{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415077", "CatholicVote article on Smith's work to advance religious freedom throughout the globe'Harrowing stories of persecution turned Congressman Smith into a religious freedom champion'", "2025-11-05", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Elise Winland\n\nPublished November 5, 2025\n\nRep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., recently recalled what sparked his lifelong mission to defend religious freedom: reading \u201cTortured for Christ,\u201d Romanian pastor Richard Wurmbrand\u2019s account of underground Christians tortured under dictator Nicolae Ceau\u0219escu.\n\n\u201cI was moved to tears. And challenged to act,\u201d he said during remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference\u2019s (CPAC) Christian Persecution Summit Oct. 30.\n\nA Catholic and longtime human rights advocate, Smith said the encounter 45 years ago shaped his decades-long focus on defending the persecuted and advancing religious freedom worldwide.\n\n\u201cReligious persecution is festering and exploding around the world. What has been unconscionable for decades, centuries, has gotten worse,\u201d he warned.\n\nHe later added, \u201cWe must act. In Nigeria. In China. In scores of nations where the believer is unwelcome.\u201d\n\nCiting data from the Open Doors 2025 World Watch List, Smith noted that more than 380 million Christians around the world \u201csuffer high levels of persecution and discrimination for their faith.\u201d\n\nThe Catholic congressman recounted meeting persecuted Christians across the world \u2014 from underground pastors in Moscow to survivors of terrorist attacks in Nigeria.\n\nHe described his 1982 visit with the \u201cSiberian Seven,\u201d Pentecostal Christians who lived inside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow for five years, and his later encounter with Habila Adamu, a Nigerian Christian who survived a Boko Haram execution attempt.\n\n\u201cDragged from his home by Boko Haram terrorists, [Habila] was ordered to renounce his faith,\u201d Smith recalled. \u201cWith an AK-47 pressed to his face, he was asked, \u2018Are you ready to die as a Christian?\u2019 With amazing courage, Habila answered, \u2018Yes, I am ready to die as a Christian.\u2019\u201d\n\n\u201cThe terrorist pulled the trigger. A bullet ripped through Habila\u2019s face. He crumpled to the ground, left for dead,\u201d Smith continued. \u201cBy some miracle, he survived.\u201d\n\nSmith said Habila later traveled to Washington, D.C., to testify at a congressional hearing, urging lawmakers to \u201cdo everything you can to end this ruthless religious persecution,\u201d but first, to \u201cknow Christ.\u201d\n\n\u201cDelay is denial \u2014 and a death sentence to many,\u201d Smith said, calling for swift U.S. action to confront religious persecution, particularly in Nigeria and China.\n\nHe condemned the Biden administration\u2019s 2021 decision to remove Nigeria from the U.S. list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC), a designation the Trump administration restored this week to spotlight rampant anti-Christian violence by Islamist terrorists.\n\n\u201cThe systematic slaughter and abuse of Nigerian believers must stop,\u201d Smith said.\n\nHe cited testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi, Nigeria, who told Congress in March that \u201cMilitant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists. They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials.\u201d\n\nTurning to China, Smith condemned President Xi Jinping\u2019s campaign against religious minorities, pointing to the disappearance of Catholic Bishop Su Zhimin and the recent arrest of Zion Church pastor Jin \u201cEzra\u201d Mingri and several others.\n\nSmith met Bishop Su, a leader of the underground Catholic Church, during a 1994 visit to China.\n\n\u201cHe was beaten, starved, and tortured for his faith and spent some 40 years in prison,\u201d Smith said. \u201cYet, he prayed not just for the persecuted church, but for the conversion of those who hate, torture, and kill.\u201d\n\nBishop Su was later arrested again and has not been heard from since, Smith said.\n\n\u201cIn Xi Jinping\u2019s China, devotion that isn\u2019t Communist Party-approved is treated as a political problem to be solved by police,\u201d he said.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415077"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8130022324621677, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}