Can you believe that there is a country in the world that has not one small, struggling church the worships the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what this article reports based on US State department findings.
I am alarmed. I am asking God to raise up men and women and send them to Afghanistan. Will you pray with me? Will you read portions of this article and then pray? Will you do what you can do to get missionaries to this needy part of the world?
The source article can be found by clicking here.
(CNSNews.com) — There is not a single, public Christian church left in Afghanistan, according to the U.S. State Department.
This reflects the state of religious freedom in that country ten years after the United States first invaded it and overthrew its Islamist Taliban regime.
In the intervening decade, U.S. taxpayers have spent $440 billion to support Afghanistan’s new government and more than 1,700 U.S. military personnel have died serving in that country.
The last public Christian church in Afghanistan was razed in March 2010, according to the State Department’s latest International Religious Freedom Report. The report, which was released last month and covers the period of July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010, also states that “there were no Christian schools in the country.”
“There is no longer a public Christian church; the courts have not upheld the church’s claim to its 99-year lease, and the landowner destroyed the building in March [2010],” reads the State Department report on religious freedom. “[Private] chapels and churches for the international community of various faiths are located on several military bases, PRTs [Provincial Reconstruction Teams], and at the Italian embassy. Some citizens who converted to Christianity as refugees have returned.”
Most Christians in the country refuse to “state their beliefs or gather openly to worship,” said the State Department.
“There were no explicit restrictions for religious minority groups to establish places of worship and training of clergy to serve their communities,” says the report, “however, very few public places of worship exist for minorities due to a strapped government budget.”
While the new constitution states that Islam is the “religion of the state” and that “no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam,” it also proclaims that “followers of other religions are free to exercise their faith and perform their religious rites within the limits of the provisions of the law.”
However, “the right to change one’s religion was not respected either in law or in practice,” according to the State Department.
“Muslims who converted away from Islam risked losing their marriages, rejection from their families and villages, and loss of jobs,” according to the report. “Legal aid for imprisoned converts away from Islam remains difficult due to the personal objection of Afghan lawyers to defend apostates.”
The report does note that “in recent years neither the national nor local authorities have imposed criminal penalties on coverts from Islam.” The report says that “conversion from Islam is considered apostasy and is punishable by death under some interpretations of Islamic rule in the country.”
Also, in recent years, the death punishment for blasphemy “has not been carried out,” according to the State Department.
According to the State Department report, the United States continues to promote religious freedom in Afghanistan–even though the country no longer has even one Christian church.
“The U.S. government regularly discusses religious freedom with government officials as part of its overall policy to promote human rights,” according to the report.
According to the State Department report, more than 99 percent of the population, estimated between 24 and 33 million people, is either Sunni (80 percent) or Shia (19 percent) Muslim. Non-Muslim religious groups, including the estimated 500 to 8,000 strong Christian community in the country, make up less than 1 percent of the population. Other non-Muslim groups in the country are Sikhs, Bahais, and Hindus.
This country is in great need of the gospel. It will mean someone risking everything to start underground churches in the country. What are you willing to do to help reach this area with the gospel?
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Vicente Garcia is a graduate of the Peru Baptist College. He trained for ministry in Peru and was an assistant pastor for two years. He and his wife, Gabriella, are church-planting missionaries with Vision Baptist Missions International. They arrived on the field of Burkina Faso in 2009, are enrolled in French language school, and are working hand-in-hand with veteran missionaries Keith and Rebecca Shumaker.
Lorenzo Laura and his wife, Victoria, are graduates of the Peru Baptist College. Lorenzo pastored a church for 8 years in Arequipa, Peru before moving with his family to the northern jungle city of Cobija, Bolivia in 2004. In Cobija, Lorenzo was able to start Iglesia Bautista Jireh (Jireh Baptist Church), as well as a Bible institute. He continues to work faithfully in the ministry and train young men to follow in his example. Lorenzo and Victoria have two children, Mark & Stephanie.
