Nerren, pastor of the nondenominational International House of Prayer in Shelbyville, Tennessee, remains jailed in India. Image: ACLJ
Bryan Nerren’s family and congregation desperately want him home for Christmas, but the Tennessee pastor hasn’t been allowed to leave India for the past two months.
Now, Save the Persecuted Christians (STPC), which advocates on behalf of hundreds of millions of Christians facing heavy persecution worldwide, is calling on President Donald Trump to help bring Pastor Nerren home.
The International House of Prayer Ministries leader had his passport taken away and a travel ban placed on him after traveling to India in early October for a missionary conference. According to NewsChannel 5 in Tennessee, Nerren was stopped in New Delhi due to the money he was carrying to support the trip and other ministers.
“Nerren was eventually cleared by the customs agent and allowed to fly to his next destination without the proper documents for the funds,” the station reported. “Once he landed, he was arrested for violating the Foreign Exchange Management Act. His attorney claimed he was arrested because of his faith.”
“Bryan Nerren is still being held in India due to unexplained delays affecting his case,” said Save the Persecuted Christians Executive Director Dede Laugesen. “Kept from returning to America on spurious charges, this American pastor has already missed Thanksgiving with his wife and disabled daughter. We call on President Trump to pressure India to let Pastor Nerren return home by Christmas.”
The American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) is working on behalf of Pastor Nerren and says he has been targeted, detained and harassed for his Christian faith. An ACLJ petition of support for Nerren has garnered over 109,000 signatures.
“His wife and family are heartbroken without him,” ACLJ reports. “He cannot be there for his special needs daughter who requires constant care. He must be allowed to come home to his wife, children and grandchildren in Tennessee.”
The mission of Save the Persecuted Christians is to save lives and save souls by disseminating actionable information about the magnitude of the persecution taking place globally and by mobilizing concerned Americans for the purpose of disincentivizing further attacks on those who follow Jesus.
With so much of the world’s Christian population being imprisoned and/or harassed for their beliefs, like American Pastor Bryan Nerren, the need has never been greater for the sort of grassroots campaign STPC’s SaveUs Movement is working to foster. Its efforts are modeled after a miraculously successful one that helped free another population suffering from heavy persecution—Soviet Jews—by penalizing those in the Kremlin responsible for such repression. Through this movement, Save the Persecuted Christians endeavors to provide American policymakers with the popular support they need to effect real change worldwide and alleviate systemically the suffering being experienced by so many of those following Christ.