Influential evangelical leaders are telling USA not to lift sanctions on South Sudan until crucial changes are made including ending apostasy laws that make it a criminal offence to convert religion, ceasing the demolition of churches and guaranteeing freedom of assembly and freedom of expression.
In a letter signed by Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse and Russell Moore’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, Christian Today reports that the Church leaders are urging the US Secretary of State to stand against Christian persecution in Sudan.
Rex Tillerson has been told Sudan’s ‘discriminatory laws restrict the freedoms of minority groups and deprives them of their constitutional rights’.
Dozens of churches and other religious buildings have been destroyed in the Muslim majority country and meeting in public is illegal without government permission.
‘There is no possibility of the demolished churches being replaced since in July 2014, Sudan’s Minister for Religious Guidance and Endowments announced that 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,’ the signatories say.
‘Since it is also illegal to assemble in public without permission from the government, the restrictions have the effect of preventing Sudanese Christians from congregating to worship.’
This comes after Sudanese churches wrote a defiant open letter to the government accusing it of ‘systematic violation of Christian religious freedoms’.
‘We feel deeply sorry and strongly condemn these abusive procedures against the holy places, and we hold the National Intelligence and Security Services [NISS] responsible for the damages and other consequences [that] can be caused due to their confiscation of documents,’ the letter sent May 2017 states.
Additional Reporting by Christian Today.
