Consider living with the constant threat of being bombed, enslaved, forced to have an abortion, homeless, imprisoned, kidnapped, mutilated, orphaned, prostituted, raped, starved, tortured and/or killed. This is the anguish which people in many parts of the world endure daily for themselves and their families, pointed out U.S. Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-10th District), co-chairman of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, with guest speakers last Friday at Ashburn United Methodist Church. All too frequently these atrocities, some of which have been experienced and observed by the presenters, are allowed and even abetted by their country’s government, Wolf said.

Speaking at the well-attended first 10th District Human Rights and Religious Freedom Forum which he sponsored, Wolf said that two years ago he and Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), also a longtime crusader on such issues, visited Sierra Leone, Africa, where men, women and children were having their arms cut off due to the conflicts in the diamond trade there.

"We in the West can make a tremendous difference," by voicing our opposition to the brutalities, said Wolf. A camp inmate in the former Soviet Union had told him that the conditions for prisoners improved "when people in the West spoke out. How we respond has an effect," said Wolf. Often the only ‘crime’ these people have committed is practicing their religion or residing in a country with civil unrest or an oppressive regime.

Wolf said he has been inspired in his work by "the admonition in Luke that says: ‘to whom much is given, much is required.’" He hopes that the "forum also will be a chance for religious leaders in Virginia’s 10th District to learn about opportunities to get their congregations involved in human rights advocacy." Wolf asked that churches, mosques and other places of worship consider adopting a prisoner of conscience in one of these countries, such as those represented at the forum: China, Egypt, Sudan, Uganda or Vietnam.

Presenter Nina Shea, author of In the Lion’s Den and commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and director of the Center for Religious Freedom, Freedom House, has worked with Wolf and said that he has risked his own life in pursuit of information and justice on these issues. She said the commission has studied Sudan for three years and termed it "the most violent persecutor of religious freedom in the world."

Shea spoke of one of Sudan’s "lost boys," now 15 and living in Atlanta. At 10, the youth fled his country, where some of his companions drowned or were eaten by crocodiles when crossing rivers in their long walk to reach freedom. He is one of thousands of boys across the U.S., with two dozen groups of them in the Washington area alone. One of his few possessions is a Bible, and he said that through his difficult life, "God has not left me."

Oil is the impetus for the war during the last few years, Shea said. Other countries are connected due to their investments and partnerships in the commodity. She urged people to write their legislators asking them to support "The Sudan Peace Act."

Wolf said that oil has brought $700 million to the Khartoum government, and that Osama Bin Laden lived openly in the country from 1991-96.

Jehan Deng, a highly educated human rights advocate from Sudan currently living in America as a refugee, told of the situation in her native country. Anyone who is not an Arab-Muslim there, such as a Christian, "has no rights," she said. "I am a foreigner in my own country."

She recounted horrific occurrences, such as in southern Sudan war zones. "It is beyond what you can imagine human beings would do to one another," she said. Non-Muslim pregnant women near delivery had their stomachs sliced open by soldiers, who cut the baby out and left both mother and infant to die.

Gao Zhan, an American University fellow and recent prisoner in the People’s Republic of China for 144 days, said Americans may not realize the scope of suffering in other parts of the world. "It is perhaps easy for people in a free country to take their liberty for granted, and hard for them to understand the difficulties which people (elsewhere) face," she said.

Shixiong Li, president of the Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, had an interpreter read a four-page letter from a 24-year-old woman. As an expert on the House Church in China, it was part of the evidence Li had obtained on Communist party torturers. She had been shackled and her abusers used electric clubs on every part of her body, especially her breasts, the letter said.

"When I yelled at the top of my voice, they put the club into my mouth to stop my crying," she said. "I was one of many people tortured in this way, and mine was lighter than theirs." She said that the prisoners, such as a fellow female who was 15, were treated as sub-human and had handfuls of their hair torn out. The tormenters told them that no matter how they screamed, no one was going to come alleviate their agony.

Dr. Laura Lederer, deputy special adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State of the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, told of a young Mexican woman, Rosa, kidnapped and forced to prostitute herself in America. The brothel was run by those believed to be in major U.S. cities operated by sophisticated criminal rings, Lederer said.

The young women and children who worked there, some 12 years old, were guarded 24 hours a day to prevent their escape. Rosa was only able to get away when another enslaved prostitute threw herself out of a second-story window during a private party. Though it has been three years since that time, Rosa has yet to fully recover, Lederer said. There are hundreds of thousands of people worldwide trapped in sex trafficking, and the problem in the U.S. has only come to light in the last few years. It is important that churches examine the problem "because it’s a human rights issue, but it’s also a spiritual one," Lederer said.

Cathy Norman, director of spiritual growth and wife of head pastor, David, at the forum’s host site, Ashburn United Methodist Church, spoke also. Led by her husband, she and 13 parishioners traveled to Uganda. After seeing the needs there, the church committed to build a school and medical center.

The Norman family has opened their home to Angelique, a woman from the Congo. An attendee at the forum, she is living with them while seeking political asylum in America. Cathy asked the audience to ponder the question put to Jesus by a religious leader, "Who is my neighbor?"

Brett Dody, former congressional fellow and co-director of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus spoke of his work with Wolf. He told the gathering that the congressman’s immense efforts on the committee are not because they are part of his numerous responsibilities, but because he "has such a passion for these issues."