China ‘Greatest Threat to Religious Freedom Today’ Warns Bradley Prize Awardee

Religious freedom is a hallowed liberty in the United States, enshrined in the Constitution. This freedom is, however, an exception to the historical norm. Throughout the centuries, wars have been fought and peoples oppressed over religious beliefs. This unfortunately continues today, and must be worked against.

Nina Shea, a lawyer currently serving as a senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, recently received a 2023 Bradley Prize for her extensive work promoting religious freedom. This prestigious award is given to “scholars and practitioners whose accomplishments reflect The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation’s mission to restore, strengthen and protect the principles and institutions of American exceptionalism.”

In remarks at the award’s presentation ceremony on May 16, Shea emphasized the importance of religious freedom, particularly the role of the United States in promoting religious freedom worldwide.

Shea first highlighted President Ronald Reagan’s opposition to the Soviet Union, noting that Reagan’s emphasis on religious freedom was key to his messaging about the USSR. This is but one example of the U.S.’s important role addressing this issue; Shea suggested that “The United States has been the world’s indispensable nation in the defense of religious freedom.”

This worldwide defense of religious freedom flows from the high value of domestic religious freedom in the United States, Shea noted, highlighting both the Constitution and a letter sent by George Washington during his presidency. “Our First Amendment’s focus on limiting government power is a part of American exceptionalism,” she posited, “unlike many places, the U.S. does not license religions nor pick and choose among denominations.”

Key to religious freedom in the United States, Shea said, is the freedom to exercise religion in public. “Religious freedom in America is not limited to worship or holding beliefs in the secrecy of one’s heart – even North Korea has that.” As particular evidence of America’s commendable religious freedom record, Shea noted that “thirty percent of American charitable giving goes to religious organizations.”

In addition to commending the United States, Shea emphasized the need for ongoing religious freedom work by describing recent and continued violations of religious freedom across the globe. North Korea bans prayer and Bibles, Iran requires women to wear hijabs in public, and over 5,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009, Shea noted.

Shea emphasized sobering religious freedom issues in one major country in particular: China. “China is the modern face of persecution and the greatest threat to religious freedom today,” the awardee said. Religion in China is tightly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP): “All religious groups are suspect and must register with the party, which controls houses of worship with high tech surveillance cameras that feed into digitized social credit score systems and police computers.”

The most egregious issue in China is its persecution of Uyghur Muslims, which the United States has recognized as genocide. Overall, Shea noted, “A million Muslims have been recently detained in reeducation camps, where women are forcibly sterilized.” Members of other religious groups have been killed and harvested for organ transplants.

Despite the CCP’s oppression, Shea suggested that “The innate search for truth and meaning impels religious followers, despite the risks, to resist a system based on lies.” Religious people in China “are among the last remnants of civil society” in China, she claimed, and the United States ought to advocate to them for both philosophical and prudential reasons.

“But American commitment to religious freedom is eroding,” Shea warned, citing hate speech bans, law schools labeling “traditional religious belief as ‘fascist,” protesters firebombing and vandalizing pro-life organizations, and unprosecuted anti-Semitism.

In response to this eroding commitment, Shea challenged her audience: “We can no longer afford to take our own religious freedom for granted. The horrors of persecution abroad remind us why we must defend this unalienable right at home.” American Christians would do well to heed the attorney’s counsel, following Shea’s example and advocating for and working towards religious freedom both at home and abroad.