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Dominican Republic Persecutes Christians

THE Dominican Republic claims to be a Christian nation. She claims to be a freedom-loving republic. She is a member of the United Nations. Notwithstanding, she has distinguished herself as the first so-called Christian nation in peacetime to officially outlaw her devout Christian citizens and deny them the right to worship God as commanded in his Word, the Bible.

This republic lies between Cuba and Puerto Rico and occupies the eastern two-thirds of the second-largest island in the Caribbean. It was established in 1844, and in 1929 a new constitution was proclaimed, with certain modifications added in 1934 and 1942. This constitution has provisions similar to those contained in the American Bill of Rights for the protection of the individual’s freedom against oppression by the state.

Title II, Section 1, of the constitution deals with Individual Rights, and says, in paragraphs 3 and 5, that people may enjoy “freedom of conscience and of worship, without other limitation than the respect due to public order and good customs”. Also, that the people have “the right to express thought without subjection to previous censorship”, the only limitation in this regard being: “The law shall establish sanctions applicable to those who attack the honor of individuals, the social order, or the public peace.”

It was into such a republic that the Watch Tower Society sent its first missionaries in April of 1945. Early in June of that year two additional missionaries were sent, and on the 26th of that month the Dominican Republic signed the Charter of the United Nations. At that time not one person aside from these graduates of the Watchtower Bible School of Gilead was active in preaching the gospel of God’s kingdom as commanded by Christ. (Matt. 24:14; 28:19, 20) By the end of 1946 there were 18 missionaries in the country in addition to 5 local publishers, and as they continued to preach many more people heard. And not only did they hear, they attended the free Bible meetings of Jehovah’s witnesses; they believed; they were baptized; and they themselves began preaching the good news to others, until this year, in the month of May, there were 238 active ministers of the gospel in the Dominican Republic, in addition to the American missionaries, and 21 of these Dominicans are full-time pioneer workers.

This progress in pure worship, however, was not made without interference and persecution. In the city of San Francisco de Macorís Catholic opposition showed itself against the good work done by four female missionaries. Teen-agers pestered the girls with a song, the theme of which was, ‘Get out, you Protestants, we are Catholics.’ The sign on the Kingdom Hall was torn down. The Bible educational work became more difficult in certain parts of the town as the girls carried on under showers of sticks and stones.

In the city of Santiago the downtown streets were littered with thousands of handbills, 10 by 12 inches in size, downing the Watchtower and Awake! magazines, and warning Catholics to have nothing to do with Jehovah’s witnesses. A few weeks later a similar handbill was circulated falsely linking Jehovah’s witnesses with communism.

Official civil pressure is brought on the people who study the Bible with Jehovah’s witnesses, and some are called down to the army fort and warned to discontinue their Christian study. In San Cristobal one of the witnesses is a pharmacist. One night someone tore down the Kingdom Hall sign from the front of his house. Police came the next day and warned him to quit his preaching or suffer the consequence of mob action, but the pharmacist continued his God-commanded preaching. Next, his gasoline ration tickets were taken away. Still he faithfully served Jehovah God. Finally, he was called for military service, in spite of the fact that he is 40 years of age and the law says that those between 35 and 55 are to be called only in time of war. Other persons in this city who study the Bible with the witnesses have lost their jobs.

In the capital city, Ciudad Trujillo, more than 25 of Jehovah’s witnesses are in prison and many more have lost secular employment. Anyone who studies the Bible with one of Jehovah’s witnesses is shortly thereafter visited by a police officer with the familiar warning. The witnesses are followed wherever they go.

U. N. VOWS BROKEN

Through it all Jehovah’s witnesses have continued their peaceful work of visiting the people with the comforting message of hope from the Bible. After all, the Dominican Republic is a charter member of the United Nations and hence these distressing conditions should be corrected. Under its “Purposes and Principles”, set forth in Chapter I, Article 1, this Charter declares that its signatory powers, and the Dominican Republic is one of them, are determined to achieve international co-operation “in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion”.

Consequently, the Dominican Republic has made a most solemn and forthright pledge guaranteeing that man’s fundamental and basic freedom to worship the Almighty God, whose name alone is Jehovah, will be upheld, respected and protected in that land. It was, therefore, shocking news to hear that on June 21, 1950, the government issued a decree dissolving the Christian organization of Jehovah’s witnesses, placing their preaching work under ban, and forbidding them to assemble together for Bible study as the Scriptures command. (Heb. 10:25) This arbitrary action was not taken because these innocent Christians upset “public order and good customs”, or because they attacked the honor of individuals, the social order, or the public peace.

Oh, yes, the charge of “public disorder” is laid against the witnesses, but you judge for yourself how false it is. A recent report in this regard tells how seven of Jehovah’s witnesses were thrown into prison. Then four other persons, as Jesus’ parable says, went to visit the Lord’s witnesses that were in prison. (Matt. 25:31-46) The four in turn were locked up, held incommunicado, and three of them were severely beaten. One was clubbed with a pistol, his lip cut and a gash inflicted behind his ear. Now, to add insult to injury, these innocent people were charged with “public disorder”.

This brutal and wicked persecution of innocent Christians by public officials in the capital city of Ciudad Trujillo was particularly manifest in the case of Lucia Pozo. Lucia had arranged to bathe at a friend’s home on Mella Avenue the day before she expected to leave for New York and the international convention of Jehovah’s witnesses at Yankee Stadium. She took a towel and soap and her most prized possession, her Bible, but on the way was stopped by the police, who commanded: ‘Come with us.’

To the police station, to the jail, to the army fort, and finally to the Prison for Women she was taken. All manner of threats, ridicule and false accusations were hurled at her. In one office she was left alone with a policeman, who attempted to seduce her. In the prison she was thrown in among degenerate prostitutes, who also tried to seduce her. One of her tormentors was none other than the prosecuting attorney, one named Rijos.

All of this happened on Friday night. Sunday, the customary visiting day, her friends were turned back at the gate. Strict orders had been given by the chief of police, Abreu, that no one, absolutely no one, was to see Lucia. Until given a “trial”, ten days after her arrest, she was held incommunicado.

The “trial” was a kangaroo affair, a ridiculous farce from start to finish. The charge was read; no witnesses were produced, not even the arresting officer; Lucia was asked if she had anything to say; she was denied the opportunity to produce witnesses to prove she was guiltless; the accusation was reread; the prosecuting attorney urged that the full penalty of the law be inflicted; and the judge affirmed the recommendation and sentenced the poor innocent girl to three months in prison and $100 fine—all for being caught on the street with a towel, soap and a Bible!

THEY SHALL FIGHT BUT NOT PREVAIL

Are the honored documents of the United Nations and the Constitution of the Dominican Republic no more than scraps of paper? Evidently these responsible officials consider them just that. But why? Whose interests are they trying to serve? Certainly not the interests of their loyal, God-fearing, freedom-loving citizens. The truth of the matter, and the answer to the question, lies in the fact that the Dominican Republic is a priest-ridden, church-and-state dictatorship, as intolerant toward all who refuse to bow the knee to Rome as is Franco’s regime in Spain. Before the ban the Roman Catholic Hierarchy preached against God’s witnesses, stirred up Catholic action, and circulated false charges against them. With little difficulty this clerical wrath was translated into civil action and the cruel boots of the state police were used to trample underfoot the basic freedom of worship of God as taught and commanded by Christ, and as presumably guaranteed by the Dominican constitution and the Charter of the United Nations.

Official Dominicans should take notice what history teaches. Christ was nailed to the torture stake and his disciples after him were martyred. Said Jesus: “If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” (John 15:20) But such persecution did not stop the preaching of the gospel. As then, so now, those who fight against God’s witnesses are actually fighting against God and can expect only defeat in the end. (Acts 5:39) Jehovah’s witnesses know that it is better to obey Jehovah even if persecuted and killed by men than to disobey God and become slaves of men doomed to eternal death.—Matt. 10:24-28.

So Jehovah’s faithful Christian witnesses in the Dominican Republic, knowing that, in obedience to God rather than men, they cannot but speak the things they have learned in the Bible, will continue to preach, either inside or outside of prison, either underground or publicly. (Acts 4:19, 20; 5:29) Their implicit trust is in the great Jehovah God, who declares: “They shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, saith Jehovah, to deliver thee.”—Jer. 1:19, AS.