FGGAM just received this news release:
New Organization Launches to Save the Persecuted Christians: Grassroots Movement Aimed at Helping 500 Million Suffering Followers of Christ;
Program to Address Need Special Envoy to Nigeria
New ‘SaveUs’ Movement to Be Launched at National Press Club Jan. 17
WASHINGTON—Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) is unveiling its evolution from an informal coalition into a new, national non-profit organization and movement at a special event this week in Washington, D.C.
“The goal of mobilizing Americans to stand in the gap for Christians experiencing persecution – including, according to a new report by Open Doors USA, 245 million being subjected to brutal violence and abuse for their faith remains the same,” said Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians. “The capacity to help accomplish this vital mission will, however, be considerably greater.”
WHO: Save the Persecuted Christians
WHAT: Two coordinated news conferences, first to announce a new non-profit, and second, to highlight the need for a Special Envoy to Nigeria and the Lake Chad region to help stave off further, destabilizing violence against Christians there
WHERE: National Press Club, 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor, Washington, DC 20045 | 202-662-7500
WHEN: Thursday, January 17, 1:30 to 4 p.m.
1:30 to 2:30 p.m. – The launch of Save the Persecuted Christians
3 to 4 p.m. – A program concerning the crisis in Nigeria and the urgent need for the appointment of a U.S. Special Envoy to Nigeria and Lake Chad Region to help contend with it, co-sponsored by Save the Persecuted Christians, Mission Africa International and International Committee on Nigeria (ICON)
HOW: RSVP here.
The launch of Save the Persecuted Christians will feature remarks by:
- Keith Butler, Chairman of STPC’s Board of Directors, founder of Word of Faith International Christian Center
- STPC’s President and CEO Frank Gaffney
- Dede Laugesen, STPC’s Executive Director
- Kevin Jessip, Member of the STPC Board of Directors and President of Global Strategic Alliance
In 2018, the Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition shipped more than 1,000 “SaveUs” banners to houses of worship around the world. Nearly 2,000 also now subscribe to the STPCwebsite to receive news and action items regarding persecution. Its advisory board of faith leaders, human rights and religious freedom activists and charitable relief organizations has grown to over 130 members.
Additionally, since the debut of “The People of the Cross” exhibit at the U.S. Capitol as a side event to the U.S. Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in July, a separate series of vertical, traveling banners have toured the exposing tens of thousands to their powerful messages concerning the horrific character and widespread nature of anti-Christian persecution. Learn more about the exhibit here.
The mission of the new Save the Persecuted Christians organization is to save lives and save souls by holding the persecutors accountable and creating costs for their crimes against humanity. To that end, it will disseminate actionable information about the magnitude of such crimes and practical ways a movement of concerned Americans can help those worldwide who are being persecuted simply because they believe in Jesus.
According to Aid to the Church in Need, which released its biannual report on Religious Freedom in the World in November, over 500 million Christians experience persecution. Of those, according to Open Doors USA’s 2019 World Watch List, 245 million Christians are victims of high to extreme levels of persecution (i.e., torture, rape, sex-slavery, expulsion, murder and genocide), an increase of 14 percent over 2018. Open Doors estimates 1 in 9 of the world’s Christians experience persecution and that every month: 345 Christians are killed, often in public and without regard to gender or age; 219 Christians are abducted and imprisoned indefinitely without trial; and 106 churches are demolished.
In 2018, Open Doors reported that annually 2,160 women and girls are raped, sexually assaulted or forced into marriage, and remarks in 2019 that in many cultures where women are specifically targeted, it is difficult if not impossible to report accurate numbers. In the report, released Jan. 16, Open Doors says, “In many places, they [women] experience a ‘double-persecution’—one for being a Christian and one for being a woman.”
“It is a shocking reality of persecution against women,” said David Curry, president of Open Doors at the release of the 2019 report. “Christian women are the most exploited group in the world,”
Because most of these crimes are not covered in the media, Save the Persecuted Christians developed a dedicated news aggregator—www.ChristianPersecutionNews.com—to capture current instances of persecution and to provide readers an easy way to share these heartbreaking stories with others.
With so much of the world’s population attacked, imprisoned or exiled for their beliefs, the need for the sort of grassroots campaign the SaveUs Movement is working to foster has never been greater. Its efforts are modeled after a miraculously successful one that helped free another population suffering from heavy persecution—Soviet Jews—by penalizing those in the Kremlin responsible for such repression. Through this movement, Save the Persecuted Christians intends, in our time, to provide American policymakers with the popular support they need to effect real change worldwide and alleviate the suffering for following Christ.
