Since the end of the Second World War, Canada has prided itself on being a force for international justice. It has lauded as heroes not great military strategists, but peacemakers such as Lester Pearson and peacekeepers such as Lewis Mackenzie. With relentless regularity, it makes a practice of boasting that its forays into global affairs embrace only the highest moral principles, from its role in organizing the Commonwealth's boycott of South Africa's apartheid regime to its more recent leadership in an agreement to eliminate land mines.

But while Canada's ruling elites—the government class, the news media and the buttoned-down barons of Bay Street—congratulate themselves for their vision and virtue, a starkly different reality is now emerging. And that is, that in the name of international trade, "Canada the good" is turning a blind eye to human-rights abuses of Holocaust-like proportions—abuses that, startlingly, often involve Christians.

For example, though Canada's news media rarely mention it, 100 million Chinese Christians risk punishment and death by defying the communist government's ban on free worship. Last year, for instance, three Protestant evangelicals, including a 36-year-old woman, were beaten to death by Chinese police as part of a government crackdown on unregistered churches. Between February and June 1996, some 15,000 temples, churches and tombs were burned to the ground in Zhejiang province alone. And government goons regularly enter other churches to beat out the teeth of the oldest female worshippers as a signal of the regime's displeasure. Across China, at least 3,000 leading pastors have been imprisoned.

But in spite of the Chinese government's documented use of torture and death in its attempt to control the country's Christian and Buddhist minorities, the Canadian government continues to argue that commerce is more effective than confrontation as a means to promote human rights. As Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy stated in a speech in April, Canada remains "optimistic" that "bilateral cooperation" will "lead to other opportunities...to influence change in China's human rights practices."

Mr. Axworthy's optimism proved groundless last month when a shakeup in China's political leadership eliminated most of the comparatively moderate leaders from the highest echelon of the Communist Party's Politburo and consolidated power in the hands of hardliner president and Communist Party chief Jiang Zemen, the politician who signed the orders that led to the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square.

But China is not the only country where Canada's government wilfully disregards attacks on Christians. In fact, despite mounting evidence that a worldwide Christian holocaust has been underway for at least five years, with country after country in which egregious persecution of Christians and other religious minorities is carried out, Canada's government continues to protest ineffectually or else ignore the problem altogether.

To Michael Horowitz, senior fellow at the prestigious Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., this is intolerable. "There are only two possible reasons why Canadian government officials would argue that dialogue with thug-led governments leads to progress in human rights," he told his audience at a dinner in Vancouver last week. "Either they are blithering idiots with no clue to world history, or they are anti-faith bigots who don't care what happens to Christians."

Mr. Horowitz, whose visit to Vancouver was sponsored by the Catholic Civil Rights League of B.C., is perhaps the world's pre-eminent defender of persecuted Christians, not a role one would expect for a man committed to the faith of his Jewish forefathers. But Mr. Horowitz, who was legal counsel in the Office of Management and Budget in the Reagan administration and later was an advisor to the Czech Republic and Slovkian governments, sees no contradiction. "It's a matter of understanding and gratitude," says the Yale Law School graduate. "I know that sins have been committed in the name of faith. But that doesn't tell the whole story." Mr. Horowitz notes that however the Christian world may have persecuted Jews in the past, the modern American Christian community was unstinting in its commitment in the campaign against Soviet anti-Semitism in the 1970s. "I consider myself under obligation to return the favour," he says.

But gratitude is not the only reason Mr. Horowitz is compelled to speak out against the worldwide persecution of Christians. It is imperative, he says, that for their own protection, Christians in North America be encouraged to stand up for their less-fortunate brothers and sisters. "As a Jew I know that thugs are acting shrewdly when they persecute vulnerable communities of faith," he says. "They send out a powerful message that says, 'See what I can do to the people nobody cares about? You, too, had better get in line.'"

Christian defender Horowitz: Moved by 'the cries of the lambs'

Even though the Canadian establishment is not yet harassing Christians openly, Mr. Horowitz told his audience that Canadian Christians have to strengthen their position in their own country by insisting their government quit ignoring the persecution of Christians elsewhere. "I am an outsider, but I can see that in Canada the governing elite lacks all sense of the role of faith in public life." In his address, Mr. Horowitz listed examples which, he explained, show the Canadian government's antipathy toward Christianity. The list included: the federal government's quick approval of the Playboy channel for cable TV while rejecting "single-faith" broadcast licences for Christians; Premier Brian Tobin's recent

elimination of the rights of denominational schools in Newfoundland; the B.C. College of Teachers' rejection of Trinity Western University graduates on the sole grounds that the school opposes the practice of homosexuality; and CBC Radio host Michael Enright's freedom to slam the Catholic Church as a "criminal organization" with impunity.

Michael Markwick, who as executive director of the CCRL was responsible for bringing Mr. Horowitz to Vancouver, adds to the list of abuses Christians have already undergone, including the province's legalization of marriage-like arrangements for homosexual couples despite the united opposition of all five of the province's largest religious groups, and the Vancouver police department's inaction when pro-homosexual radicals shouted at and shoved Christian parents who were peacefully protesting the B.C. Teachers' Federation's decision to promote the gay lifestyle in public schools.

Mr. Horowitz cites important reasons to resist Christianity's persecutors. "State Department bureaucrats sometimes ask, 'Why not focus on political rights?' assuming that religious freedom will come automatically when people win the right to vote," he says. But historically, freedom to express oneself at the ballot box has come only when a nation's people possessed a common understanding that they are individually responsible to follow the higher law of God. "Freedom doesn't spring from democracy," Mr. Horowitz says. "Rather democracy springs from people who are free."

"Christians may be treated with a kind of smug bigotry by western elites," Mr. Horowitz continues. "But tyrants view their faith as a threat. They see Christians as the greatest force for modernity in their parts of the world." As proof he cites the Chinese government's study of the role of the Church in forcing the destruction of eastern Europe's communist governments. China's state-run press commented in 1992 that "if China does not want such a scene to be repeated in its land, it must strangle the baby while in the manger."

Furthermore, says Mr. Horowitz, "western governments fail to realize that a market economy must be built on Judeo-Christian ethics. Without the sense of personal accountability and responsibility created within the Judeo-Christian belief system, no amount of foreign aid will improve conditions."

But Mr. Horowitz's support for persecuted Christians is not based solely on practical considerations. As he studied the phenomenon of persecuted Christians he was moved, he says, by the "cries of the lambs. The silence and indifference of western elites to the beatings, looting, torture, jailing, enslavement, murder and even crucifixion of increasingly vulnerable Christian communities engages my every bone and instinct."

"When I began to understand the scope of worldwide anti-Christian persecution," Mr. Horowitz says, "I found it impossible to accept the idea that American Christians could be deeply committed to ending the sufferings of my people and yet be so tongue-tied on behalf of their own people." His conclusion? The silence of the Christian community on behalf of their own was evidence that information on the extent of Christian suffering has not been widely disseminated.

A look at the statistics make it difficult to understand why Christian persecution has not become the story of the decade. Canadian political scientist Paul Marshall, author of Their Blood Cries Out, has calculated that 200 million Christians are being persecuted in more than 60 countries. He defines persecution as living in constant danger of beatings, imprisonment, torture, rape, murder, loss of property or church burnings. His evidence shows that a further 400 million Christians face discrimination due solely to their faith.

But even in the face of such facts, the U.S. and Canadian governments downplay persecution's importance, suggesting that confrontation over human-rights issues can cause tyrannical governments to break off relations and increase their harassment of minority groups. "That's the line our Canadian government takes with China," he says, "but China's leaders do change when there is external pressure. They just never admit it." As proof he notes that China has twice stopped selling nuclear materials to Iran when the U.S. complained. And last year, when the U.S. objected to a super-computer it had sold the Chinese being diverted to military purposes, China shipped the computer back.

But governments are not alone in discriminating against Christians, Mr. Marshall says. He complains that Human Rights Watch (HRW), one of the most respected organizations in its field, continually lumps Christian suffering with general persecution. Despite the fact that more Christians face more vicious treatment than any other group on earth, they get no mention in HRW's list of special projects, a list that includes victims of arms merchants, multi-national corporations, children's rights, women's rights, drug users, prisoners, members of the press and gays and lesbians.

"HRW's disregard for Christian suffering springs from a secular mindset," Mr. Marshall explains, "a mindset that assumes Christianity is the religion of dead white European males." But the facts, he points out, are quite different. Today, 65% of the world's two billion Christians live outside the West. Nor has Christianity ever been particularly western. Mr. Marshall points out that "historically, Christianity was in Africa before Europe, in India before England, and in China before America. Today more people attend church in China each Sunday than in all of western Europe."

Sidney Jones, HRW's Asia director, confirms her organization's indifference toward Christian persecution, insisting that Christian persecution "not be discussed in a vacuum." Moreover, Ms. Jones goes so far as to suggest that in some countries Christians are persecuted by other minorities because they are perceived as a privileged class. Nor should "the harassment of Christians be divorced from the repression of political and labourite activists," she says. "Otherwise, it will be dismissed by the governments concerned." What's more, Ms. Jones argues that Christians do not need a special project because in some places persecution is diminishing. "I can't quantify it," she says, "but in China it is certainly less than it was five years ago."

That last statement is directly contradicted by Paul Estabrooks, a Canadian minister at large with Open Doors International, the missionary group famous for smuggling Bibles and other literature into closed countries. Mr. Estabrooks visits China regularly and while he acknowledges that the country is improving economically, "things are not getting better for Christians. Since 1994, when western governments relaxed pressure at the UN level, mission observers are unanimously agreed" that persecution has increased.

Fed up with the cavalier approach taken by both governments and watchdog agencies, in 1995 Mr. Horowitz began speaking and writing in an effort to stir a response from western governments. Nor did he shrink to tell the American Christian community that its moral authority would be "gravely tarnished" if it failed to act.

In the U.S., Christian organizations were the first to rouse themselves. After meeting with Mr. Horowitz in January 1996, the National Association of Evangelicals issued a Statement of Conscience that expressed "deep concern for the religious freedom of fellow believers, as well as people of every faith" and invited other groups to "join us to work tirelessly to bring about action by our government to curb worldwide religious persecution."

Never blind to the aroused interest of a large group of voters, American politicians have also begun to respond. Last fall, a resolution passed both houses of Congress condemning Christian persecution and calling for President Bill Clinton to appoint a special advisor on religious persecution. Currently, a bill is being drafted that will make the advisor a permanent position and require that he receive confirmation by the Senate. It will also insist that the State Department include Christians in its human-rights reports and make the U.S. a haven for immigrants fleeing religious oppression. Finally, it will put in place sanctions against countries that foster or appease oppression.

Meanwhile, the Canadian establishment continues to show favour to the world's worst abusers of Christian human rights. Even the Reform Party of Canada parrots Foreign Affairs Minister Axworthy's line on his China policy. "Persecuting Christians is wrong," says Bob Mills, Reform's foreign affairs critic. "But we can't forget that 33% of Canadian jobs are related to foreign trade."

Mr. Mills says that although "it would be nice not to have to consider such matters...all the pork produced in my Red Deer riding goes to China. I have to put that into the mix." He goes further, claiming to be "able to understand part of what China is saying" when it explains that persecution of Christians is a protective measure against outside influence. Mr. Mills is certain that "excluding [China] is not the right approach" and concludes that trade is the ultimate key to changing China because "the more western you become, the greater the chance you will improve human rights."

Mr. Markwick counters that Mr. Mills' attitude shows "we had a duty to bring Mr. Horowitz to Canada." History is filled, he says, with examples of what happens when Christians withdraw from public life, and now it is happening again. "The anti-Christian bias is hard-wired into the Canadian establishment," he says. "In one generation our country is being shoved into darkness."

But neither Mr. Markwick nor Mr. Horowitz are fearful of the future. Citing Pope John Paul II's belief that the third millennium will see the triumph of Christianity, Mr. Horowitz calls on Canadians to "forget their fear of controversy" and take a stand. "Christians have to be like canaries in a coal mine," he says, "warning people of danger before anyone else can see it." Besides, there are already signs that the Church's greatest days are ahead. "The last 25 years have seen the greatest explosion of Christianity in history," he asserts. "They are about to change the face of the earth, and for the sake of my children and the lambs who are suffering I say, Onward, Christian soldiers."

—Shafer Parker Jr.

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