected al-Shabab militants, recruitment of thousands of Kenyan youth for battle in Somalia and radicalization under extremist teaching.

According to the report, family and friends cut ties with Christian converts to Islam when they learn of the conversion. ​As a result, converts become isolated and vulnerable to being manipulated by extremists disposed to using violent tactics.

​The report, which looks at correlations between speech patterns and violent extremism, found that many Kenyans switch religions as they pursue employment opportunities in which religious affiliation makes a difference. They also switch for marriage and the desire to blend in with neighbors when they move to a new region.

Wilybard Lagho, vicar general of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mombasa, said some former Christians do not want to convert to Islam but do so under duress.

“Where coercion has been used, the person’s faith tends to be shallow,” said Lagho.

Lambert Mbela, a pastor at Redeemed Gospel Church in Mombasa, said conversions from Christianity to Islam are rare in the coastal region except in extreme circumstances.

“We have heard that some have converted to receive food in periods of drought but have taken the food and failed to convert,” said Mbela.

The report says al-Shabab is recruiting not only Somalis living in Kenya but also Kenyan Muslims. ​The recruitment process often begins with disseminating an extremist preacher’s message via social media. Further indoctrination comes through CDs and mosque lectures.

Extremist groups have lured economically desperate youth through false offers of high-paying jobs, Mbela said. He’s learned about the process from young Christian men who have been approached by recruiters.

“They come to discover they have been recruited later,” said Mbela. “Coercion is widely employed, and the radicalized youth believe they have no other choice in life. This is very secretive, and those who have undergone it do not want to come out or give details.”

Some coastal Muslim leaders are skeptical of the PeaceTech Lab findings. While recent converts might be recruited on occasion, they said, the numbers have been small.

“I think these are just perceptions,” said Sheikh Ahmed Mundhar, a former chief religious judge in Mombasa’s Islamic courts. “Some groups talk about it, but we have been challenging them to provide some statistics. I think the numbers are too few.”

Ismael Okwany, a former Pentecostal bishop who converted to Islam and turned his Kenyan church into a mosque in 2017, said recruitment by extremist groups isn’t about religious identity.

“Joining the extremist groups has nothing to do with true religion and God,” said Okwany. “I believe those who join the groups have criminal minds. Both Christian and Muslims are being recruited.”

Fredrick Nzwili is an RNS correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.

WASHINGTON—A study by the Pew Research Center confirmed what the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and other human rights advocates already reported—increased government restrictions on religion around the world.

The Pew study—jointly funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the John Templeton Foundation—examined 198 countries in 2016 and found increased levels in restrictions on religion.

The share of countries with “high” or “very high” levels of laws, policies or actions by government officials that restrict religious expression and practice rose from 25 percent in 2015 to 28 percent in 2016.

It marked the largest percentage of countries with “high” or “very high” level of government restrictions since 2013 and fell just short of the 10-year peak of 29 percent in 2012.

Social hostilities—acts of religious hostility by individuals, groups or organizations—remained stable at 27 percent.

Overall restrictions increased

Overall restrictions on religion—either by governments or private individuals or groups—increased in 2016, with 83 countries (42 percent) demonstrating “high” or “very high” restrictions. That’s compared to 80 countries (40 percent) in 2015.

In many countries, actions by government officials, social groups or individuals espousing nationalist positions have caused restrictions on religion, Pew noted.

One-third of European countries had nationalist parties that made political statements against religious minorities—an increase from 20 percent of countries in 2015, Pew reported. The number of countries where nongovernmental nationalist organizations targeted religious groups also increased in 2016.

Pew also noted 77 countries in 2016 where organized groups sought to dominate public life at the expense of certain religions, compared to 72 countries the year before. The number of countries where those groups also identified with nationalist movements or took positions against religious minorities and immigrants rose from 27 in 2015 to 32 in 2016.

‘Foundational freedom’

Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, registered concern about the impact of governmental restrictions on religion—both for Baptists in particular and for people of faith in general.

“The rise of nationalism and surges in violence continue to impact many Baptists and others of faith seeking to live out their convictions,” Brown said. “For example, in 2018 more than 1,000 deaths, over 90 percent of which have occurred in Christian communities, have been confirmed in the Middle Belt of Nigeria. More than 1 million Rohingya Muslims have been forced to displacement in Bangladesh.”

The most recent analysis by Pew Research showed within the parameters of “high” and “very high” restrictions only two countries in the world with a BWA member body showed marked improvement, and 17 countries “slid into the reality of ‘high’ and ‘very high’ religious restrictions and social hostilities,” Brown noted.

“The intersection between Baptist communities and violations of religious freedom remains deeply troubling,” he said. “The reality that in the last 12 months, 8 million more Baptists are now living in contexts of high to very high religious restrictions should be a clarion call for greater prayer and greater engagement.

“From the United Nations, to Washington D.C., to around the world, the BWA is actively working to address these situations. But the moment before us is so grave that sustained help to those who are suffering greatest and improvement in areas of greatest legal restrictions will require our entire Baptist community to pull together. The need remains as pressing today as ever for BWA Baptists to continue to emphasize our biblical conviction and historic legacy that religious freedom must extend to all people as a foundational freedom.”

‘Renewed defense of religious freedom for all’

Ferrell Foster, director of ethics and justice with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission voiced particular concern about the rising anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe and its impact on religious freedom.

“We Baptists desire religious freedom for all people, and so we should be greatly disturbed that much of the increase noted by Pew has been generated against Muslims moving into Europe,” he said. “There are restrictions and harassment targeting Christians, Jews, and others elsewhere in the world, but the increase is happening in places where religious freedom had been widely acknowledged. I hope this situation will push us toward a renewed defense of religious freedom for all people.

“Cultural and economic factors are at play here, and they are coming out in the form of nationalism. Jesus moved us to see all people as created in the image of God and worthy of respect. Nationalism sees people more as citizens than as God-created humans, and when nationalism grows religion can become part of what makes one accepted or rejected. Religious persecution can quickly follow.

“The situation in Europe is new, but there are parts of the world where religious persecution is not new and is often violent and deadly. We must not lose sight of the global atrocities committed against varied peoples of faith, including Christians.

“Many people in the world do not have the freedom to worship as their conscience dictates, and some put their lives in jeopardy to pursue their faith. This breaks my heart. Christians are still being martyred around the world, but I also want people of other faiths to have freedom to worship.”

‘Wake-up call to the church’

In April, the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom released its annual report, saying “religious conditions deteriorated” in many countries in the period since the Pew study.

Frank Wolf, former U.S. congressman and now distinguished senior fellow with the 21^st Century Wilberforce Initiative, noted the overall findings by Pew regarding global restrictions on religion were “the worst since Pew starting reporting on this in 2009.”

“I find this very discouraging. This should be a wake-up call to the church,” Wolf said.

He expressed appreciation to Sam Brownback, who was confirmed as U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom in January, and “an administration that is supportive and active in working with other countries to address this critical issue.” Brownback heads the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, which monitors religious freedom abuses globally.

“Whatever the news, we must remain vigilant in our efforts to defend and advocate globally for freedom of conscience and freedom to assemble,” Wolf said.

NABI SALEH, West Bank (RNS)—Bassem and Nariman Tamimi’s squat but expansive one-story home of stucco and tile sits near the highest point of the dusty hilltop village of Nabi Saleh, in the Palestinian West Bank.

Bassem Tamini was born here in 1967, a few weeks before the Six-Day War and the subsequent Israeli occupation. In the years since, the home has become a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israeli rule.

Most weeks for the past decade, the Tamimis have protested what they say are encroachments on their land by a nearby Israeli settlement and the demolition of their village’s property by Israeli security forces.

These are often violent events, as Nabi Saleh has grown into a flashpoint for Palestinian nationalist passions. Protests have developed into a form of high-stakes political theater, with activists and photographers surrounding stone-throwing teenagers to document their clashes with the Israeli troops who inevitably arrive.

Members of the Tamimi family frequently end up in custody, injured or worse. They also appear on the news. Some see the Tamimis as heroes of the populist Palestinian liberation movement. Others consider them the epitome of reckless incitement and exploitive propaganda.

Christ at the Checkpoint brings evangelicals to West Bank

Nabi Saleh is the last place one might expect to find a group of evangelical Christians, a demographic known in Israel–Palestine for its enthusiastic support for Israel. But on a hot spring day, two busloads of evangelicals, mostly American, sat sweating in a semicircle among the scraggly olive trees in front of the Tamimis’ house.

The cohort visited the West Bank as part of Christ at the Checkpoint, a five-day gathering of Western Christians organized by the West Bank’s tiny evangelical community.

In its fifth iteration since 2010, the gathering brings hundreds of Western evangelicals to the town of Beit Jala for field trips and lectures. Attendees learned about the Palestinian narrative. They also heard biblical and theological arguments against faith-based support for the Jewish state.

Evangelical tourism to the Holy Land is hardly unusual. An estimated 100,000 evangelical tourists traveled to Israel last year to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. Many come to see where they believe Bible prophesies say the end of days will occur.

Yet travel into the Palestinian territories usually is limited to day trips to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and a cordoned-off baptismal site on the Jordan River.

Visiting with a self-proclaimed ‘freedom fighter’

Buses of Christian tourists typically are waved quickly through checkpoints. Exposure to the military occupation, and to Palestinians themselves, often is almost nonexistent. Many evangelical tours of Israel are designed explicitly to foster the bond between Christians and Jews, and to maintain evangelical support for Israel that has such significant influence in U.S. foreign policy.

But during the Christ at the Checkpoint event, conservative evangelicals sipped coffee and orange soda with a self-described “freedom fighter” in a remote West Bank village.

Bassem Tamimi, a Muslim, looked on quizzically as the group raised their hands in prayer.

“May God bring reconciliation to this land,” a Palestinian Christian group leader said. “Hear our prayers, oh Lord.”

The group listened as the patriarch told them about the price his family paid for their activism. His 17-year-old daughter, Ahed, is serving a prison sentence for slapping an Israeli soldier. His cousin was killed when a tear gas canister struck him, and his brother-in-law died of a gunshot wound from an Israeli soldier. He and his wife have been placed in Israeli detention many times for charges ranging from unauthorized protests to assaulting soldiers.

He did not, however, mention his cousin Ahlem Tamimi, who was convicted of masterminding a 2001 bombing of a pizza parlor that killed 15 Israelis.

Varied views among evangelical visitors

While the Christians on the buses seemed comfortable with being called “evangelical,” they were far from monolithic in their views. The group included a college student in an Industrial Workers of the World T-shirt, a Palestinian keffiyeh wrapped around his neck, who tearfully apologized to Tamimi for the United States’ role in the region. Moments later, a self-described Christian Zionist asked Tamimi how he could be angry at Israel when Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat refused multiple offers for peace.

As the coach made its way back to Beit Jala, Paul Penley, 38, mostly stared out the window, his sharp features pursed in thought. Penley is an ordained minister from Colorado Springs who makes his living investigating the integrity of faith-based nonprofits for major donors.

While work brought him to the region, Penley came to Christ at the Checkpoint out of personal curiosity. He’s sympathetic to both sides, he said, but as someone who cuts through rhetoric and window dressing for a living, he’s not going to be swayed by what he admits was an emotional experience.

“What the Tamimi family has been through is heartbreaking, and you’d have to be heartless not to feel for them,” he said, measuring his words. “But I want to do my own research to figure out what’s spin.”

Penley quickly pointed out that the trip’s organizers never hide the fact they have a political agenda.

“This is a point of view most American evangelicals don’t hear very often, if at all,” Penley said. “I’m glad there’s a platform for this.”

Evangelicals a tiny minority in Bethlehem

The bus crossed back through a checkpoint into Bethlehem. Along with the adjacent villages of Beit Sahour and Beit Jala, Bethlehem used to be a primarily Christian enclave, but non-Muslims now make up less than a third of the area’s population.

Evangelicals—already a tiny minority of the Christian population dominated by Orthodox and Catholic Christians—have dwindled to a few families. They are counted in the hundreds, not thousands.

Whether the decline is due to the hardships of Israeli occupation or oppression at the hands of Muslims depends on who you ask. Most Palestinian evangelicals insist limited economic opportunity and travel restrictions created by Israeli control drive their high rates of emigration.

Many in the community say they feel forgotten in the conversation around Israel-Palestine, typically framed as being simply between Jews and Muslims. But the prominent role of their American co-religionists in lobbying for Israel, however, has created a unique opportunity for advocacy, if the Palestinians can counter the theological roots of that support.

Hard-sell approach turned off some visitors

For many of the American visitors in Beit Jala, however, the lectures and workshops they sat through—most disputing the theology that lies at the heart of evangelical Zionism—felt off target.

Many of the more conservative Americans on hand said they came to witness the conflict firsthand, to better understand the Palestinian perspective. Some recalled their surprise at learning that there were Palestinian Christians who shared their Bible-centric beliefs. They said their experiences in the Holy Land humanized the Palestinian people for them, but that the focus on refuting their theology only served to push them away.

While the group met, Hamas launched its largest barrage of rocket fire since 2014, Israel responded with airstrikes, and a full-scale war seemed possible. No one at Christ at the Checkpoint, sequestered in conference rooms at Bethlehem Bible College, had any idea what was happening 50 miles away.

Nathan Berg, 44, looked dejected as he slumped in the lobby outside the conference hall.

“I came here to stand with my Palestinian brothers and sisters in Christ,” he said.

Seeing the realities of life in the West Bank on a previous trip to the Holy Land made him an advocate for Palestinians, a fact he does not see as mutually exclusive to his Christian Zionism. He said he sees no reason why his biblical interpretation and his empathy have to conflict. Yet he is pained by what he perceives as personal rejection because of his belief.

“If you believe what I believe, it means you’re with Israel, you’re with the Jews, and you’re stepping all over (the Palestinians), ruining our lives and you hate us,” he said. He threw up his hands. “That’s how they see it, unfortunately.”

CAIRO (RNS)—Four years ago, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi called on state-supported Muslim clerics “to improve the image of Islam in front of the world.”

In response, Islamic religious authorities are allowing Muslim women to be heard. Over the past three months, the clerics have announced women can now serve as preachers in mosques and schools, serve on governing boards and sing in choirs dedicated to liturgical music.

“These measures show that Islam can grow in an open encounter with other faiths,” said Wafaa Abdelsalam, a 38-year-old female physician appointed by the government’s Ministry of Religious Endowments to give two sermons a week at a pair of influential mosques in the Cairo suburbs.

A place for women to ask questions

“The audience for my Ramadan talks has been mostly upper-middle-class women who until recently have felt they have had nobody to talk to about how Islam fits into their lives.”

About 70 percent of mosques in Egypt have separate prayer areas for women, the Endowments Ministry reported. But the move to introduce women preachers—wa’ezzat in Arabic—marks the first time females have addressed worshippers formally in these spaces as officially sanctioned clergy.

“Religious education here is a chance for women to ask me questions about personal matters, including marriage problems, and to debate the merits and drawbacks of the choice to wear or not wear the (hijab) headscarf,” said Abdelsalam.

The wa’ezzat are following sermon guidelines set by the Endowments Ministry, she added.

Part of fight against extremism

The push to promote women in Egypt’s religious sphere is backed by scholars at Al-Azhar University, the traditional seminary of mainline Sunni theology, and arises from Egypt’s fight against extremism. El-Sissi has challenged Islamic theologians to examine texts that have been used to justify terrorism.

The Endowments Ministry, which gives out religious financial grants and appoints clergy in more than 110,000 mosques in this country of 90 million Muslims, is at the forefront of the crackdown on extremism. In May, it moved to ban unlicensed male preachers from delivering homilies in more than 20,000 storefront mosques known locally as zawyas.

Zawya preachers have been suspected of propagating fundamentalist views among women as well as men to advance extremist beliefs.

“We can’t leave the field of Islamic women’s education to nonspecialists,” said Youmna Nasser, a female preacher newly appointed by the government.

The Endowments Ministry has trained about 300 female preachers in public speaking, as well as in interpreting the Quran and other Muslim texts. It also plans to name two women to the governing boards of each mosque next month, with the aim of boosting attention to issues related to women, children and the family.

“The steps we are taking now to affirm women’s rights are based on principles recognized by Islam in the past but were neglected over time,” said Abdul Ghani Hindi, a member of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs. Officials are in the process of training 2,000 more female preachers, Hindi said.

“True Islam strengthens women’s status, which is why we started training courses for female preachers and are trying to find out more about women’s views about how mosques are run,” said Hindi.

Another important shift toward expanding women’s voices is happening at Al-Azhar University, which has grown beyond its original role as an Islamic seminary to provide general education in fields including medicine and engineering to more than 45,000 students in Cairo and at seven satellite campuses.

Mixed choir performs Islamic hymns

Bucking conservative fatwas that prohibit men from even listening to the sound of women singing, Al-Azhar leaders have formed a coeducational choir that performs Muslim hymns on and off campus.

“My dad was afraid that people’s views of me as religiously observant would change, and that neighbors would see me as deviating from the traditions of Islam,” said Umniah Kamal, a 21-year-old business major and choir member at Al-Azhar. “But my mom encouraged me to join the chorale and even suggested some of the religious songs we are performing.”

University officials insist including young women in the choir will make Islam more relevant to a new generation.

“Those who say the chorale reduces Al-Azhar’s image of piety are wrong,” said Ibtisam Zaidan, the university’s artistic director. “We are using the performing arts to bolster Al-Azhar as a beacon of Islamic life and learning.”

“There is no text in the Quran that prohibits singing these songs. The young ladies dress conservatively, wear headscarves and stand separately from the young men during the performances.”

Opposition from traditionalists

While Al-Azhar’s choir captured second place in an April competition hosted by Egypt’s Youth and Sports Ministry, the mixed-gender performances and government appointments of women to leadership roles in mosques have stirred up opposition among traditionalists.

“Drafting women as public representatives on mosque directors boards, encouraging them to issue fatwas and the outrageous formation of that mixed-gender musical team at Al-Azhar are all ideas imported from the West,” said Sameh Abdul Hamid, a Cairo preacher from the Salafi movement, a strictly traditionalist branch within Sunni Islam.

“It’s all part of an effort by Arab governments to erase our Islamic identity and is disrespectful of our belief that the way to strengthen the status of women is to safeguard their position in their homes,” said Hamid.

Government officials insist enhanced visibility and targeted programs for women in Egypt’s mosques are not about gender equality but rather education and outreach to reinforce tradition.

“Women on boards will act as a link between the female faithful and the mosque administration and greater attention will be given to family issues that were not strongly represented before,” said Shaikh Jaber Taya, the Endowments Ministry spokesman.

LOS ANGELES (RNS)—In May 2017, Kim Hak Song was on a train on his way back to Dandong, China, the border city where he’d entered North Korea some weeks before, when members of the North Korean security service approached him.

The government agents accused him of hostile acts toward North Korea and said they had evidence against him. It would be easiest if he simply confessed.

“I was thinking, ‘I don’t know what I did wrong,’” Kim said through a translator June 2 at his home church, the Oriental Mission Church in East Hollywood, after a service there.

In his first extended public comments since being released from a North Korean prison May 9, Kim preached and gave testimony about his detention.

His crime? Prayer

When he asked his captors what hostile acts he reportedly had committed against North Korea, he was told his crime was prayer.

Prayer, he thought, was normal. The North Korean government, he said, did not.

Like Tony Kim, another of the American detainees released last month, Kim Hak Song had been working at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a school founded by evangelical Christians and attended by elite North Koreans.

Born in China to Korean parents, Kim Hak Song came to the United States in the mid-1990s, got his citizenship and attended seminary. It was while studying, he said, that he had developed an interest in North Koreans’ plight.

After his ordination in 2004, Kim Hak Song returned to China to study agriculture, but eventually, he moved to Pyongyang. He had been working at an experimental farm run by the university until shortly before his arrest.

Kim Hak Song said he had gone to China with the blessing and financial support of the Oriental Mission congregation. But he had ventured into North Korea without discussing it with the church members back home, he acknowledged.

When the church found out Kim Hak Song had moved to North Korea, said Peter Joo, a pastor at Oriental Mission Church, an Independent Holiness Church, “We prayed for safety because we know what is happening in North Korea.”

Kim Hak Song has denied he broke North Korean laws against promoting religion.

His captors showed him an email he had sent to the elders of the Oriental Mission Church asking them to pray for the people of North Korea. They also had records showing he had led early morning prayer for a worship group.

More than 1,300 prisoners accused of religious violations

According to the State Department’s most recent International Religious Freedom Report, North Korea is holding up to 120,000 political prisoners, more than 1,300 of whom are charged with religious violations.

Kim Hak Song said he was not tortured during his imprisonment, but he still “felt the pain and struggle,” according to his wife, who says he is still dealing with the trauma.

About a month after Kim Hak Song’s arrest, American college student Otto Warmbier, who was serving 15 years in prison after being accused of theft while on a trip to North Korea, died of brain injuries shortly after being abruptly released and returned home. Since then, the Trump administration had increased pressure on North Korea to release Kim Hak Song and the two other detained Americans.

Diplomacy between North Korea and the White House began to heat up this spring, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began a dialogue with Pyongyang in advance of a planned summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un June 12.

On May 9, President Trump announced the three detained Americans—Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Tony Kim—were on their way home on Pompeo’s plane.

Joo said his church members were overcome with joy when they heard Kim Hak Song was safe and on his way back to the United States.

Spent time in prayer

Kim Hak Song said he’s no longer allowed to return to China or North Korea. He said he’s praying about what to do next.

He’s convinced his time in North Korea wasn’t wasted. While detained, an official asked him to write about Christianity, Kim Hak Song said. He said he started with Genesis, the first book of the Bible.

“I was grateful and thankful that at this time I was able to share God’s message to this person,” he said.

He said he also spent a lot of time during his detention in prayer—confessing his sins, big and small, being thankful and asking God to watch over his family.

The day he was released, he thought he simply was being moved. Guards told him to gather his belongings and asked if there was anything else he needed.

The answer: his Bible.

It wasn’t until he was boarding a U.S. government plane, Bible in tow, that he knew he was being released to freedom.

Kim Hak Song said he was unaware that conversations had been going on between the United States and North Korea—most of the time he didn’t even see sunlight or know what day it was. But he said he had had dreams of being inside Trump’s car and the American people clapping for him.

“The dream became reality,” he said. “God is walking with us.”

Since landing, he’s satisfied a craving for hamburgers, taken measures to assure his family would be financially cared for if he were to die—a fear he had while imprisoned in North Korea—and has begun sharing his testimony.

“God’s miracles still happen,” Kim Hak Song said during his sermon. “And prayer is still very important.”

When President Donald Trump meets with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un—assuming the on-again, off-again summit proceeds as scheduled—a broad-based group of faith leaders and human rights activists wants religious freedom included on the agenda.

“For decades, North Korea has been, in effect, a national torture chamber. There is nowhere on earth more dangerous for dissenters of conscience, especially those who believe in God,” said a May 17 letter to Trump from the Religious Freedom Institute, signed by more than 50 Christian, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim religious leaders and various foreign policy experts and human rights activists.

The letter applauded the goal to denuclearize North Korea as “an outcome that would benefit all of humanity,” but it also urged the president to make human rights and religious freedom part of the summit discussions.

“We applaud and support your efforts to secure the release of American citizens,” the letter states. “We also implore you to recognize that there are tens of thousands of other men, women and even children—most of them North Korean citizens and many of them Christians—being brutalized by Kim and his regime.”

The letter asks Trump to include in any agreement:

• “As a good-will gesture, the immediate release of substantial numbers of prisoners of conscience.”
• “Within one month of any agreement, access to all prisons by the International Red Cross and the members of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry.”
• “The setting of quotas for voluntary emigration of released prisoners and their families, and for other applicants, to be administered and overseen by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.”
• “Agreement that the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, and the U.N. Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in North Korea may visit North Korea within three months of the agreement and have free access to any part of the country.”

Faith leaders who signed the letter include David Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University; Ron Sider, president emeritus of Evangelicals for Social Action; Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council; Jerry Johnson, president of the National Religious Broadcasters; Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern; William Lori, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; and David Novak, president of the Union for Traditional Judaism.

On Pentecost Sunday, May 20, Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, posted a video from the DMZ between North and South Korea, urging Baptists to pray for both nations.

In a June 1 blog post, Brown quoted the admonition of a North Korean-born woman to pray for frightened and imprisoned Christians in her native country.

“In North Korea, there are many underground Christians,” Mrs. Kim said, as recounted in Brown’s article. “They have learned to sing songs like ‘Amazing Grace’ very quietly in a whisper. But they want to sing loudly.

“Pray that those who are in prison will be released. In Luke 4, Jesus says, using Isaiah 61, the Spirit of the Lord is on me to preach the Good News to the poor, to release the prisoners and to heal the sick. This is exactly what needs to happen in North Korea. We are called to look after the widow and the orphan. Who will be the neighbor to the one who has been captured?”

Brown urged Baptists globally to join in prayer for North Korea.

“Today there is a remarkable opportunity to pursue just peace and lasting reconciliation within the Korean peninsula,” he wrote. “I urge all leaders and call upon each one of us to do the same, to build upon this moment before it passes. For in the end, as an interconnected global world, we must each respond to the question poised by Mrs. Kim. Will we be a good neighbor?”

Buckner International is sending aid to people in Guatemala affected by the eruption of Volcán del Fuego, which killed at least 62 people June 3 outside the capital city.

Buckner serves Guatemala through Buckner Family Hope Centers, humanitarian aid, family reunification efforts, child safety consultation and foster care. None of the ministries, children or families served by Buckner was directly affected by the eruption.

Buckner Guatemala sent about 560,000 food rations donated by USAID, 2,160 pairs of shoes donated through Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls, 1,200 pairs of socks, 250 items of clothing, 62 blankets and 80 mattresses to the area and continues to assess ways it can minister further.

The government’s department of social works, Iglesia Casa de Dios and the Buckner Family Hope Center in Jocotenango will distribute the donated supplies.

“This situation is tragic,” said Steve Watson, Buckner director of International Humanitarian Aid. “We’re seeking to shine hope into this terrible situation in any way we can.

“We are asking the Buckner family to continue praying for the children and families affected by this disaster, as well as our staff who are serving the hurting during this trying time.”

PARIS (RNS)—With its dwindling rates of attendance at religious services and rising numbers of churches shuttered or sold, Western Europe seems to be the region of the world where the outlook for faith is bleakest.

A new survey by the Pew Research Center looks past the headlines that worry established churches to ask what Western Europeans think about religion. The results, issued May 29, suggest a more nuanced picture.

Most still identify as Christian

Despite the region’s widespread secularization, 64 percent of the 24,599 adults Pew surveyed in 15 countries still identify as Christians, even if only 18 percent say they attend church at least once a month.

At 46 percent of the total sample, nonpracticing Christians make up the largest single group in the survey, almost double the 24 percent of religiously unaffiliated—atheists, agnostics and “nones”—that often dominate commentaries about the state of Christianity.

These nonpracticing Christians have their own mix of religious and social views, sometimes leaning more toward their churchgoing neighbors and sometimes more toward the unaffiliated. These can have political effects as well, for example in the growing debate over Muslim immigration to Europe.

“Christian identity remains a meaningful marker in Western Europe, even among those who seldom go to church. It is not just a ‘nominal’ identity devoid of practical importance,” the survey said.

Nonpracticing Christians not studied in detail

While religion surveys in Europe long have noticed this large group of nonpracticing Christians, few study them in detail.

French opinion surveys sometimes distinguish between observant and lapsed Catholics because their political views can vary, but those surveys usually don’t look closer at the respondents’ beliefs.

In Germany, the usual distinction is between registered church members and nonmembers, because the system of church taxes makes this an important comparison.

Paul Bickley, head of the political program at Theos, a London think tank that studies the role of religion, said a British census question on religion gives an idea of a group dubbed “census Christians” without further detail about beliefs.

‘Complexity beneath figures’

The 2001 census showed a surprisingly large 72 percent of self-identified Christians, but this dropped to 59 percent in the 2011 census.

Bickley agreed in general with the Pew findings but stressed the longer-term perspective that other research in Britain has indicated.

“It’s clear that religious identity and practice are both declining,” he said. “Also, the nones aren’t blanks with no spiritual beliefs at all—a lot is retained, rethought or re-understood. There’s complexity beneath any figures like these.”

In the Pew survey, about half of the nonpractitioners said they believe in a higher power or spiritual force and another quarter in the God described in the Bible, compared with two-thirds of practicing Christians who have the biblical view of God.

Some 87 percent raise their children as Christians, not that far behind the 97 percent of churchgoers who do so, the 168-page survey said.

About 62 percent agree churches and religious organizations play an important role in helping the poor, compared with 78 percent of practicing Christians. Even among the unaffiliated, 48 percent agreed on this.

The nonpracticing Christians also appeared closer to the churchgoers on social questions such as immigration and national identity, which have become hot political topics thanks to rising Muslim immigration in recent decades.

About half of all Christians—48 percent of the nonpracticing and 54 percent of the observant—say their culture is superior to others. Only one-quarter of the unaffiliated agreed with that view.

Negatives views of Muslims

Similar gaps emerged when the survey asked questions linked to immigration. Some 45 percent of the nonpracticing Christians said Islam was not compatible with European values, against 32 percent among the unaffiliated.

While 11 percent of the unaffiliated would not accept a Muslim into their family and 7 percent would not welcome a Jew, 30 percent of nonpracticing Christians would not accept a Muslim and 19 percent would reject a Jew.

“Both church-attending and non-practicing Christians are more likely than religiously unaffiliated adults in Western Europe to voice anti-immigrant and anti-minority views,” the survey remarked.

Drilling down into the numbers, the survey found Catholics were more likely than Protestants to have negative views of Muslims.

While geography may play some part in that since southern Europe is more heavily Catholic and the north more Protestant, the survey said the overall pattern is evident in countries with large groups from both denominations, such as Britain and Germany.

The survey stressed its results did not mean most Christians opposed Muslim immigration and pointed out that churches helped to resettle refugees.

‘It could be that holding anti-immigrant positions may lead a person to embrace Europe’s historically dominant religious identity, rather than that identifying with Europe’s historically dominant religious group leads a person to take anti-minority positions,” it said.

On social issues, around four-fifths of the nonpracticing Christians agreed with the 87 percent of unaffiliated who support abortion and gay marriage. A majority of churchgoers also approved, but at 52 percent and 58 percent respectively.

U.S. and Western Europe compared

The survey had some interesting comparisons between Western Europe and the United States. They have roughly similar levels both of self-identification as Christian (64 percent for Western Europeans and 71 percent for Americans) and of the religiously unaffiliated status (about 24 percent).

But Americans are far more likely than West Europeans—by 53 percent versus 11 percent—to say religion plays an important part in their lives.

Even the religiously unaffiliated in the United States see faith as more important than their counterparts across the Atlantic, to the point where American nones sometimes emerge as more religious than Christians in several European countries when asked about belief in God, prayer and attendance at religious services, it said.

The share of nones varies considerably across Western Europe, ranging as high as 48 percent of the adult population in the Netherlands and as low as 15 percent in Ireland, Italy and Portugal.

The survey was conducted between April and August of last year.

It said it showed higher shares for religiously affiliated people than the widely used European Social Survey because Pew only asked respondents what if any religion they followed whereas the European Social Survey asked first if they belonged to a faith and if so which one.

(Tom Heneghan is a correspondent based in Paris. This story was written as part of a grant supported by the Templeton Foundation.)

Leaders of the Baptist World Alliance and the European Baptist Federation issued a joint statement of “grave concern over the heightened tensions between Israel and Palestine.”

“As Christian leaders, we stand in solidarity with all who suffer and who have tragically lost their lives,” said the May 22 statement, endorsed by BWA General Secretary Elijah Brown, BWA President Paul Msiza, European Baptist Federation General Secretary Anthony Peck and European Baptist Federation President Jennifer Entrican.

The statement noted special concern about “the desperate situation inside Gaza,” pointing out even before civilians were killed in recent days, a Baptist leader who visits the area regularly characterized it as having “virtually no electricity, water, money—or hope.”

“We abhor the resort to violence from wherever it comes, whether by militant groups or state-sanctioned oppression,” the statement continued. “Violence begets violence and leads to both sides living in constant fear of the other. This cannot be the way to a lasting peace with justice.”

Multiple news sources reported 60 Palestinians were killed May 14 when Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinians who were protesting the 70^th anniversary of Israel’s founding and the relocation of the United States Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Over the course of six weeks, more than 100 protesters were killed and thousands injured, the BBC reported.

“We urge world leaders to avoid provocative actions and statements that serve to inflame the conflict and, instead, to restore the urgent priority of a process of negotiation towards a just peace, so that Israelis and Palestinians may live together the harmony and dignity in the same geographical space,” the Baptist statement said.

“We believe it is the responsibility of the international community to uphold the human rights of the Palestinian community and to seek to create the conditions where peace has a chance to flourish.”

The Baptist leaders also voiced support for Christian communities in both Israel and Palestine—particularly those Baptist and evangelical churches “that continue to witness to the gospel of nonviolence, reconciliation and hope.”

“We support those initiatives in both Israel and Palestine that bring Israelis and Palestinians together and seek the reconciliation and restored hope of God’s kingdom,” the statement said.

Chilly relations between the United States and North Korea appear to be “thawing” in recent days, said Baptist minister Yoo Yoon of Dallas, who has supervised delivery of food for orphans and hospital patients in the communist nation more than 20 years. However, when he journeyed to North Korea last month, he experienced greater restrictions on his travel inside the country than in the past.

When Yoon, director of the Korean-American Sharing Movement of Dallas, traveled to North Korea April 14-21, he was told he was just the third Korean-American to receive validation to enter the nation since the U.S. State Department implemented a travel restriction last year.

Last August, Texas Baptist Men sent a letter to the State Department to request a special passport validation to allow Yoon to continue this humanitarian work in North Korea, providing food to a hospital and schools for orphans in Kwangwon Province.

“These five orphan schools and the province hospital rely heavily on the relief from TBM for food supplies,” the letter stated. “Most people in the province know that American Christians, especially Baptists, provide these food supplies.

“Without TBM’s help, more than 2,500 orphans and 500 hospital patients would greatly suffer from malnutrition. This situation is irreversible, and these children and patients rely heavily on the food provided by Texas Baptist Men.”

When Yoon eventually received the passport validation and made his latest trip to North Korea, he found the officials there “treated me very differently, because they think I am sent by the U.S. State Department,” he said.

“They advised me not to go to any orphanages where I brought the soybeans and corn noodles,” he said.

However, he persisted and eventually was granted permission to visit three orphan schools in Wonsan City, capital of Kangwon Province. He was not permitted to visit the province hospital, because it reportedly was under construction.

Yoon learned the ration system had changed, and instead of receiving soybeans, the orphan schools received soy milk and soy crackers. He was allowed to visit the food production facility in Wonsan City where the soybeans are processed.

He also discovered the donated soybeans and corn noodles—which previously had been delivered to five orphan schools and a hospital in one province—had been divided and distributed among three provinces.

Yoon was told the orphan schools in Pyonyang and orphan schools in Hwanghae Buk Province each received 20 tons of soybean products, and the orphan schools in Hwanghae Buk also received 30 tons of corn noodles.

Yoon contacted a counterpart at the North Korea Education Project who agreed to verify delivery and make a full report on the food distribution.

At one of the orphan schools, Yoon delivered a lawn edger he had purchased in China. On an earlier visit, he had seen teachers and staff cutting the grass with scissors.

He also witnessed a band and soccer team using instruments and soccer balls he had delivered on a previous trip.

In spite of limitations on his movement within the country, Yoon was able to present the gospel to the guards assigned to him, and one of them professed faith in Christ.

“Pray for the North Koreans. They suffer beyond imagination,” he said. “God’s time has come for peace in the two Koreas.”