Prisoners of Conscience

Prisoners of Conscience

by Jim Valois

“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened,” our Lord Jesus said (Matt 7:7-8). Here the word of God is reminding us that prayer changes things. All of us can and should assist our brothers and sisters—the prisoners of conscience—by changing things for them via prayer. Adding these brave souls to our rosaries and our other prayers does make an impact on their lives.

Catholic Jimmy Lai, publisher, entrepreneur and multimillionaire could have fled Hong Kong when the Chinese communists began to break agreements and assert more control of the region. But instead he advocated for freedom of speech via his newspaper, the Apple Daily. Lai participated in peaceful rallies
until he was arrested by Hong Kong police on charges of violating the territory’s new national security law. True to form, the communuists, masters of the surveillance state, could not tolerate freedom of speech even though they tout the principle of ‘one country, two systems’. For nearly 4 years, Jimmy has been in solitary confinement in Stanley Prison for supposed violations of participating in unauthorized assemblies and alleged corruption charges. He is 77 years old. In truth, Jimmy Lai is a prisoner of conscience for the freedom of speech of his people.

We are not immune from persecution for standing for freedom here in America. Our founding fathers put freedom of speech as the First Amendment in our constitution because they considered it foundational for a society to flourish. But the Left in our country is determined to wrest this freedom and other freedoms from our very culture. To see how this can play out, one need only to review the case of Joe Kennedy. He was a high school teacher and football coach that had to take his fight to the Supreme court to defend his right to pray privately in a public space. Kennedy was praying by himself-- after the game-- when someone complained to a school official. The movie Average Joe tells the true story of the Marine coach and his legal battle for his First Amendment rights. But this is not an isolated incident. The Left in the USA is increasingly opposing the religious freedoms guaranteed by our constitution but nonetheless violated. Yet the Left in China--the CCP-- takes religious persecution to a whole new low in confining religious people to concentration camps.

The Chinese Communist Party—CCP--has incarcerated more than a million Uyghur people in what they call ‘re-education camps’. But the BBC reports that if one tries to escape from these camps, the shoot-to-kill policy goes into effect. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037 These camps are located in the north-western region of Xinjiang. In 2023 new rules on religious activity were issued. Pew Research explains: “The rules are part of a long-standing strategy by the Chinese government to align religion with communism and ensure loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which espouses and promotes atheism.” https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/10/23/10-things-to-know-about-chinas-policies-on-religion/ Other atrocities in the camps are legion and all the news leaking out summons us to pray for these persecuted people.

The Apostle James wrote long ago a truth that is always in season and brings light to the priestly call of our baptism and bears on the subject of prisoners of conscience:
The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects. Elijah was a man of like nature with ourselves and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth its fruit. (Jam 5: 16b-18)
Although Elijah was praying for the rain to stop because Ahab and Jezebel were leading the Israelites to idolatry—the worship of the demon Ba’al, the word of God shows us the power of one righteous man’s prayers. As we pray for the strengthening, release and public awareness for the prisoners of conscience, we will see His answers to our fervent prayers just like Elijah did. We will see that God desires to alleviate oppression and to answer our simple prayers.