Gospel Gap: Eritrea

Eritrea

The research team I lead with Beyond & the 2414 Network is focused in part on documenting movements and where they work, so that we can help those same movements identify ’gaps’—places where the Gospel is not yet available. Movements generally start mobilizing teams to go into those places. While keeping the Regional Trends section above, I thought I might begin using the column to explore some of the “Gospel gaps.” These places are generally less than 2% Christian (or at least less than 8% Christian) and have little-to-no activity (whether movement-ish or otherwise). Where are the Gaps? Why are they gaps? What has formed gaps, what are the modern obstacles, what can be done? It might seem strange to start with Eritrea, but I think Eritrea is emblematic of the issues and nuances involved in trying to identify what’s a ”gap.”

Eritrea is a small country on the coast of the Horn of Africa. It has somewhere between 3 and 6 million people (no one’s ever done a census, but it’s not a huge population–certainly not over 10 million, but more than 1 million). It’s regionally strategic: people want access to its ports. It’s probably best known for its autocratic government and its stormy relationship with Ethiopia, from whom it gained independence in the 1990s. Less known is its religious profile. Eritrea is close to half Christian: the Atlas of Global Christianity estimated 47%, USCIRF 49%, Pew 63%. The rest are Muslim. Given that the country is nearly half Christian, why do some think of it as a gap?

Christianity, in fact, has a long history in the area. In the 300s, long before modern Ethiopia or Eritrea, the Kingdom of Aksum spanned the highlands. Its king, Ezana, became a Christian through the influence of Frumentius, who was ordained bishop by Athanasius of Alexandria. That tied Aksum’s church into the apostolic line traced through Mark the Evangelist (traditionally credited with founding the church at Alexandria), a heritage the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church still carries today.

Christianity in the highlands endured for centuries after him. The coastal lowlands, however, ended up in a different direction. In the 600s, a generation after Muhammad, some of his earliest followers fled persecution in Mecca, crossed the Red Sea, and found refuge–at the court of Aksum’s Christian king. (That act of hospitality is still remembered in Muslim tradition.) Over centuries, the lowlands and coastal areas turned Muslim, becoming an Islamic trade corridor woven into the commerce and kinship ties that today stretch from Sudan to Yemen and Saudi Arabia. The highlands were loosely tiedto Christian emperors over the Ethiopian plateau; the lowlands and coasts fell under the influence of the Ottomans and the Egyptians, and the occasional local ruler like the Beja and the Dahlaks.

In 1890, Italy gathered these various fragments into a single colonial unit, which it named Eritrea. Under their rule, Catholics got a foothold, and Lutheran work (which began in the 1860s) continued. Then, in 1941, the British seized Eritrea (as part of WW2) and administered it as a protectorate. In 1952, it was federated with Ethiopia, and was formally annexed to it in 1962.

Not everyone was happy with that arrangement. The Eritrean People’s Liberation Front fought a bitter 30-year guerrilla war. Finally, in 1993, a UN-observed referendum enabled independence, and Eritrea became a country with membership in the UN. The EPLF “rebranded” itself the  People’s Front for Democracy and Justice (PFDJ). The name is ironic–the leader, Isaias Afwerki, was unwilling to allow democracy or pluralism. The EPLF has kept the country in a permanent wartime posture: no elections, no democracy, indefinite national service, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, no justice, and deep suspicion of any independent organization or power.

This especially includes the churches. The state only recognizes four religious groups - Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, and Sunni Islam. Religious organizations must register, but only those four are allowed; all others are banned. Vibrant evangelical and Pentecostal movements had grown underground in the 1990s, but were outlawed after a 2002 crackdown (see, for example this detailed report, and this CSW report on the crackdown). Authorities detain unregistered Christians and have held and tortured hundreds of religious prisoners. Registered leaders were equally suspect, monitored, sometimes placed under house arrest. Just this month, multiple groups urged the release of seven pastors who have been imprisoned for 21 years. (As an aside, Muslims, too, are suspect, repressed, kept from any serious organizing.)

So, yes, there are Christians–an ancient Christianity that goes back to the earliest days of the church. And there are a lot of them, forming a significant part of the country. Sixty years ago, there was room for mission and evangelism, even in Muslim regions. As Christianity in Eritrea is obviously well over 5% of the population, and probably a bit over 2% evangelical, Joshua Project labels it as “partially reached.” But an advocate would look at Eritrea and see (1) the very low % Evangelical and (2) the illegal and strongly limited nature of Christianity, and say “it’s a gap.” Orthodox Christians would disagree with being so defined. And we should also note there is spiritual growth in the midst of persecution–both a “hard-pressed but still growing” house church movement (OW, 2010) and renewal movements within the Orthodox and Catholic streams.

Less argued as “gaps” in Eritrea are the lowland provinces that have very little visible Christian outreach–incl. Anseba, Gash-Barka, and the Northern and Southern Red Sea regions. Anseba is a mixed province, but the others have been strongly Muslim for centuries. The Red Sea regions in particular are important economically and politically for their commercial centers, borders with neighboring countries, and the Assab port. Reaching them is complicated.

First of course, the government restricts the activities of churches, and mission work isn’t allowed. But second, religion has fused with ethnicity: to be Tigre or Afar is to be Muslim, while to be Tigrinya in the highlands is to be Christian. To make this worse, during the Ethiopian period state power leaned heavily on the Orthodox Church. That deepened the divide between Muslims and Christians–church structures were seen as political and repressive. So memory, social pressure, and family loyalties have hardened the boundaries and made any Christian mission activity into the Muslim areas very problematic.

An interesting caveat to keep in mind, however - we’re talking about Eritrea as a place, but nearly a quarter of Eritreans live outside the country (Europe, North America, Sudan, Ethiopia). Their churches are much more vibrant and free to worship. But the regime taxes what they send home, and punishes the families of any diaspora Eritrean who they deem disloyal or out of line. But this diaspora provides a lifeline. And evangelizing Eritrean Muslims outside Eritrea is likely far easier.

The present security environment requires that anyone working there can’t say much if anything about work being done–especially not for a newsletter which can be easily forwarded. But we could surmise anyone working in Eritrea will face significant risk and threats. Still, even if the government were to fall today, and a new democratic government were to rise tomorrow, work of any sort amongst Muslims would remain difficult given the societal barriers. Pursuing any work in these gaps will require a lot of quiet networking, listening, and relationship building to find real opportunities for ministry. The gaps may in fact remain stubborn challenges for years, and even decades.