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Most American Christians do not lead typical Christian lives. The typical Christian lives in a developing country, speaks a non-European language, and exists under the constant threat of persecution--of murder, imprisonment, torture, or rape.

The persecutor's sword dangles by a hair over Christians in the still-communist countries and in lands where the rising tide of Islamism overwhelms political efforts at fairness, tolerance, and due process. Human rights and religious liberty are high-sounding abstractions. But for these believers, the lack of basic liberties American Christians take for granted is a datum of daily existence:

* In China, where anywhere from 40 million to 115 million Christians worship in "house churches" outside government control, believers know that each time they gather it may be the last time they hear their pastor preach or see the sister beside them raise her hands in praise.

* In Sudan, a program of "cultural cleansing" has been under way for many years. Soldiers from the country's Muslim north round up children from the Christian and animist south, relocate them in detention camps, force them to live as Muslims, and conscript them into the armed forces at very young ages.

* In rural areas of Egypt, Muslim thugs force Christian farmers to pay protection money. Those who don't have been shot and killed. Christian girls have been raped by Muslim men, pressured to marry the rapist, and then convert to Islam in the process.

It is easy to forget the realities of the typical Christian's life, living as we do in a country formed in the age of toleration and the discovery of personal liberty. But remember them, we must.

We must remember them in prayer. Prayer unites us with God's heart, and it links us with all whom God holds dear. It changes circumstances. It gives strength to meet challenges.

We must remember them by listening to what they can teach us. Information that will help us pray more to the point is readily available from organizations such as Open Doors, Freedom House's Puebla Institute, and Voice of the Martyrs. Publicizing in our churches the reports that come through these channels will offer lessons in faithfulness.

We must remember them by supporting those who work to strengthen and develop the churches in these countries. In some countries (where the violence against believers is either sponsored or encouraged by the state), official diplomatic pressure can often ease the situation. But in others, rogue tribalism and religio-ethnic populism are the sources of persecution. In those places it is only the missionaries, tentmakers, and relief workers who can help in small but significant ways.

We must remember them in foreign policy. On January 23, over 60 concerned Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish leaders gathered in Washington, D.C., to highlight the problem of Christian persecution. The National Association of Evangelicals issued a Statement of Conscience at that meeting. And the Clinton administration responded warmly by telephone to the NAE overture.

But warm responses need to be acted upon. The State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service need to brief their own on the religious persecution in various countries, and they need to consider such persecution as a sufficient reason for providing asylum in the United States. For instance, following the murder of four prominent church leaders in Iran in 1995, 20 other Christians, mostly leaders, fled the country for fear of losing their lives. All have been denied asylum in the U.S.

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April 29 1996, Vol. 40, No. 5