Freedom of Religion

The Anglican curate and the goalkeeper: reading the Bible for ourselves

March 24, 2023 by Don Hutchinson

Religion stories don’t often make headlines, less so across multiple media expressions, but in recent days one has captured the attention of commentators across the spectrum, as well as a substantial public audience. San Jose Sharks goaltender James Reimer issued a statement citing his personal religious beliefs when he respectfully opted-out of wearing an LGBT-themed jersey as part of his team’s pre-game warmup. Several players on other teams and at least five NHL teams in entirety have made a similar decision.

Michael Coren opted-in to the media conversation with his TVO Today piece “What certain NHL players don’t understand about homosexuality and the Bible.”

For folks who read Michael’s words as gospel and truth, please bear in mind his columns are headed with the word “opinion.” Michael offers food for thought from the perspective of someone who has long been seeking answers to life’s questions through pursuing a personal faith in Jesus Christ.

As he has done for decades, Michael is certain enough of his opinion to state it to readers as fact. Along the path of his spiritual journey―from non-observant Jew to Roman Catholic to Evangelical to Roman Catholic to Anglican―this characteristic has been one of Michael’s hallmarks.

In 1 Corinthians 12 St. Paul addressed the issue of those in one part of the Body of Christ who assert other parts of the Body must be like them―agree with them―or they don’t properly belong. Paul concluded we need each other; all of us in the church are together Christ’s Body, and each member a part of the Body.

What then might we make of brother Coren and brother Reimer’s disagreement on a point of biblical understanding about a contemporary cultural issue? Whether assistant curate or NHL goalkeeper, the Bible is equally available to be read, studied, and understood. There is no advantage over another for reading, studying, or understanding Scripture in whether one wears a clergy collar or a neck protector to make a living.

Not surprisingly, the Bible has no definitive chapter and verse on the appropriateness of which hockey jersey a player should or should not wear.

As Michael notes in his article, Scripture requires interpretation. His spiritual journey has brought him to a place where he has resolved “the Bible is ambiguous about homosexuality.” But that statement is not “the fact” Michael asserts it to be. It is an opinion based on understanding and interpretation of Scripture.

James has expressed a different opinion, also based on understanding and interpretation of Scripture; one shared by the bulk of the church today, and theologians since Paul’s day.

It is an accepted principle of biblical interpretation that where there is no record of Jesus saying something does not mean he had nothing to say, or that the Bible has nothing to say. Jesus said he came to fulfill the Old Testament law, not to abolish it (Matthew 5:17). He presented a fresh perspective on understanding and interpreting the law. Applying this principle to situations in our current context helps inform how best to conduct ourselves.

In regard to homosexuality, this suggests to me two possibilities. The first, Jesus had nothing to add to the Old Testament instruction. Leviticus 18:22 commanded God’s people that a man “shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.” Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.”

The second? I’m not inclined to think Jesus’ perspective on the Old Testament would endorse the death penalty for homosexuals. If so, he would likely have executed the same death sentence found in Leviticus 20 for acts of sexual immorality against the woman caught in adultery we read about in John 8:2-11. Jesus was without sin but did not cast the first stone of condemnation.

To define “adultery” in the context of that day one must consider the definition of marriage. Then, as still broadly accepted by the Body of Christ now two millennia later, the definition established by God, long before instituting the laws on adultery or homosexuality, is one woman and one man in a marriage of one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In God’s design, sexual relations are not intended to take place outside of this relationship.

Although Jesus is not recorded as having had anything to say about sexual behaviour other than as between a man and a woman within or outside marriage, his compassion toward the woman caught in adultery suggests the death penalty no longer be applied for extra-marital sexual sin.

In context, the verses in Leviticus have to do with the holiness of God’s people. There are behavioural expectations for people separated unto God (Leviticus 20:22-26). As with the Greeks and Romans Michael mentions, there is a difference in expectations for the society and for the separated.

The issue of homosexuality was addressed by St. Paul for society―in Romans 1 in regard to those who do not consider themselves part of the church―as well as for those who separate ourselves unto God―in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 commenting on the difference in life choices for those who consider ourselves part of the church and in 1 Timothy 1:3-10 advising his protégé that affirming sexual immorality is contrary to sound doctrine.

The long-time criminalization of homosexual behaviour by societies influenced by God’s expectations for the separated represents an imposition onto the culture of expectations for the church. As people of their times, we might give grace to those legislators for having the best in mind although we today disagree with the resulting legislation and consequences. Holiness for the Christian is sought, personally and in community of the church―seek first the kingdom of God (Matthew 6:33)―not imposed on others.

For many commenting on James Reimer’s statement “choosing not to endorse something that is counter to my personal convictions,” lost in the emotions of the moment may have been the words James chose to provide context for his personal decision, how he treats others day in and day out because of his Christian faith. “I have always strived to treat everyone that I encounter with respect and kindness… I strongly believe that every person has value and worth, and the LGBTQIA+ community, like all others, should be welcomed in all aspects of the game of hockey.”

The church, and perhaps all of us in our shared society, might benefit from similarly treating others with respect and kindness whether we agree or disagree on matters of religion, belief, or conscience. On that point Jesus is unequivocal. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). That’s not just opinion. No interpretation required.

Canada Must Boycott Beijing Olympics

August 6, 2020 by Don Hutchinson

Originally published at Convivium on August 6, 2020.

Ottawa lawyer Don Hutchinson says it’s “beyond belief” Canada would participate in the 2022 Winter Olympics given the Chinese regime’s reprehensible persecution of religion. 7 minute read.

Just before Parliament adjourned in June 2008 for summer break the Religious Liberty Commission (RLC) of The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada released a report called Broken Promises: The Protestant Experience with Religious Freedom in China in Advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. I was the Chair of the RLC, present when the report was made public at a forum in the West Block on Parliament Hill.Following the event, I attended a demonstration across the street from the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa. At the demonstration, a former MP advised me that I had been photographed by Chinese officials in the West Block and likely again at the demonstration. He motioned toward an open embassy window where a telephoto lens was visible. Given his experience in dealings with China’s government, he suggested I never set foot in that country.Broken Promises also generated an invitation to the Prime Minister’s Office.The conversation that afternoon was informed by this statement from the report.

The Chinese government verbally committed to improving China’s human rights situation when, in February of 2001, Liu Jingmin, Beijing’s Deputy Mayor stated that “by applying for the Olympics, we want to promote not just the city’s development, but the development of society, including democracy and human rights.”

To get the Summer Olympic Games, among its many commitments the Chinese government agreed to the Olympic ideal of promoting “universal fundamental ethical principles” essential to the development of peaceful and harmonious society.

Government of China documents referenced in Broken Promises showed that the Fundamental Principles of Olympism – along with international laws, covenants, agreements and the Chinese constitution – were dishonoured by design in order to present the world with a sanitized environment for the Games. The intention was to present the communist government in a progressive light.

Policy documents outlined the plan to crackdown on religion, particularly Protestant Christians in unregistered (sometimes called “underground”) churches. Codenamed “Typhoon No. 5,” also described was a targeted campaign against foreign missionaries and domestic Chinese organizations in contact with foreign Christian organizations. Olympic teams were to be (and were) prohibited from bringing team chaplains. Instead, only Chinese clergy selected by the government were available to athletes and coaches.

Broken Promises documented extensive persecution of Protestant Christian leaders generally, as well as actions specifically tied to the government’s Olympic agenda, including systematic detentions, arrests and torture. Recommendations were made for Canada to engage China through diplomatic means. The proposals involved using Olympic commitments and the upcoming Games as an opportunity to pursue action by China’s government more in keeping with the promises made to get the Games.

The question discussed in the PMO was whether Canada should participate in the Beijing Summer Games, then two months away.

Canada had boycotted the Olympics only once: the 1980 Moscow Summer Games after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. Vancouver was due to host the Winter Olympics in 2010. Unexpectedly, I found myself presenting arguments about the potential for Canada’s long-term diplomatic efforts to be compromised and conditions in China to worsen if the decision was made not to participate as opposed to pushing before the Games for whatever human rights gains could be made.

The diplomatic signal sent by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s absence from Beijing was noted by President Hu Jintao and was widely reported in the media. Canada won three gold medals, nine silver and eight bronze that August.

Seven years later, in the midst of the longest Canadian federal election since 1872, I was invited to go to China. The advice from family and friends, including the MP mentioned above, was to stay home. Through back channels I was given verbal assurance by a high-ranking Chinese government official that I would be safe in China and safely return to Canada. Still, it was uncertain what, if anything, Canada’s government would be able to do to get me home if I was detained.

Xi Jinping assumed the presidency from Hu Jintao in 2013. Xi’s prior leadership in Zhejiang and Shanghai, and his five years as vice-president suggested openness to relationships with non-nationals in regard to China’s state recognized religions: Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, and both Catholic and Protestant Christianity. Signals sent by academic and religious institutions hinted that once Xi consolidated power in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) there was encouraging possibility for improved religious freedom.

The invitation included opportunities to visit the world’s largest volume Bible printing press, to meet with senior officials from the state-registered Protestant and Catholic churches, and conversation with senior staff in the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA, the government department for religion). And, as I entreated my wife, there was verbal assurance of my safe return.

For someone with a commitment to religious freedom, this was the opportunity of a lifetime. Required from me was a signed statement that I would not meet with any representatives from unregistered churches while in China. (I had previously met with unregistered church leaders in 2006 and Chinese human rights lawyers in 2008, both outside of China.)

My trip to China was noteworthy. The agreement for the first Chinese language study Bible was signed. I received a copy of the completed New Testament (along with other treasured gifts), visited one of the seminaries where translation work had been done, and toured the press where it was printed. I was in the room – although at the opposite end of the table in a separate conversation – when the first stages of dialogue to reunite the Vatican and the Bishop’s Conference of the Catholic Church in China took place. And, there were the promised conversations at SARA, the first unexpectedly hosted by Minister Wang Zuo’an, then lunch with senior policy and legal staff from the Protestant Christian division.

It all gave the indication that fresh freedom was on the horizon.

In December 2017 the full study Bible, with Old and New Testaments, was released. Revised regulations for religion in China came into effect in February 2018. Unregistered churches were urged to register. Then, in April, online Bible sales were banned. In September the Catholic Church signed a two-year provisional agreement, honoured by the Catholic Church but recognized by the CCP mostly in the breach.

By the end of 2018, SARA had been dissolved and its responsibilities transferred to a CCP office responsible to limit opposition to communist control. Crosses and church buildings started coming down. New measures in regard to religion were announced again in December 2019. As 2020 opened, religious symbols in churches and private homes were being removed and replaced with images of Mao and Xi. In registered churches, hymns on a Sunday were replaced with patriotic communist songs. CCTV cameras were ordered installed in all church buildings.

Conversation about religious freedom in China has turned from expanded freedom to reports of religious re-education, including through purported re-translation of portions of the Bible and other sacred texts to make them CCP supportive.

For nearly two years, efforts to contact friends in China have gone without response, or with words suspending the conversation. In a variety of ways, I have publicly shared verified stories from others about the persecution that is sweeping the nation. But I held back from saying anything personally. I am concerned for my friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ. That concern can no longer restrain my thoughts.

The Bible has been and remains widely available in China. Along with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, it will continue to be foundational for the Church, regardless of persecution or any efforts to amend future translations.

The abuse of Falun Gong practitioners is deplorable.

The incarceration and re-education of Uyghur Muslim people is unconscionably genocidal.

The demand that Christians worship China’s twenty-first-century Caesar is reprehensible.

The Government of China continues breaking promises. The magnitude of their breach is escalating.

That the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has chosen to not adhere to the Fundamental Principles of Olympism and rescind Beijing’s award to host the 2022 Winter Olympics is beyond belief. The IOC is unwilling to abide by its principles. It is time for Canada and other countries to take the Olympic Charter seriously. Commitments made by themselves and by China under United Nations covenants, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, make it right to step away from the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, perhaps organize an alternative for 2022.

In 2008, I was not prepared for Canada to boycott Beijing. Today, I implore the Government of Canada to act decisively in favour of human rights and withdraw.

In 2015, the scariest time for me was after being dropped off at the airport in Beijing. For the first time since clearing customs on arrival, I was officially unaccompanied as I made my way through public space. With more than two hours before scheduled boarding of my flight (which was delayed) my safekeeping felt manifestly in God’s care alone, despite the talisman given me by the high-ranking CCP official to keep in my carry-on bag for presentation should I encounter difficulties.

I did not relax from ardent silent prayer until about two hours after takeoff of the purposefully selected Air Canada flight home.

As more recent events have unfolded, a part of me has felt held captive by a similar fear because of risks faced by friends. The Government of Canada must not be similarly constrained because of friends in China.

The Christian Church in China held faithful underground during the Cultural Revolution and now flourishes to the point where it is regarded by the ideologically atheist CCP as a threat. Despite disappearances of leaders, destruction of buildings and desecration of symbols, the Chinese Church will continue to blossom in the face of this new persecution. We, in the rest of the world, must pray for our brothers and sisters in China, and in the recently co-opted Hong Kong.

Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God. – Psalm 146:3-5

Doing Right By Asia Bibi

February 6, 2019 by Don Hutchinson

Originally published at Convivium.ca on February 6, 2019.

While the Trudeau government has given Canadian Christians little reason to cheer, writes Convivium contributor Don Hutchinson, it deserves praise for its effort to save the persecuted Pakistani woman condemned to death for blasphemy against Islam.

“The time is always ripe to do right.” The phrase oft used by Martin Luther King, Jr. inspired readers of his 1963 Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and was last publicly voiced by him in a March 31, 1968 Sunday sermon, delivered at the National Cathedral days before his assassination.

In recent days, the time was ripe to do right for the government of Canada. As that doing of right came together, I was thankful, maxing out available characters in this tweet on January 29, 2019,

With Shahbaz Bhatti, February 2011

Thank you @CanadianPM @JustinTrudeau, Minister @cafreeland, Minister @HonAhmedHussen and Canadians who have assisted in bringing Asia Bibi and family to Canada. May the family find peace, security, and continued support and prayer in their new home.

There has been little for theologically conservative Christians in Canada, or abroad, to cheer in Justin Trudeau’s foreign policy.

Within days of taking office in November 2015, Prime Minister Trudeau’s campaign commitment to bring 15,000 more Syrian refugees into Canada by the end of the year than had been promised by Stephen Harper shifted Canada’s priority away from the most threatened. In particular, it put at greater risk the Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Orthodox Christian minorities in the Muslim majority nation. Assessing Christians involves more time and effort as most are in refugee camps outside of the official United Nations’ camps. It is a Muslim majority region and the UN camps are run by Muslims. Christians are more secure in their own camps. Trudeau’s government hurriedly transported a number of UN approved middle-class Muslim applicants, also displaced by the civil war.

Early in 2016, Trudeau ended the tenure of Canada’s first ambassador for religious freedom, without appointing a successor. The new government shuttered the world-acclaimed work of Canada’s Office of Religious Freedom just three years into its mandate, an office opened after nearly 15 years of effort by Canadian religious community leaders who understood the geopolitical importance of religion.

In 2017, Bob Rae was appointed Special Envoy to Myanmar, a Buddhist majority nation. Rae’s final report, issued in April 2018, focuses exclusively on government and military abuse of the Rohingya Muslims from Rakhine State, without addressing the persecution of Christians in Chin State.

Then, late in December 2018, word surfaced that high profile persecuted Pakistani Christian Asia Bibi’s children were in Canada. There was hope that Bibi would soon follow.

When speaking about how to judge those who claim leadership, Jesus said, “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). The time was ripe. A harvest of sorts might be redeemed for Trudeau by doing right for Asia Bibi.

For Bibi, it’s been a longer than usual journey to emigrate from Pakistan to Canada. Bibi spent nearly a decade on death row before being granted asylum in Canada while she was still in Pakistan.

Bibi was born Aasiya Noreen in 1971 into a Roman Catholic family, the only Christian family in their village near the capital city of Lahore. She lived an otherwise unremarkable lower-class life until being charged in June 2009 under Pakistan’s blasphemy law, and then being sentenced to hang in 2010.

“Bibi” is a title of respect, like “Miss,” so when we speak of Asia Bibi we are speaking respectfully about Miss Aasiya. Given the international usage of Asia Bibi as her name, I will use that protocol for ease of reader reference.

Bibi is married to Ashiq Masih, a bricklayer who had three children from a prior marriage. She and Masih have two children together. Bibi worked as a farm labourer until June 2009 when she was told by the women harvesting berries alongside her to fetch the water cup. Bibi took a drink out of the cup, and one of the women became furious because it is forbidden for a Christian to drink from the same cup as a Muslim. The women demanded that Bibi convert to Islam, so they, too, could drink from the cup. An argument followed, during which Asia Bibi declared her faith in Jesus Christ and challenged why she should convert to Islam instead of the others converting to Christianity.

A few days later, a mob came to her house. They beat Asia Bibi and members of her family before police arrived to arrest her, charging Bibi under the Pakistan Penal Code with blasphemy against Islam. Bibi denied the charge of blaspheming the prophet Mohammed.

Fearing for their own lives, Bibi’s family did not attend her trial. She was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death.

That might have been the end of an otherwise unremarkable story in Pakistan except for a prison visit from the governor of Punjab province, Salman Taseer, along with his wife and daughter. Convinced of Bibi’s innocence and the unjust nature of the blasphemy law, Taseer spoke out on her behalf. The case escalated to national attention. On January 4, 2011, Taseer was assassinated by a member of his security detail.

Pakistan’s Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti was the first Christian parliamentarian in the federal cabinet. He, too, spoke out on Bibi’s behalf and against the blasphemy law. Bhatti was assassinated on March 2, 2011.

He had just returned to Pakistan from meetings in London, Washington, and Ottawa, where he had raised the profile of Bibi’s situation as well as the general injustice of the blasphemy law. Bhatti’s assassination brought an international profile to Asia Bibi, now a symbol for religious freedom and living testimony to the misuse of an abusive law.

In addition to gaining attention from prominent politicians, Bibi’s death sentence was appealed in the courts. Christian organizations worldwide were advocating with their governments and praying for Bibi, her family, and an end to unjust blasphemy laws in Pakistan and elsewhere.

In October 2018, the three judges of the Supreme Court of Pakistan courageously issued a decision acquitting Bibi. The evidence against her was found to be inconsistent and dependent on unreliable testimony. Extremist Muslim factions in Pakistan had threatened the government if Bibi was not hanged. There were mass protests. Within days, to restore a semblance of peace, the government signed an agreement with one of the extremist groups that would see Bibi kept in detention while the acquittal was reviewed by a new panel of judges. A number of governments, including Canada’s, as well as non-governmental organizations, protested the deal.

In late December, word filtered out that Bibi’s children were in Canada, offering some peace to their parents in the unrest that churned in Pakistan. Then came word that Bibi had been offered asylum in Canada.

On January 29, the Supreme Court upheld Bibi’s acquittal. Later that day, scattered reports suggested she had been secretly taken out of Pakistan, headed for Canada. But, a week later, sources in Pakistan say secure travel is a concern.

Pakistan is a Muslim majority nation. It is illegal to insult Islam. Even acquitted by the Supreme Court, public opinion may pass a different judgement, and extremist elements most certainly have. A Christian woman charged with blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed cannot simply board a commercial flight to leave the country. Neither is her security guaranteed after leaving Pakistan.

The efforts of Prime Minister Trudeau, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen have resulted in an important measure of security for Asia Bibi’s children, and an offer of asylum for Bibi and Masih. No doubt the multi-tasking Global Affairs’ Office of Human Rights, Freedoms and Inclusion – tasked with trying to fill the gap left by the Office of Religious Freedom, among other things – also played a role.

Whether Canada is the final destination for Bibi’s family, or a stop-off point on the way elsewhere, the time was ripe to do the right thing, and the government of Canada has done so.

The Scriptures remind us, in reference to Christians who are being persecuted, that we are to “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated” (Hebrews 13:3). Asia Bibi is one of many. We remember all and are thankful for help given to even one; thankful to God and thankful to politicians who risked and gave their lives, governments who intervened, non-governmental organizations who advocated and called for prayer, Bibi’s lawyer, the judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court, and Canadians who have assisted in bringing Asia Bibi and family to Canada. May the family find peace, security, and continued support and prayer in their new home.

Pastor Lim’s Ray of Light

August 14, 2017 by Don Hutchinson

Originally posted at Convivium.ca on August 14, 2017.

For several days now, against the backdrop of escalating rhetoric between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Premier Kim Jong-un, mainstream and social media have been teeming with stories about a particular ray of light shining in the publicly intensifying political darkness.

Canadian pastor Hyeon Soo Lim was set free from a North Korean prison on Thursday. He had served less than two years of a life sentence for subversion of the government through religion, a crime to which Lim had proffered a state-televised public confession. Detained in February 2015, life sentence decreed that December, Lim was suddenly a free man.

Concern developed when the official reason for release was stated as “sick bail” on humanitarian grounds. This was amplified when Lim’s family issued an early statement asking for privacy until his medical condition could be assessed. The world was well aware that just weeks ago, American Otto Warmbier had returned home from a North Korean prison in a walking coma, death arriving a few days later.

Apprehension abated somewhat when video emerged of the sixty-two year old Lim walking about in conversation on an airport runway in Japan, after disembarking an RCAF passenger jet. He looked leaner and somewhat aged from his last recorded appearance, but in apparent good health.

Initial scant reports on Lim’s release were followed by longer stories, several claiming to describe the inner political workings of international prisoner releases by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the nation established on the northern part of the Korean peninsula as one of several political divisions by Allied forces following WWII. As the ally then with authority over the DPRK (North Korea), the Soviet Union’s communist government installed as leader Kim Il-sung, father of his successor Kim Jong-il and grandfather of current Supreme Leader , Kim Jong-un. Without a diplomatic mission in North Korea, the Canadian government worked with a contemporary ally, Sweden. Reportedly, through the negotiation by the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, secret meetings with North Korean representatives at the United Nations headquarters in New York and a Sunday afternoon foreign minister to foreign minister conversation in Manila, a deal was struck.

Tuesday, a Canadian diplomatic team hurried to Pyongyang, with an envoy said to be carrying a personal letter from Prime Minister Trudeau to Premier Kim. Thursday, Lim was on the plane with them headed home. Saturday, he again descended the small jet’s steps in his own strength at CFB Trenton before hugging his wife, then lifting his nearly one-year-old granddaughter in his arms. His desired next stop? Tim Horton’s on the drive home!

The consistent thread running through the reporting of this story, whether relaying the narrative of Lim’s personal health or the tale of secretive diplomacy, is that Hyeon Soo Lim is the pastor of one of Canada’s largest churches. Reverend Lim had travelled to North Korea more than one hundred times over the last two decades. Born in Seoul a decade after Korea was divided into South and North, Lim knew the risks. So, why endanger his life on more than one hundred occasions? Particularly after American missionary Kenneth Bae (also born in South Korea) was detained and sentenced in North Korea on similar grounds in April 2013?

Lim was on a personal humanitarian mission, motivated by his Christian faith and his Korean origins.

Lim appreciates the people, whether living in the North or South, are his Korean cousins, and that they are imago Dei , created in the image of God. He understands Christians are obliged by Scripture to engage in works demonstrative of our faith (James 2:14-22) and to be ambassadors of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). Called to lead in the Korean diaspora, Lim found himself also drawn to serve as an ambassador of good works. Beginning with relief efforts following the North Korean famine in 1996, Lim initiated activity that has met real needs of real people in the northern part of his divided homeland. He engaged in food sustainability initiatives, as well as establishing a nursery, orphanage and home for the elderly among other humanitarian endeavours for which he raised tens of millions of dollars.

Hyeon Soo Lim understands what Jesus Christ and His earliest followers relayed in words, both spoken and written, and displayed in their daily lives. A faith that is focused on loving God compels loving our neighbours, both near and far, as well. Christ, the Light of the World (John 8:12) challenges us to also let our light shine (Matthew 5:16), assessing and accepting attendant risk.

Following Lim’s detention and sentencing, Christians in Canada and around the world, mobilized in prayer, and in practical pressure on the Canadian government, as meaningful service to Pastor Lim and his family, in the effort to secure his release.

Whether Premier Kim responded to Divine or diplomatic intervention, or some combination, we may never know. Neither will we know whether Kim’s act was a humanitarian goodwill gesture or motivated by sufficient awareness of Christianity that he preferred a South Korean born Canadian pastor praying from Toronto to the potential of a martyr inspiring North Korean Christians to greater works, greater boldness and greater numerical growth. What we do know is, in the midst of a war of words between Premier Kim and President Trump that has cast a threatening political shadow over the globe, there shines a ray of light in the release of a compassionate man who for two decades brought his own ray of Light into the darkness of people in need.

Hyeon Soo Lim understands what Jesus Christ and His earliest followers relayed in words, both spoken and written, and displayed in their daily lives.

Sunday morning, Pastor Lim arrived at Light Presbyterian Church to a crush of media, along with parishioners and visitors. Later, he stood in the pulpit to share about his ordeal and how it propelled him to a more intimate relationship with Jesus. He closed the meeting with prayer in his native Korean. I’m told he prayed for his adopted country of Canada, for the people of North Korea, and for peace.

Welcome home, Reverend Lim. We join you in that prayer.

Responding to persecution

March 1, 2017 by Don Hutchinson

originally published March 1, 2017 at Spur Ottawa

Ansero unites believers to stand up for religious freedom

Elizabeth Mabie
Spur Ottawa Correspondent

Christians around the world face dire persecution. Even in the West, long a haven of religious freedom, anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise. One Ottawa-based ministry, Ansero, hopes to forge partnerships to shore up this essential freedom in Canada and around the globe.

Ansero’s facilitator, Don Hutchinson, relates Ansero’s objectives with the Old Testament story of Nehemiah. When Jerusalem’s walls and gates were destroyed, Nehemiah was moved and rallied the people of the city to repair them. With this notion, Nehemiah ultimately united Jerusalem’s citizens as they worked together.

Don Hutchinson speaks from Parliament Hill.

Don Hutchinson speaks at a rally on Parliament Hill

“As we face the challenge of religious freedom in Canada and around the world, the idea of these partnerships is to bring people together, for the people to find the solutions to rebuild or strengthen the walls or gates,” says Hutchinson. “It is amazing what we can accomplish when we work together.”

Hutchinson is a pastor, a member of the Law Society of Canada, and the former vice president of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. He is currently the only team member of Ansero, but has partnered with One Way Ministries until the project is independently established.

Hutchinson explains that one of Ansero’s aims is to help strengthen relationships among Canadians working to safeguard religious freedom in Canada. Ansero also works with members of Religious Liberty Partnership, a network of Christian ministries working for the benefit of the global persecuted church.

“The idea of these partnerships is for the partners to identify what each partnership’s purpose is and how they can make use of that partnership to benefit the shared ideology in the pursuit of religious freedom,” explains Hutchinson.

Hutchinson sees forming these partnerships as a necessity to fill the gap left when the Canadian government closed the Office of Religious Freedom. He says the Office’s closing created the need for the Church to rebuild relationships with parliamentarians and Global Affairs Canada on behalf of persecuted Christians.

His goal is for Ansero to introduce new relationships and partnerships that will cooperate together and complement each other’s work.

“I hope we will create an environment where we can cooperatively enhance our religious freedoms in Canada, or at least secure them,” explains Hutchinson.

Hutchinson notes that secularism is increasing rapidly in Canada. He says Christians need to respond by strengthening their relationships with God on a personal level, then sharing their experiences and their strong faith with the rest of society. He emphasizes that the role of believers is to share God’s love, in good times and when it’s hard.

“What we are facing now is kind of a challenge more than the final stages of persecution. Christians in other countries are facing imprisonment and even death for their beliefs. That’s not happening to us yet,” explains Hutchinson.

The additional issue is the persecution of Christians in other countries who are facing severe punishments for their faith. It is important to address the issue of religious persecution in Canada, but the situation is more severe outside. While the typical repercussions for persecution in Canada are ridicule, harassment, and discrimination, Christians elsewhere face imprisonment, physical torture, and martyrdom.

“The role of Christians in the current Canadian context, I see as the role that Paul described: that we’re ambassadors of reconciliation,” says Hutchinson. “We are to become ambassadors seeking to reconcile individuals and our culture with God. Being ambassadors determines our approach, our demeanor, and our style of engagement. It also means that we are standing for and standing up for Christ in this society and in this culture.”