Welcome to The Liberty Insider.
This is a program bringing you
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news, views, discussion and
opinions on religious liberty
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events around the world
starting in the United States.
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My name is Lincoln Steed,
editor of Liberty magazine
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and my guest on this program
is Dr. Bert Beach, a religious
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liberty icon for the Seventh-
day Adventist Church, recently
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retired or at least admitting
retirement but still plenty of
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opinions and knowledge about
religious liberty. I want to ask
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you a question that I know
relates to what you did for many
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years. Out of our General
Conference world headquarters
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the religious liberty department
for many years has prepared a
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report every year on pretty
much religious liberty concerns
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in many countries; it's aimed
to sort of cover the world,
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countries of interest. Do you
remember doing that or working
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with that? Well
really we started a little
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bit of that, but it's really
done by John Graz during his
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administration who really pushed
that and he had one or two good
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associates who were able to
get the work done and the first
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annual report was rather
simplistic a few years ago and
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then the next report was a
little better and every year
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it's gotten to be better. It's
really now a pretty good solid
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researched report seen from a
Seventh-day Adventist view point
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regarding the Seventh-day
Adventist church and I think
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it's worthwhile.
Because every year the State
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Department puts out a similar
report from U.S. national
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interest and just looking
generically at religious liberty
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and civil liberties. And
now I think it's a valuable
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document. And it
can very specifically
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highlight, while we might
on this program sort of talk
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broadly. You know you can
look at a certain country like a
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couple years ago in India I
remember the General Conference
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actually personally investigated
Seventh-day Adventist churches
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in northwestern India, I think,
that had been attacked by mobs
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and burned and a pastor killed
and so on. Well clearly we could
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site that sort of a thing to
bring it to the attention not
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just to the world but the
Indian government themselves.
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It has a very practical purpose.
Let's talk about one item of
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present concern in the Seventh-
day Adventist Church. You and I
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were discussing it earlier that
just a few days ago our world
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General Conference president
put out an urgent call to all
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members to pray for the
quick release of a Seventh-day
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Adventist pastor and
administrator in Togo who's been
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in prison, not directly for his
faith, but likely as a byproduct
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of the faith that he has. He's
imprisoned on charges of murder.
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Remember this case
with Pastor Montero?
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He's from Cape Verde, an island,
a little republic, off the coast
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of Togo, very close to
the equator, not far from Togo
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and he's a departmental director
in the Union there, the Saielle
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Union which groups the French
speaking territories like Togo,
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Lome or whatever the name is
now. They change every so often
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and so on and Ivory Coast and
so on, these countries together
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and he's a departmental director
in there and he was arrested
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recently and another minister
accused of being involved in
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blood trafficking and murdering
young girls to get the blood for
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some kind of a procedure,
nothing to do with Christianity,
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but some religious act or
something like that and of
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course no evidence has
been found for that. Somebody
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reported it who was in prison
himself who has admitted to
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being involved and who had had
contacts with our minister who
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had contacted him to try to help
him and so on. And then somehow
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he gave the name and so
on. So the accusation is there.
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They have no system of bail in
that country so our pastor has
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now been in prison for six
months or more and it could be
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another six months before they
have the trial. Of course, you
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wonder to what extent the
system is organized properly,
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that there's no bribery system
or anything like that and so
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nothing has happened even
though the police have admitted
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that they have no
evidence against him at all.
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Societally or socially it's a
rather hazardous environment for
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any Christian because I think
there are six million people in
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Togo, about six or seven
thousand Seventh-day Adventists.
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But Christians are a distinct
minority, I mean a very small
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minority and Animism is
still the prevailing viewpoint.
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It's an underdeveloped country.
It doesn't mean they have no
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sense of justice. They've
inherited the French justice
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system. But clearly culturally
and their history would sort of,
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in my view, lead them to
probably go a little slow on
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administering justice to someone
from outside and an alien
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religious viewpoint. And this is
where I think a lot of prejudice
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kicks in even though the
accusation is not because of his
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faith. I know
I've been interested in
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Togo because I conducted myself
about 25 years or was it 30
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years ago, a first evangelistic
campaign in Togo in French and
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so I was involved there. I met
the president of the country and
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had a nice meeting with him.
It was very interesting because
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usually these presidents in
Africa and other countries, they
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have so many people making
demands on them asking for this
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and asking for that. So we met
with the president and after a
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hello and a few greetings
he said, now what can I do for
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you? And I told him well we're
not here to ask for anything.
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We're just here to come to meet
you and tell you how much we
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appreciate the liberty we enjoy.
Our church had just started
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work about three or four years
before in the country. It was a
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new church and had very few
members, just starting, and we
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just want to tell you how much
we appreciate being able to be
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here and he just relaxed and we
met there another half hour of
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just talking with him. It's his
son who is now the president.
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I wish I could have gone down
there and talked to him about
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his father. We
don't have time to get
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through all of the history...
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But I'm retired now... of
the constitutional crisis/
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coup of the first degree when a
prime minister that should have
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inherited, his plane was kept
circling. Do you know the story?
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His plane was kept circling,
refused to land and they
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installed the son instead.
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Yeah, it's a sad situation
because in Togo our church had a
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good reputation. When I was
there I had pastors of other
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churches coming to my meetings
and we had very good relations;
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even a Catholic priest was
there. I gave a lecture one
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evening on the Virgin Mary and
how we looked at it and I asked
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him if I had said anything
that offended him. He said no.
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I talked about how good a lady
she was and you know that God
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had selected her to be the
mother of Jesus and so forth
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which was a great
acknowledgment of her.
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Well the angel said, Most
favored among women are you.
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Exactly and so on. So am
surprised to see that in Togo
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they can't solve the problem
quickly. It just seems to take
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time and it's very discouraging
in a way to see a situation like
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that for our church when there
is no evidence of anything being
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committed. So we
certainly are praying fervently.
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You know we presume him
innocent. There's no evidence
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that we see or know about
that there's anything other than
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innocence but we certainly want
justice to work quickly because
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it's injustice to be
kept languishing in the jail.
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And prisons in that part of
the work are not in the class of
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Marriott Hotels. Well
they're not Marriott Hotels
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either here but yes in a third
world country particularly it
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can be more like it was in
medieval or late reformation
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Europe where the family members
often have to feed the prisoner
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All the family members are
supposed to bring the meals
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It's a very sad situation.
I'm very unhappy about this
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situation and I sure hope that
the Lord will somehow intervene
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and solve this problem quickly
because it's not right the way
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it is now. It puts
me to mind of a story
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that just once or twice in the
last few years I've mentioned
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on this program. But around 1999
or 2000 in Sri Lanka, a country
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that then was undergoing a
severe and protracted civil war,
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in one of our schools a
Tamil pastor, of course under
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suspicion because they were
the rebels that were challenging
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the central government. A
student came along, another
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Tamil student who had some
connections to the Tamil tiger
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gorillas and on that alone
the government arrested him and
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him of terrorism and this
was before 2001, so he was on a
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terrorist charge, a capital
charge, he could have been
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executed on it. And he
languished I think it was over a
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year in prison with no immediate
expectation of release. In fact,
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we were expecting that perhaps
he'd be convicted and hanged
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promptly. And it was only after
protracted period, as we're
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going through with the Pastor
in Togo, that he was suddenly
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released. He was spirited out
of the country, sent to Canada
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and he renewed his calling as
a minister of religion. But that
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was very sobering to me to
meet him, to hear him tell what
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happened when he was in jail in
incredible conditions. We don't
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know about Pastor Montero in
Togo. He was ruffed up a little
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bit when he was first arrested
because of the nature of the
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crime I think. But it's
certainly not a pleasant prison.
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But Pastor Alexander told me
over those many months almost
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every day or two he was hung up
by his ankles, he was beaten for
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prolonged periods with sticks on
the soles of his feet to cripple
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him but no marks and then they
put a book on his head and would
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beat with cudgels on the book
to give him brain damage. And he
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said it affected his memory,
his eyesight and so on. You know
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there's almost well Satanic
methods employed with a lot of
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detainees around the
world. Oh it's terrible.
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But again providentially,
well we hope providentially with
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Montero; with Alexander he was
providentially released and he
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told me, this is the most
amazing thing in it. I don't
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know if you remember. He said
that he believed that it was the
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Lord's will that he be in prison
because in prison he was able
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to raise up a company of about
60 people meeting every Sabbath
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and he said he didn't
want to be released, but then
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providentially when he was
released another pastor was
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arrested and he was able to
continue caring for that prison
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flock. Many times
when a pastor gets
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arrested and goes to
prison it's providential.
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Well what is that song that says
God moves in mysterious ways
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his wonders to perform. So
God works through all situations
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Good can come out of evil.
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Yeah, I don't think God wants
anybody imprisoned but he will
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work good in any situation.
We certainly are praying for
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Pastor Montero. But
these countries of concern are
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are multiplying aren't they?
Can you remember any other cases
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where we had
difficulties through the years?
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They don't come to mind just
recently. Of course we have had
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under communism we had people
but that's a long time ago now.
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In eastern Europe they
had problems, were imprisoned.
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But one thing I think is
very interesting. Our church has
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sometimes been accused by
some of its enemies of being an
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American church, CIA
maybe infiltrated and so forth.
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I remember our church in
Nicaragua some years ago was
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closed down by the government
for, I think it was a matter
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of weeks and the schools
were taken over, the conference
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office and they were saying
well America... It was under the
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Sandinista regime back in those
days... that the church was part
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of the CIA system. But
God intervened through the
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ambassador in Washington.
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We need to talk a little bit
more about that, how we're able
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to have UN and diplomatic
contacts to pass on the word of
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some of these problems. We'll
be back after a short break to
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continue this discussion
of countries of interest.
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