2 Arkansans at 3-day gathering

WASHINGTON — Two of the Arkansas co-founders of the International Christian Foundation for Democracy attended a recent State Department Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom gathering.

Henry Jones, the foundation’s president, and Chris Powell, its vice president, participated in the meetings, which included appearances by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The three-day gathering “brings together leaders from around the world to discuss the challenges facing religious freedom, identify means to address religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, and promote greater respect and preservation of religious liberty for all.”

The U.S. State Department has declared that religious liberty is a “fundamental right.”

For nearly 2,000 years, Christians have shared their faith, sometimes at great cost.

Early church histories detail stonings, burnings, beheadings and crucifixions. There are accounts of martyrs torn apart by vicious beasts in Rome’s Colosseum, their deaths providing entertainment for the bloodthirsty throngs.

After Christianity became the state religion, non-Christians and nonconforming Christians became targets.

The violence has ebbed and flowed over the centuries, but it has never stopped.

“The reality is that more persecution goes on now than at any time [in] history,” Powell said. “It would shock your conscience to know the full extent of what happens to some of these people.”