***MEDIA ADVISORY*** |May 1, 2019
Faith Leaders, Religious Freedom Activists Call on Squire Patton Boggs, LLP to Stop Representing Nations that Persecute People of Faith
VIEW the Facebook Livestream of the conference here.
WASHINGTON—Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC) and other friends of religious liberty will host a news conference this week to urge a major law firm to stop its representation of countries that violate religious freedom and that persecute Christians and other religious minorities.
WHO: Frank Gaffney of Save the Persecuted Christians; former Congressman Frank Wolf; Faith McDonnell of the Institute on Religion and Democracy; Pastor Bob Fu of China Aid; and representatives of a number of the world’s other oppressed faith communities.
WHAT: News conference to announce the release of a joint letter calling on Squire Patton Boggs to cease offering lobbying services to countries known for gross violations of religious freedoms and human rights abuses
WHERE: National Press Club, 13th Floor, 529 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20045
WHEN: 1 to 2:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, May 1
WHY: A large number of faith leaders, religious freedom activists and representatives of other influential organizations have joined in a new initiative aimed at dissuading one of the nation’s most prominent and powerful lobbyist/law firms, Squire Patton Boggs, from representing—and, thereby, enabling—three nations that engage in the heavy persecution of Christians and others for their faith: Communist China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“Save the Persecuted Christians is pleased to join with others determined to hold accountable those who persecute people of faith—including lobbyists who, as a practical matter, work to enable the persecutors to do so with impunity. This is an important initiative in STPC’s effort to build a grassroots movement that will help create real costs to the perpetrators for their crimes against humanity,” Gaffney said.
The mission of Save the Persecuted Christians is to save lives and save souls by disseminating actionable information about the magnitude of the persecution taking place globally and by mobilizing concerned Americans for the purpose of disincentivizing further attacks on those who follow Jesus.
According to Aid to the Church in Need, which released its biannual report on Religious Freedom in the World in November, over 300 million Christians experience persecution. According to Open Doors USA World Watch List, 245 million Christians are victims of high to extreme levels of persecution (i.e., torture, rape, sex-slavery, expulsion, murder and genocide), an increase of 14 percent over 2018. Open Doors also estimates 1 in 9 of the world’s Christians experience persecution and that every month: 345 Christians are killed, often in public and without regard to gender or age; 219 Christians are abducted and imprisoned indefinitely without trial; and 106 churches are demolished.
Since most of these crimes are not covered in the media, Save the Persecuted Christians has developed a dedicated news aggregator—www.ChristianPersecutionNews.com—to capture current instances of persecution and to provide readers with an easy way to share these heartbreaking stories with others.
With so much of the world’s Christian population being attacked, imprisoned and/or exiled for their beliefs, the need has never been greater for the sort of grassroots campaign STPC’s SaveUs Movement is working to foster. Its efforts are modeled after a miraculously successful one that helped free another population suffering from heavy persecution—Soviet Jews—by penalizing those in the Kremlin responsible for such repression. Through this movement, Save the Persecuted Christians endeavors to provide American policymakers with the popular support they need to effect real change worldwide and alleviate systemically the suffering being experienced by so many of those following Christ.
###
To interview a Save the Persecuted Christians representative, contact Media@HamiltonStrategies.com