News from Tom and Leslie Johnson

Special Request

We would like your help with an unusual need. Last year, before the virus interrupted international travel, I (Tom) visited a refugee center in another country to interview a family who had converted to Christianity from Islam. They were fleeing for their lives because of a realistic possibility they would be forced to return to their country of origin to be executed for apostacy. Since then, I have been looking for a place for them to go. It looks like a door has just opened for them in another country, where they could move legally and start back into the normal things Christian families like to do: jobs, home, church, school, friends, hobbies, etc.

We just started a budget for their transition. The current estimate is about $23,000 (USD). This is budget is not appropriate for Global Scholars, but the deacons of our church in North Carolina have offered to oversee donations.

Please pray for this family, and please consider making a donation to support their transition. We hope to send you info on how to make donations within several days.

New Books

Several nights ago, I was exhausted after a Zoom went late into the evening, but I was tremendously grateful to have heard in person, from a top Indonesian Muslim thinker, the painful process their team went through when they assessed the atrocities committed by ISIS against Christians in 2014. A technician had assembled 90 minutes of video filmed by ISIS while they were proudly committing crimes against humanity. All the Indonesian Muslims watching the film understood Arabic; and they were sickened by what had become of their religion. Some screamed aloud in anguish during the showing. It is these people about whom I wrote my recent book, Humanitarian Islam, Evangelical Christianity, and the Clash of Civilizations. (Click for a free download.)

As soon as this book was released online, I sent a PDF of the book, which includes long explanations of important themes in Protestant theology and ethics, to our Muslim counterparts. Some of them read it almost immediately; within a few days after publication, they thanked me for describing them and their views accurately. They are accustomed to inaccurate or even slanderous descriptions of Islam coming from Christians.

With my permission they placed my book on their website, along with a very nice communique. They wrote, “The world’s largest Protestant organization has endorsed the Humanitarian Islam movement as an essential vehicle for peacefully and definitively resolving ‘the Muslim-Christian clash of civilizations, which started almost 1,500 years ago. ‘On the day that Pope Francis commenced an historic papal visit to Iraq — which included a meeting with the world’s preeminent Shi‘ite spiritual leader and a tour of Mosul, until recently a stronghold of the defeated ISIS caliphate — the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Theological Commission published Humanitarian Islam, Evangelical Christianity, and the Clash of Civilizations.” Until very recently I could not have imagined that the world’s largest Muslim organization would promote a book by a Protestant theologian. PTL!

In February 1994, Leslie and I, with our three children, moved to the former Soviet Union, where I was beginning work as a visiting professor of philosophy at a dissident university. Soon I was lecturing on human rights in my classes, as well as for conferences of professors. This forced me to dive more deeply into our theological and philosophical foundations. This deep dive led to a number of books, and recently my third book on the topic of human rights theory was published. For the cover, Leslie suggested a picture of the people standing on the Berlin Wall at the end of communism. I was very pleased that a Muslim scholar wrote a foreword, and a Czech Protestant theologian wrote an appendix about my theory of human rights. The Theological Commission of the WEA has made this book available as a free download on our websites, available here.

My work representing the WEA in religious freedom efforts of the US State Department is continuing. I do not know if the change at the White House will have a large influence. This means that I am participating in Zoom meetings with religious leaders and diplomats from several countries. Sometimes I can give a speech. Two such speeches are available online: Understanding Religious Persecution and Religious Communities as Good Neighbors.

Leslie’s Update

February and March have been busy months and the rest of the Spring looks to be full.

ACSI
In early March, I was a part of the ACSI Europe team that helped put on a virtual conference in partnership with ECCEN (European Conference for Christian Education in the Netherlands). The bi-annual conference is called the International Educational Leadership Conference and seeks to support and strengthen Christian school leaders. There were 272 people from 46 different countries who joined us in the conference. The Lord be praised!

Now our ACSI Europe colleagues will start looking forward to the Student Leadership Conference held in September each year. We are praying it can be face-to-face this year. Last year’s was online. Europe is currently quite locked down, so we just do not know at this point.
In April, I will be leading an accreditation team for a “virtual” accreditation “visit” of a Christian international school. It is a lot of work for the school and the team, but it strengthens the school and the visiting team members learn a lot. Pray I have wisdom as I help the team and school navigate through a virtual visit.

After that accreditation, I will return to my series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.” I have been asked to develop an online version of it for ACSI’s Pre-Field Orientation (PFO) that is entirely online now. Pray for me to have wisdom to make this helpful for teachers so that children grow in their cultural sensitivity.

ICCM Cohort
I am still learning and growing through a cohort connected with the Institute of Cross-Cultural Mission (ICCM). Even as I write this, I am involved in a “virtual” retreat. It has been a great experience studying and growing in three pillar areas: theology of unity and diversity, intercultural competence, and leadership competence. Pray for me to manage time well so I can continue to delve into books and webinars about these topics.

Praises

We thank the Lord for:

• Tom’s opportunity to coordinate a team of Evangelicals and Indonesian Muslims.
• Opportunities for Tom to advise the State Department.
• Leslie’s opportunity to continue working with her ACSI EU and Global colleagues to strengthen Christian teachers, administrators, and schools.
• Leslie’s opportunity to study theology and intercultural competence to contextualize her training and experience to the US setting.
• Students being taught and discipled in Christian schools around the world, even when school has been online.
• Tom and Leslie have both received both Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations, as have Aimee and her husband (with whom we live).

Prayers

Please join us in praying for:

• For the Lord’s purposes for COVID-19 to be accomplished around the world and that he would end it. Soon. Lord willing, by the end of 2021.
• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world and safe places for them to go.
• Our work from home to be encouraging and helpful locally and from afar.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. They are working on a jointly authored book.
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• Tom as he considers which books to write next.
• Wisdom for Leslie as she develops her series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.”
• ACSI Europe and ACSI Global to have an impact through conferences for administrators, teachers, and students around the world whose education has suffered because of COVID-19 and virtual learning.
• For Christians around the world to be strengthened to serve God and others in their communities, whether those “others” are different in beliefs, color of skin, nationalities, etc.
• Specifically, for Spring 2021: The refugee family in our lives will need tremendous courage to face huge challenges. They report feeling overwhelmed with discouragement.

Thank you for your faithful prayer for us as well as your financial gifts that allow us to do the work He has called us to.

2020 in Review, Tom

My year began, effectively on Jan 13, with a trip to Rome for meetings organized by the US State Department at the Vatican about religious persecution. There were six Muslim, six Jewish, and six Christian representatives, along with diplomats and State Dept staff. Among the Christians there were two Catholics, two Orthodox, and two Protestants (including me for the World Evangelical Alliance). One of the evenings we met with the Pope for informal discussion.

While in Rome, I also met with my official counterpart at the Vatican and had long discussions with two of the Muslim leaders who strongly support religious freedom for all. This led to many online meetings throughout 2020 with religious and governmental leaders, while spending the rest of my time researching and writing on themes surrounding religious freedom and human rights. Prior to this past year I had friendly contact with the State Department office of religious freedom, but by midyear they were calling me a couple times per week with questions, since they do not have their own religious scholars.

The group that met in Rome

In mid-2020 I published a research article on an important type of Islam, what is now called “Humanitarian Islam,” in the Evangelical Review of Theology. This included a

comparison and contrast with normal Protestant views on many topics, which led to a substantial change in my relationship with the leaders of this Muslim movement. They wrote to thank me for the article and then, with our permission, they republished my article three or four times in Muslim publications. Imagine that! Muslims republishing what I wrote about Christianity! It felt like they began to trust me; I think I had earned their trust by investing a lot of study into honestly understanding their views. There is now a book length version of this study in press, and I am leading the WEA team of a religious freedom joint working group we have formed with this group of Muslims. We have held numerous meetings and have plans developing.

Just a couple days ago I received the proof of my next book on human rights, and a Muslim scholar from this group wrote a nice foreword to the book. Until recently I would not have imagined that a Muslim theologian would participate in publishing a Christian book on human rights.

My aid to the US State Dept has developed into distinct programs, leading to different online conferences about religious freedom in which they have asked me to speak. In December I gave a speech for about 20 diplomats (mostly American) and 50 religious leaders from all sorts of religions from around the world. In January 2021, a year after the Rome meetings, I was one of four speakers (with a Muslim, a Jew, and a Buddhist) for a conference of diplomats from about 25 countries. In every speech I must earn the right to be heard by means of telling them something relevant they have not heard before, so that I can weave part of the biblical message into the speech as an organic part. While consulting on religious freedom, I cannot stop being a minister of God’s Word.

The group in Rome with Pope Francis

2020 in Review, Leslie

Because of COVID-19, I had assumed the year would go more slowly, that I would be bored, that maybe, just maybe, I would get caught up on some things. Did that happen? Nope. 2020 went by in a blur in spite of COVID-19.  How did that happen? Well, the Lord brought my way a lot of good things to do:

January and February, pre-COVID, I was preparing workshops for schools and two conferences for which I was speaking in March/early April.

Though I was able to talk to the students at a Christian school in Rotterdam as planned, all of my other engagements and school visits were cancelled by the end of the second week of March. By that time, countries all over Europe were closing their borders and we were concerned we would get stuck in Europe. So we prayed and worked and managed to get out of the Czech Republic just in time before their borders closed.

Once we were back on US soil, we chose to self-isolate for two weeks before going home to our daughter, who was expecting, and our grandson. Our son-in-law was deployed at the time. Those two weeks were a bit of a respite and rest, for which I am thankful.

In April, we were looking forward to the birth of the newest grandchild and trying to settle back into routine. For me, the question now hung over my head – now what?

May and June were busy with a newborn in the house. How can one have routine then?!? And of course, for Americans, the end of May showed us the dark side of our US culture with the death of George Floyd and the protests and violence that followed. As things heated up about that, I started praying more earnestly: Lord, show me how I can contextualize all my work in cultural intelligence to the US cultural tensions. How can I help?

By praying and reading and watching webinars about race and education and others, I sensed the Lord leading me to apply for a three-year cohort program that focuses on unity and diversity, intercultural competence, and leadership competence. In August, I was accepted into that program and have been full-on busy ever since. I am reading, watching webinars, and working on developing a practicum.

And all that on top of my ACSI Europe meetings with colleagues there that continue once or twice a week, being involved in planning and participating in ACSI EU Student Leadership Conference in September, and ACSI Accreditation. Oh, and babysitting two days a week for my daughter. So nope, not bored.

However, I am humbled and thankful for the Lord’s gift of health and energy, as well as the opportunity to serve in Christian education and learn through the cohort.

 

     

ZOOM Calls and More ZOOM Calls

Would you like to ZOOM with us?

Until travel can happen again, we are available to meet with missions committees and/or Sunday school classes or even church services using Zoom or other platforms. We are also each available for speaking engagements via webinars. Do you need a speaker for an event, church retreat, or mission conference Feel free to invite Tom and/or Leslie to come to your organization. Contact Leslie at prgjohnson@gmail.com to organize engagement for either of us.

2020 Publications and Websites

Tom’s website

https://thomaskjohnson.academia.edu/

Leslie’s website

www.lesliepjohnson.com

After 43 years as a print journal, the Evangelical Review of Theology is online. It is one of the major publications of the WEA for which Tom has been both writing and helping with planning for many years. We now have a subscription form for the online publications of the World Evangelical Alliance. This includes both Theological News and the Evangelical Review of Theology for which Tom is on the editorial team.

Praises as we look back at 2020:

We thank the Lord for:

• Overall, continued good health for both of us.
• We are particularly thankful that the Lord moved us to the US to be with family before COVID-19 hit. There is something special and worth thanking the Lord for, to be with family.

• Tom’s opportunity to participate in high level discussions about religious freedom at the Vatican in January.

• Leslie’s opportunity to speak to students in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in March.
• Safe return from Europe back in March, as well as no contact with the COVID-19 virus in our travels.
• The project Komenksy 2020, celebrating the Christian life and teaching of Jan Amos Komenksy (Comenius), was launched in public schools, libraries, and churches across the Czech Republic in 2020, 350 years after his death.
• Tom’s opportunity to write about Muslims who support freedom of religion.
• Tom’s opportunity to coordinate a team of Evangelicals and Indonesian Muslims.
• Opportunities for Tom to advise the State Department.
• Leslie’s opportunity to study theology and intercultural competence to contextualize her training and experience to the US setting.
• Students being taught and discipled in Christian schools around the world, even when school has been online.

Prayers for 2021:  Please join us in praying for:

• For the Lord’s purposes for COVID-19 to be accomplished around the world and that he would end it. Soon. Lord willing, by the end of 2021.

• Creative ideas to help persecuted Christians around the world and safe places for them to go.
• Our work from home to be encouraging and helpful locally and from afar.
• Continued wisdom for Tom as he (on behalf of the WEA) engages the world’s largest Muslim group about religious freedom. What are the next steps? He is reading constantly.
• Wise next steps for WEA-Vatican relations.
• Tom as he considers which books to write next.
• Wisdom for Leslie as she develops her series of workshops on “Teaching with Cultural Intelligence.”
• ACSI Europe and ACSI Global to have an impact through conferences for administrators, teachers, and students around the world whose education has suffered because of COVID-19 and virtual learning.
• For Christians around the world to be strengthened to serve God and others in their communities, whether those “others” are different in beliefs, color of skin, nationalities, etc.