Home News Room USCIRF In the News 6/22/2010: 'Freedom of Worship' Worries - Christianity Today
6/22/2010: 'Freedom of Worship' Worries - Christianity Today PDF Print

By Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2010/july/2.12.html


The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted the shift in its 2010 annual report. "This change in phraseology could well be viewed by human rights defenders and officials in other countries as having concrete policy implications," the report said.

Freedom of worship means the right to pray within the confines of a place of worship or to privately believe, said Nina Shea, director of the Center for Religious Freedom and member of the commission. "It excludes the right to raise your children in your faith; the right to have religious literature; the right to meet with co-religionists; the right to raise funds; the right to appoint or elect your religious leaders, and to carry out charitable activities, to evangelize, [and] to have religious education or seminary training."