Rep. Ron Estes, Save the Persecuted Christians Host News Conference to Call for SpecialEnvoy to Help Avert Genocidal Catastrophe in Nigeria
Event Set for 10 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 19, at U.S. Capitol Visitor Center;
Nigeria Ranks 14th on Open Doors USA’s World Watch List
WASHINGTON—Rep. Ron Estes (R-Kan.) and the Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) Coalition are joining other concerned groups to urge the Trump administration to appoint a special envoy to the Nigeria/Lake Chad region of Africa to help protect Christians who are being murdered, kidnapped and attacked in what many are calling “pure genocide.”
A news conference urging this action will welcome two influential bishops, lawmakers and advocates for persecuted Christians Wednesday morning at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. TheSTPC Coalition is working with Rep. Estes’s office for the event.
WHO: Rep. Ron Estes and the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition
WHAT: News conference featuring: Rep. Estes, Nigerian Anglican Archbishop Benjamin Argak Kwashi, Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) Bishop Julian Dobbs and former Congressman Frank Wolf
WHERE: Room HC-8, U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, First Street NE, Washington, D.C.
www.visitthecapitol.gov/plan-visit
WHEN: 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, Dec. 19
WHY: To urge the Trump administration to appoint a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region, where Christians are being persecuted and murdered for their faith
HOW: To attend as a member of the media, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com
“We know the Trump administration has a heart for persecuted Christians,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director of the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition. “But we stand with Rep. Ron Estes and former Rep. Frank Wolf in urging citizens and faith leaders to petition our nation’s leadership to take a practical and necessary step to help those being brutally oppressed and even mass-murdered in Nigeria.
“Mr. President, on behalf of Christians and people of good will everywhere, please designate at once a special envoy to coordinate and redouble U.S. government interagency action before the violent persecution of millions of Nigerian Christians and terrorism spread like a fatal cancer throughout that country, further destabilizing neighboring areas in the Lake Chad region and prompting unsustainable numbers of refugees to flee throughout the world.”
Featured Speakers:
Rep. Ron Estes represents the people of the 4th District of Kansas in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a member of the House Homeland Security and Education and the Workforce Committees.
The Most Rev. Dr. Benjamin Argak Kwashi is the bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Jos and archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Jos in the Church of Nigeria. He was ordained in 1982 and 10 years later became the bishop of Jos. In January 2008, he was presented as the archbishop of Jos Province in the Church of Nigeria. Kwashi is the current General Secretary of General Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON).
Bishop Julian Mark Dobbs was elected and consecrated as bishop by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) in 2011 and is a member of the College of Bishops in Nigeria. He is also the bishop of Convocation of Anglicans in North America (CANA) East and has oversight of the clergy and congregations in the diocese. In addition, he is the organization’s Missionary Bishop and provides leadership to CANA’s ministry throughout North America.
Former Rep. Frank Wolf represented the people of the 10th District of Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1981 to 2015. He was the original sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act and has been one of America’s preeminent champions of the persecuted.
Frank Gaffney, founding member of the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition.
Faith McDonnell, director of the International Religious Liberty Program at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, is also a founding member of STPC. She has been an advocate for the persecuted Christians in Nigeria for over 20 years, including working on a three-year task force in Washington, D.C to press the Obama administration to designate Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Those wishing to join the appeal for President Trump to appoint a special envoy before the end of the 2018 are invited to send him a letter by clicking here. The letter reads, in part:
“The ongoing and intensifying slaughter of Christians and others in Nigeria is intolerable. I urge you to designate immediately a special envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region to coordinate and implement an effective U.S. government response to this crisis. As you know, all of Nigeria’s Christians—who make up roughly half of the country’s population of 200 million, but most especially those in the northern and central regions of the country—are under threat. In recent years, entire Christian villages have been wiped out by jihadists of Boko Haram and the Fulani.”
The Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition seeks to bring awareness about Christians who are being arrested, tortured, enslaved or murdered through, among other means, the “The People of the Cross” exhibit, a series of vertical traveling banners that detail Christian persecution in various countries around the world. The exhibit’s panel on Nigeria reports the shocking fact that 6,000 Christians, mostly women, children and the elderly, were murdered in the first half of 2018 alone.
“Human rights groups describe Muslim Fulani and Boko Haram jihadi attacks as ‘war by Islam to eliminate Christianity,’” the panel reads. “Unhindered by Nigeria’s leaders, who are Islamists, these attacks threaten to cleanse Nigeria of Christians.”
