A pastor in Sudan has revealed government’s plan to turn the nation into a one-religion state under Islam.
He has told a faith-based mission news service dedicated to keeping Christians informed on evangelical mission activity around the world that several churches have been demolished, pastors arrested, and evangelists warned against preaching the Gospel to Muslims.
James* (name changed for security purposes) has nevertheless urged that the picture for Christians in Sudan may seem dire because the challenges and dangers are very real but, the biggest thing he wants the global Body of Christ to know is that Sudanese Christian brothers and sisters have not despaired.
“I want to say, as a ministry in Sudan, we want people to know that in spite of the situations that we are going through, that Christianity and the Church in Sudan I think is still strong. What has happened has astonished us,” James said in a Mission Network News (MNN) article on Friday.
“But the simple Christians or simple Church or simple people who believe that God is involved in this situation, they encourage us and give us the hope that Christianity will not finish in Sudan,” he continued.
“We continue and I want people to know that Christianity in Sudan is still alive,” he said.
This development follows a report by World Watch Monitor which said on 12 June that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir vowed to adopt a strict interpretation of Sharia (Islamic law) and in 2015 increased penalties for apostasy and blasphemy.
Although the 2005 Interim National Constitution (INC) provides for freedom of religion throughout the entire country of Sudan, the INC enshrines Shari’a as a source of legislation which favors Islam.
A popular lawyer in this country, Muhanad Nur, told the Sudanese news service Nuba Reports: “It seems as if every week I am hearing about another case of Christians being persecuted here.”
MNN notes that pastors have been killed, suffered imprisonment, or forced to flee the country over the years, causing a depleting pool of clergy.
The challenge to be bold for Christ is a dangerous one, the organisation says.
Christianity is “not welcome” in Sudan,“Those who face the persecution are the pastors who are active — those who have relationships with missionaries or organizations, they’re able to go out and travel here and there and have activities inside as preaching — they’re the ones who face the persecution,” James explained to the Watch dog.
“Some foreigners were deported from Khartoum. And pastors from South Sudan, they went [back]. Those who remain in Sudan are few. The pastors who shared the Bible and teach the Bible, they are few,” James said.
On Open Doors’ World Watch List, Sudan has consistently ranked in the top 20 countries with the hardest persecution against Christians since 1993. This year, Sudan is listed as the fifth worst country for treatment of believers.
James’s request for Sudan is singular and powerful: “We need to pray for the believers, Christians in Sudan, and for the situation of political issues in the government.”
Sudan’s Minister for Religious Guidance and Endowments announced earlier that there is no possibility of demolished churches in Sudan being replaced, “the government would no longer issue permits for the building of new churches, stating that existing churches were sufficient for the Christian population living in Sudan following the secession of South Sudan in 2011,”
According to the Christian Post, USA preacher, The Rev. Franklin Graham and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, of which Russell Moore is president, were among several notable groups who in June signed a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaking out against the treatment of believers in Sudan.
