Open doors

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open doors
logo
founding 1955
founder Anne van der Bijl (" Brother Andrew ")
motto In the service of persecuted Christians worldwide
main emphasis Persecuted Christians
Action space Worldwide
Website www.opendoors.de www.opendoors.ch

Open Doors is an international non- denominational Christian aid organization that works in over 60 countries around the world for Christians who are discriminated against or persecuted because of their faith .

The German branch (formerly “Open Borders”) is located in Kelkheim near Frankfurt am Main and is close to the Evangelical Alliance .

Open Doors is best known to the public for the publication of the World Persecution Index, a weighted list of 50 countries that aims to illustrate the extent of the persecution and disadvantage of Christians on the basis of their beliefs. According to its own statements, the greater part of the work of Open Doors takes place in the form of aid projects in these same countries, often also carried out by partner organizations.

Emergence

The organization was founded in 1955 by the Dutchman Anne van der Bijl, who became known worldwide as Brother Andrew or “the smuggler of God”. In 1955 he traveled to socialist Poland , where he became aware of the situation of Christians, who were under great repression because of their beliefs. From 1957 van der Bijl regularly drove a VW Beetle to the countries behind the Iron Curtain . He smuggled Bibles in the respective national languages ​​in his luggage, which he passed on to local Christians. The internationally active aid organization Open Doors developed from this one-man service.

At the beginning, the focus of the work was on the communist countries of Eastern Europe and China. Since 1978 Open Doors has been particularly committed to helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East and other Islamic countries.

In order to provide information about the situation of persecuted Christians, the organization has opened open doors offices in more than 20 countries in Europe, Australia, Asia and North and South America over the years. In Switzerland, the Portes Ouvertes association was founded in 1979 and is based in Romanel-sur-Lausanne . There is an office in Burgdorf BE for German-speaking Switzerland . In 1980, the Open Doors Deutschland eV association was founded in Germany , which now coordinates work in Germany with around 70 full-time employees from Kelkheim . The chairman of the board is Markus Rode.

Working method

According to its own statements, the association tries to enforce the freedom of religion guaranteed in Article 18 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights .

According to their own statements, one of the goals is to strengthen the church where it is persecuted and oppressed. That happens through

  • Delivery and printing of Bibles and scriptures, Christian books and teaching materials for Sunday schools or by setting up printing works and bookstores
  • Training for church staff and lay people, i.e. organization of training courses for pastors and staff with a focus on theology , as well as seminars to prepare for persecution, but also the implementation of literacy courses
  • Help for self-help for the establishment of small businesses and social services
  • Holistic support through spiritual and financial help for churches, new Christians, prisoners and their relatives as well as families of Christians who were murdered because of their faith
  • Emergency aid projects such as emergency aid and the delivery of relief supplies to conflict areas

According to the company, the work is done in cooperation with local communities, albeit often underground to protect local Christians.

In those parts of the world where Christians are not exposed to persecution, Open Doors informs the church and the public about the fate of persecuted Christians, promotes prayer campaigns, initiates petitions for captured Christians, and funds and coordinates aid projects. In addition, employees give lectures in churches and congregations to raise awareness of the topic of Christian persecution and to encourage prayer for persecuted Christians. Here, according to Open Doors, the biblical principle applies: "If one member suffers, the other members suffer too" ( 1 Cor 12:26  EU ).

The association is often referred to as a mission organization , but according to its own information it does not operate a mission itself.

Belief base

According to its own statements, the non-denominational work aims to serve Christians worldwide who suffer and are persecuted because of their faith.

Open Doors works on the basis of the Apostles' Creed . Open Doors is non-denominationally active for persecuted Christians. This is made clear, among other things, by the regularly published World Persecution Index, which not only lists persecuted evangelical Christians, but also includes Christians of all denominations or denominations .

World tracking index

Open Doors has published the self-determined “ World Watch List ” annually since 2002 . The index is a list of 50 countries that shows the extent of persecution and disadvantage of Christians because of their beliefs. Previously, the ranking list has been prepared for internal purposes since 1993; The focus of the work of Open Doors should be aligned with the help of the index. According to his own statement, the World Persecution Index is intended to "draw attention to the situation of the beleaguered church and encourage the commitment of the world's most oppressed religious community to churches, media, politics and society".

The current index was published on January 15, 2020 and lists the following countries in the first ten positions. North Korea is again in first place.

World Tracking Index 2020
rank country
1 North Korea
2 Afghanistan
3 Somalia
4th Libya
5 Pakistan
6th Eritrea
7th Sudan
8th Yemen
9 Iran
10 India

To determine the world persecution index, various aspects of religious freedom are examined with the help of a questionnaire:

  • The official status of Christians; this includes B. the legal situation in the examined country.
  • The general situation of Christians; it will u. a. investigates specific cases of persecution.
  • State regulations
  • Other factors such as B .: Social situation for Christians, behavior of followers of the majority religion towards Christians or the situation of Christians in family associations.

The investigations pay special attention to the impact of the persecution on individuals. An attempt is made to grasp the reality of life of persecuted Christians by examining five areas of life:

  1. Private life: In connection with religious freedom, we speak of the forum internum , to which freedom of thought and conscience is assigned. The question here is whether Christians can live out their personal faith undisturbed at home. B. by praying or reading the Bible.
  2. Family life: It is examined whether the state or the family association tries to prevent a Christian within his family from practicing or passing on his faith.
  3. Social life: The personal freedom of movement and unhindered participation in social life is examined.
  4. Life in the state: This is about the question of whether Christians can freely participate in public life and in civil society.
  5. Church life: Here it is asked to what extent Christians can practice their faith in community.

Once again, a separate question is asked about the extent to which physical violence as well as social pressure occurs in the five areas mentioned.

Criticism of the methods and results of the World Persecution Index

In 2013 the Catholic German Bishops' Conference (DBK) and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) published their own ecumenical report on religious freedom of Christians worldwide , written by the human rights expert at the University of Kassel Theodor Rathgeber . This is based on surveys by the American Pew Research Center , which are based on data from the US State Department on the situation of religious freedom and on other international surveys. This report also comes to the conclusion that Christians are most strongly oppressed worldwide, but at the same time states “that as a rule restrictions do not apply specifically to Christians, but rather indicate a social milieu in which other religious communities as well as non-religious associations are comparable Wise are affected. ”When presenting the report, the Protestant Bishop Abroad Martin Schindehütte also addressed the estimates of oppression by Open Doors. The statement of around 100 million persecuted Christians at the time is considered dubious in the two large churches because it cannot be verified. The own report is more cautious about the number of victims. Schindehütte also identified a tendency among Open Doors to blame the oppression of Christians primarily on Islam. The world editor Matthias Kamann stated in his report on the publication of the Ecumenical Report on Religious Freedom of Christians Worldwide , referring to the included assessment of religious discrimination in Great Britain as “high” (on par with most of the Arab states and Belarus) and in Canada as "Little" (despite strict secularization in some provinces) that the two large churches did not succeed in resolving all issues with their study - too much "the subject of religious freedom and persecution of Christians was shaped by interpretations and interests".

On the occasion of the presentation of the World Tracking Index 2015, Matthias Kamann named the fuzzy data collection a disadvantage of the Open Doors survey method. The high number of an estimated 100 million persecuted Christians is only understandable if one is prepared to also call discrimination “persecution”. Uncertainties would also arise because it would remain unclear how many questionnaires would be used to ascertain the situation in the individual countries and on which sources the World Persecution Index was based. Also some endangerment of Christians should not be counted as "persecution". In Mexico, for example, all groups opposing the drug cartels are in danger of being attacked. That is not a specific situation for Christians.

In response to the criticism, u. a. the methodology according to Open Doors "designed as transparently as possible" and published. In addition, Open Doors has published an FAQ catalog and an explanation of the tracking term used. It states that sources can usually not be made public, as unadulterated statements about persecution usually result in sanctions for those responsible. In addition, non-religious factors that lead to persecution are pointed out in the country profiles, as well as, if necessary, persecution of other religions. However, as a Christian aid organization, Open Doors has the task of supporting persecuted Christians and pointing out the persecution of Christians; the focus on this topic therefore corresponds to the statutes of Open Doors.

To explain the broad understanding of the term “persecution”, Open Doors et al. a. to statements by the UN Refugee Agency and the EU Directive 2004/83 / EC as well as to the general fact that there is no (legal) definition of the term.

See also

literature

  • Brother Andrew, John and Elizabeth Sherril: The Smuggler of God. R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal, ISBN 3-417-20875-0
  • Brother Andrew, Verne Becker: The Order for Brother Andrew. R. Brockhaus Verlag, Wuppertal ISBN 3-417-20628-6
  • Brother Andrew, Al Janssen: light between the fronts. Brunnen Verlag, Giessen, ISBN 3-7655-1878-6

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ dg: World Persecution Index 2013: These countries hunt Christians. In: Focus Online . January 8, 2013, accessed October 14, 2018 .
  2. ↑ Vision and values ​​of Open Doors. Retrieved August 27, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Hasnain Kazim, Juliane von Mittelstaedt, Yassin Musharbash, Daniel Steinvorth, Volkhard Windfuhr and Bernhard Zand: CHRISTEN: Murderers and Martyrs . In: Der Spiegel . No. 2 , 2011 ( online ).
  4. ↑ Jürgen Krönig: Silent Suppression . In: The time of June 11, 2007.
  5. ↑ Open Doors: Our worldwide service. In: www.opendoors.de. Retrieved December 10, 2018 .
  6. ↑ a b Open Doors: How it all began
  7. ^ History of Open Doors
  8. ^ History ( Memento from May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on the Open Doors Switzerland website (accessed on December 23, 2010)
  9. ↑ Open Doors: Contact. In: www.opendoors.de. Open Doors, accessed November 26, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Help underground. Retrieved October 16, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Open Doors: Creed
  12. ↑ See for example: Leipziger Volkszeitung from January 6, 2011: Topthema. Christians in many countries besieged and persecuted ( Memento from February 12, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) (accessed on May 19, 2011)
  13. ↑ Open Doors: World Tracking Index 2018. Accessed January 19, 2018 .
  14. ↑ See the archived copy map ( memento from January 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ [1]
  16. ↑ a b c Archived copy ( Memento from January 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ^ A b c Matthias Kamann: Christians are most strongly oppressed worldwide. On welt.de, July 1, 2013
  18. ↑ Theodor Rathgeber: Ecumenical Report on Religious Freedom of Christians Worldwide, 2013. Published by the Secretariat of the German Bishops' Conference, Bonn, and the Church Office of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), Hanover, p. 53
  19. ↑ Matthias Kamann: Where the hatred of Christians is particularly great. On welt.de, January 7, 2015
  20. ↑ World Persecution Index: Frequently Asked Questions. Retrieved October 16, 2017 .
  21. ↑ When does Open Doors speak of persecution of Christians? Retrieved October 16, 2017 .
  22. ↑ https://www.opendoors.de/verhaben/laenderprofile ( Memento from January 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  23. ↑ United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Refworld | Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status under the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol on the Status of Refugees . In: Refworld . ( refworld.org [accessed October 16, 2017]).
  24. ↑ Directive 2004/83 / EC of the Council of the European Union . In: IGFM.de . ( igfm.de [accessed on October 16, 2017]).