Commission lists threats to religious freedom

Members of the LDS Church should have empathy for those suffering elsewhere in the world for their religious beliefs and acts because severe anti-Mormon persecution is part of the church's relative short history.

"Our history in being oppressed in many of these same ways is not that long distant, not that long again," he said, adding "if any people should be sensitive to how important that is, it should be us. We ought to be at the forefront because these are human beings."

On an admittedly practical level, LDS Church expansion in some of the world's most populous nations will be limited by religious freedom challenges.

"We're not going to be in a position to do much but stand on the sidelines and watch in terms of proselytization until these behaviors change," he said.

Just as when he served, Young is concerned the committee's recommendations for action will go mostly unimplemented in the ongoing tug-of-war between Congress and the president, between American values and American interests and between political freedom and economic freedom.

Often, sanctions enacted in the name of encouraging international freedom have merely overlapped or duplicated existing government sanctions, such as anti-terrorism measures.

Young said he had in the past encouraged the U.S. to consider not just negative sanctions but positive incentives, such as world bank loans, foreign aid or cooperative economic efforts.

Even though four years have passed since leaving the commission, Young says he still carries recollections of on-site visits with abuse victims and family members.

They include the elderly woman imprisoned in China after authorities found scriptural verses handwritten on paper and hidden in her walls and the survivor of a refugee family returned after having escaped from North Korea and eventually killed when officials there found that the 6-year-old girl had accepted a cross as simple jewelry during the family's stay at the Christian-run refugee camp.

"Some of these stories still haunt me at night," he said, adding, "You don't have words to describe them."

Monitoring religious freedom worldwide

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommends the following nations be designated "countries of particular concern," saying they have engaged in or tolerated "particularly severe" violations of religious freedom:

Burma *

China *

Eritrea *

Iran *

Iraq #

Nigeria #

North Korea *

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia *

Sudan *

Turkmenistan

Uzbekistan *

Vietnam

The commission also placed the following nations it is closely monitoring on its "Watch List":

Afghanistan

Belarus

Cuba

Egypt

Indonesia

Laos #

Russia #

Somalia #

Tajikistan #

Turkey #

Venezuela #

KEY:

* — nations already officially designated a "country of particular concern" by the United States.

# — countries added this year by the commission to their respective list.

SOURCE: U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

E-mail: taylor@desnews.com