The New York Times

September 11, 1997

G.O.P. Leaders Back Bill on Religious Persecution

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 - A coalition of religious groups led by evangelical Christians today won critical support from the Republican leadership in its effort to mandate economic sanctions against any country engaged in religious persecution.

The endorsement of the Freedom From Religious Persecution Act by the Senate majority leader, Trent Lott, and Speaker Newt Gingrich gives the bill enough momentum to create a quandary for the White House and its business allies who already complain that American trade is too encumbered. Beyond the foreign policy implications, support for the measure provides further evidence of the emerging political clout of conservative Christian groups in an area of foreign policy that has been the exclusive preserve of human rights groups like Amnesty International.

The bill backed by the coalition would create a new office within the White House to monitor the treatment of religious minorities around the world. It would also require economic sanctions against nations that abuse their citizens on the basis of religion. And it would give those fleeing religious persecution priority over other refugees in gaining entry into the United States.

Even though the Clinton Administration opposes the bill in its current form, it is likely to pass, although with some amendments.

"This is one of the top priorities of this Republican Congress," Mr. Gingrich said today as he met with more than 130 leaders of religious organizations, which, with a few exceptions, represented Christianity's fundamentalist and evangelical denominations. Among the leaders was Cheryl Halpern, national chairwoman of the National Jewish Coalition.

State Department officials have objected that the bill is a blunderbuss approach that removes their flexibility in combating religious persecution around the world. They also complain that while the sanctions in the bill are relatively modest, their imposition could harm American relations with key allies like Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

"The Administration strongly supports the objectives of eliminating religious persecution," John Shattuck, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, said Tuesday in testimony before the House International Relations Committee. "But we believe the current draft in the legislation would frustrate that goal."

Administration officials say privately, however, they would be willing to discuss possible alternatives, including more monitoring of religious harassment, increased reports to publicize the practice in countries like the Sudan, Iran, China, Egypt and Indonesia, and insuring that current human right laws explicitly cover repression of religious minorities.

In the past year, using denominational newsletters and broadcasts on Christian radio and television stations, groups like the National Association of Evangelicals, the Southern Baptist Convention and the Family Research Council have quietly built up a powerful grass-roots constituency that has pressured the Clinton Administration and Congress into taking a number of steps.

Last year, the groups pressured the White House to agree to set up a committee to recommend ways to fight religious persecution around the world. This summer, the State Department issued a report on the harassment of religious minorities, with an emphasis on persecution of Christians. The groups also steered the debate over the trading status of China to include that country's persecution of Christians. And now the religious persecution bill has picked up the endorsement of the leaders 'of both Houses of Congress.

Leaders of the movement say their efforts are revitalizing what had become a moribund rights movement.

"With the dismantling of the Soviet Union, the end of apartheid in South Africa and the democratization of South America, the human rights movement here fell apart at the grass-roots level," said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom of Freedom House, which has been working with evangelical Christians. "This is a new lobby that is emerging."

Last month, these evangelical groups were joined by the Christian Coalition, which declared that ending religious persecution around the world was their "top legislative priority."

The new human rights group is being greeted with both enthusiasm and wariness by traditional liberal human rights groups and mainstream religious organizations that have normally have been involved in reign policy matters.

On one hand, the Christian right's political power is welcomed by human rights groups, which are routinely out-muscled by business interests in the debate over using trade sanctions to foster human rights. But some human rights advocates question whether the fundamentalist Christians will argue for people other than persecuted Christians.

Indeed, some leaders of mainstream churches note that the bill backed by the coalition, which is still in draft form, makes no reference to persecution of Jews, and speaks only of harassment of "moderate Muslims" in the Sudan- The plight of Jews in Syria or Muslims in Bosnia is not mentioned.

William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, U.S.A., the country's largest grass-roots rights group, with 300,000 members - far below the 15.6 million-strong Southern Baptist Convention - expressed the ambivalence some human rights advocates are feeling in a column in his organization's newsletter.

Describing his ideology as "left-wingey," Mr. Schulz said he welcomed the involvement of "those who genuinely care about human suffering, no matter what their views of God or the state." But he also pointedly asked: "Is it right for Christians to limit their outrage to violations against Christians? What about Muslims in China's Xinjing Province or Buddhists in Tibet?

What exactly is the motive of political and religious conservatives, and is it pure?"