{"id":51488,"date":"2024-10-08T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T05:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=51488"},"modified":"2024-10-08T13:50:16","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T04:50:16","slug":"vomk-report-319","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2024\/10\/08\/vomk-report-319\/","title":{"rendered":"RWANDA: GOVERNMENT SHUTS DOWN NEARLY 10,000 CHURCHES IN 3 MONTHS"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51489″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley recalls meeting Paul Kagame in Denver, Colorado when the President of Rwanda visited the United States in 2003. ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201cMy <\/span>wife <\/span>and I were working with a Bible distribution ministry<\/span> at that time<\/span>, and President Kagame told us his country needed Bibles,\u201d says <\/span>Pastor Foley<\/span>. \u201cIt was about a decade after the <\/span>Rwandan genocide in which more than half a million Rwanda Tutsis were killed. President Kagame said he believed his country needed as many Bibles as possible.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Now, <\/span>Pastor <\/span>Foley says <\/span>he and his wife <\/span>regret supplying the Bibles to Kagame. <\/span>Kagame\u2019s government has shut down <\/span>nearly 10,000<\/span> churches in the past 3 months, citing building code violations, hygiene dangers, noise pollution problems, and <\/span>leaders <\/span>without theology degrees<\/span>. The closures<\/span>, which affect <\/span>mainly small<\/span> independent and Pentecostal churches, are in addition to <\/span>7,000 churches <\/span>the government shut down for similar reasons in 2018, when it passed a series of laws requiring church leaders to meet minimum education standards, limit the length of church-mandated fasts, and <\/span>disclose<\/span> financial information.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51492″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]According to <\/span>Pastor <\/span>Foley, that early ministry experience is one of the reasons why h<\/span>is <\/span>organization does not work with governments but only partners directly with local Christians in places where the practice of their faith is restricted.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201cKagame has created regulations that <\/span>may sound like reasonable ways to protect the public, but anytime governments define what the church should be and look like and do, and who can lead it, then the church becomes an organization that is created in the image of the government, serving the government\u2019s purpose,\u201d says <\/span>Pastor <\/span>Foley. <\/span>He <\/span>says <\/span><\/span>he<\/span><\/span> is disappointed that Rwanda\u2019s state-sanctioned churches have stood with the government and against the churches the government is closing<\/span>, and that churches around the world have mostly been silent about the crackdown.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201cThe national and denominational associations of churches <\/span>in Rwanda <\/span>have pointed to the government\u2019s giving churches five years to comply with the new laws as a sign of reasonableness,\u201d says Representative Foley. \u201c<\/span>They<\/span>\u2019ve<\/span> been<\/span> urg<\/span>ing<\/span> the independent and Pentecostal churches to <\/span>meet the government\u2019s educational requirements and to stop meeting in places like caves<\/span> and riverbanks<\/span>. But Jesus and his disciples themselves would not meet the Rwandan government\u2019s educational requirements, and the book of Hebrews even talks about the faithful believers living in caves who we should emulate. The issue is not whether governments make reasonable legal requirements for churches but rather who can call the church into existence, set the standards for church leadership, and <\/span>determine<\/span> when and how and by whom the gospel is preached. The Bible is clear that those decisions belong to the Lord alone.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Pastor Foley notes that President Kagame continues to call for a tax on church offerings, accusing churches of trying to, in Kagame\u2019s words, \u201csqueeze even the last penny from poor Rwandans<\/span>\u201d.<\/span> The President also noted that <\/span>Kigale<\/span>, Rwanda\u2019s capital city, had more churches than water boreholes or factories, calling the proliferation of churches a \u201cmess<\/span>\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51495″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center”][vc_custom_heading text=”Rwandan President Paul Kagame (Photo: World Travel & Tourism Council). ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230f0f0f|line_height:1.45em” google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:400%20regular%3A400%3Anormal”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Kagame, who has ruled Rwanda since ending the <\/span>1994 <\/span>genocide<\/span>, has been widely cited for violations and restrictions on religious freedom, including in a 2023 US State Department report, which raised concerns over his negative comments about pilgrimages by Rwandans to Catholic holy sites, a practice Kagame called \u201cworshiping poverty\u201d. The State Department report <\/span>indicates<\/span> that about 40% of the Rwandan population is Catholic, 21% Pentecostal, 15% Protestant, and 12% <\/span>Seventh Day Adventist<\/span>. 2% are Muslim, according to the report.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Pastor Foley says that while international religious freedom watchdogs are <\/span>well aware<\/span> of Rwanda\u2019s ongoing crackdown on Pentecostal and independent churches, ordinary Christians around the world often <\/span><\/span>know<\/span><\/span> little or nothing about the situation.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>These kinds of persecution situations, where government-sanctioned churches say nothing while other Christian groups in a country experience restrictions, <\/span>often happen without Christians in the rest of the world raising their concerns and prayers about it,\u201d says Pastor Foley. \u201cOften Christians around the world think, \u2018Well, if some Christians in a country are free, then how bad can the situation be?\u2019 So, faithful Christians in countries like China, Vietnam, and Eritrea experience a \u2018<\/span>double-suffering<\/span>\u2019: their sufferings are ignored by Christians in their own country, <\/span>and also<\/span> by Christians around the world.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Pastor Foley says Voice of the Martyrs Korea is continuing to <\/span>monitor<\/span> the situation in Rwanda and to consider ways to <\/span>directly <\/span>serve and strengthen the <\/span>local <\/span>believers there<\/span>, rather than working through the government or mission agencies<\/span>. He urges Christians in <\/span>Korea<\/span> to pray for the Rwandan Christians facing restrictions. \u201cPray for the Rwandan Christians in the government-sanctioned denominations to stand up for their brothers and sisters in the restricted churches,\u201d Pastor Foley says. \u201cPray for <\/span>winds of revival to blow from the caves and riverbanks where faithful Rwandan Christians have been meeting, into the air-conditioned government sanctioned church buildings led by government-approved leaders. Pray also for Paul Kagame to read and take to heart the teachings of the Bibles he received from us twenty years ago, teachings that <\/span>make clear that the word of God cannot be bound to the times, places, and people approved by governments.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”51489″ img_size=”full”][vc_custom_heading text=”Voice of the Martyrs Korea CEO Pastor Eric Foley recalls meeting Paul Kagame in Denver, Colorado when the President of Rwanda visited the United States in 2003. …","protected":false},"author":659,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/659"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51488"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51498,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51488\/revisions\/51498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}