Fighting Religious Persecution behind the Iron Curtain

Abstract

This chapter examines evangelical interest groups on behalf of persecuted Soviet Pentecostals and Baptists during the Reagan administration. It shows how evangelicals combined human rights activism at home with focused network building in the Soviet bloc in order to support their suffering brethren and lay the foundation for expanded evangelistic opportunities in the communist world. It also describes the evangelical organizations and missionary groups that ensured the postcommunist states would guarantee religious liberty for their citizens and allow foreigners to evangelize as the Soviet Union began to collapse during the Bush administration. The chapter discusses how effective were Christian efforts to attain foreign aid for favoured regimes and to impose economic and diplomatic sanctions on those nations that persecuted Christians and stifled evangelism. It also investigates why U.S. evangelicals lend support to repressive authoritarian regimes in the name of human rights.