U.S. State Department Travel Bans Violate Religious Rights
a truly free citizenry is free to travel, but the U.S. restricts us from freely traveling
What comes to mind when you think of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, aka North Korea?
Something like this, right?
“The brain reacts more strongly to stimuli it deems negative.”
-Ohio State University psychologist John T. Cacioppo,
Ph.D.
Many are familiar with the adage, “bad news sells.” Unfortunately this fact is detrimental in many ways to a society’s cohesion and stability, as well as our perceptions of others. As Psychologist, John T. Cacioppo Ph.D., says in his study (linked above), “there is a greater surge in electrical activity (to stimuli it deems negative). Thus, our attitudes are more heavily influenced by downbeat news than good news.”
Ever heard positive coverage on the DPRK?
Marketers have long known and appealed to this stimulus of negativity to drive sales, so the incentive becomes natural then to utilize it for financial gain. This is evident in the hyper polarizing news coverage of our day to arouse engagement and distain among and between viewers. This is called an engagement funnel in marketing terms intentionally crafted to lead you towards sales via clicks, commenting, and reposting. The viewers aren’t passive in this reality but are actually clientele, albeit often unknowingly.
While people are getting their dopamine fix from bad, demoralizing, satanic celebrations of hedonism like the Grammy’s, or race baiting headlines, normal people get caught in the fallout of society this strategy causes. This is because unlike the affluent such as performers and entertainers, we don’t have the luxury to play dress-up in ballon suits as the satanic worshipping Grammy performer, Sam Smith, does. We’re working to provide for our families and protecting our kids from such depravity.
The hedonistic foundation on which the Western secular world currently slouches is doomed for failure because it fights against what is right and cannot stand as it is built upon divisiveness. Be sure, the foundation of the Western secular world is as firm as a roasted marshmallow on a graham cracker. It is oozing into oblivion without restraint. What these sycophants of hedonism don’t see is that while their lifestyles lead them further into depravity they are at the same time helping stimulate a hunger for holy righteousness from those not being led by its pied pipers.
It will collapse and is collapsing.
When asked earlier what comes to mind when you think of the DPRK, the images that came to your mind were likely those of marching soldiers and missiles. This is understandable if your only exposure to this country is mainstream media who exclusively uses pictures of military parades, their leader, Kim Jong Un, and firing missiles (all images used for dramatic, divisive effect). But these images are not the full picture of those that live there. The DPRK has families composed of kids, parents, and grandparents who like many of us in the West, celebrate birthdays and love one another.
Fact.
We know this superficially as a society, but we don’t know this really. These families exist merely in concept to the rest of the world. If you heard that Koreans in the DPRK can and have experienced joy and happiness, you wouldn’t have an image or context to comprehend this truth because you haven’t been shown them.
But this is the truth.
Of course, the country has much to do as it relates to freedom and liberty but the point here is that not everyone in the country is what it is portrayed to the world as by our media. Good news doesn’t sell, we know this but still allow misinformed and incomplete coverage form our perceptions. The country is primarily composed of people, like us, working to make ends meet for ourselves, families, and friends.
To be a peacemaker is boring to pop culture and is primarily due to a misunderstanding of what a peacemaker actually does and doesn’t do. Peacemaking in reality is a gritty, hands-on process only possible by being engaged and invested in a culture with their boots on the ground. While it might not be so Instagram worthy, it is far more important than viral posts because it is contributing to lasting change that might not even be fully realized in our lifetimes but effect the generations to follow.
Peacemakers call out inhumane acts and immorality by working to make changes from the inside-out. This process is done successfully only by turning the other cheek when attacked in word or deed in similar fashion to the likes of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther Kind Jr., and the author of the “turn the other cheek” lifestyle, Jesus Christ, who we know changed the world for the unforeseeable future of mankind by modeling this way of life.
As of the writing of this article revivals seemed to have started to break out in the U.S. and South America. Largely covered is the Asbury University revival now approaching over a week without stopping.
U.S. State Department Travel Bans On Americans Who Are Christians Are Religious Rights Violations
Jesus, who actually quoted the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, when saying “turn the other cheek” used this countercultural concept to turn the world on its head and model that God has always been an advocate for mercy and peace over hate as a strategy of changing the world for the better.
Due to our human nature being what it is, attracted to negativity like a moth to a flame, and peacemaking by its very nature being positive works against our nature in what we are stimulated by psychologically. In a very real sense we have to fight against ourselves in order to bring goodness and peace into the world, which includes places like the DPRK, as well as our distressed neighbor across the street.
Peacemaking efforts on the Korean Peninsula isn’t headline grabbing material because it is slow and unassuming. Should you search online for recent news about Korea in general, you’ll see headlines that are exclusively documenting negative stories.
North Korea warns of ‘overwhelming nuclear force’ to counter U.S. (NBC headline)
N. Korean leader orders military to improve war readiness (Seattle Times headline)
South Korea posts the worst trade deficit in its history (CNBC headline)
9 missing after fishing boat capsizes in South Korea (South China Morning Post headline)
Record Breaking 2022 For North Korea Crypto Theft - UN Report (LiveMint headline)
Bad, negative news after bad, negative news. This coverage naturally forms your perception of what ALL North Koreans are like, despite it being misinformed. The good stories and good people here are never shared because it won’t engaged the masses like the bad news does. But we need to engage our hearts for true, peaceful, lasting change.
The natural question then is, who gains from preventing the DPRK from opening to the world and from restricting people such as Americans from visiting there?
It’s not the DPRK citizens who benefit from these restrictions and violations of human rights. It’s media and military arms suppliers, naturally, that financially gain from keeping tensions alive on the Korean Peninsula. Governments have now had pushing 100 years to officially cease the Korean War (1950-53). It’s long past time to try a different strategy.
The United States spent more than $34 billion to maintain military presences in Japan and South Korea between 2016 and 2019
Maybe try giving humanitarian and religious organizations with decades of experience in peace efforts in the DPRK half of the above mentioned amount and see what happens, that is if the U.S. government truly wants to see peace throughout the Korean Peninsula.
The current travel ban the U.S. State Department has imposed on Americans going to the DPRK (among other countries) imposed in 2017 not only has negatively impacted those most in need it is also a violation of our human rights to freely travel as citizens of the U.S. More so this violation of human rights is a violation of religious rights for those of us who are Christians that have a 2000 year history of going to all nations as a form of worship to God.
We have the right, and more importantly the commission, to travel the world.
We have the right to provide for those in need despite what country they reside.
We have the right to be peacemakers.
We have the right to show our love for God by loving our enemies.
We have the right to strive for positive change by cultural engagement requiring traveling and living any and every where in the world.
We call on the government of the United States, our representative government, to lift all travel bans on American citizens, particularly on Christians who hold citizenship in the United States as it is a violation of our religious rights to go to all nations as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, commanded us to do.
What can you do?
call your representatives (Senators & Congressmen) and tell them the travel ban imposed on us, U.S. citizens, violates our religious rights, and as such must be immediately entirely lifted and nullified
educate others of this religious rights violation
support us, current peacemakers, here on the Korean Peninsula and share with others about this opportunity to play a key role in bringing peace in the Far East
Why? Why care about peace throughout the Korean Peninsula?
Many reasons, but one that applies to everyone is that peace here on the Korean Peninsula means peace for those in Western countries. Think about it, it doesn’t take too long to see the ramifications here if a hot war breaks out. China is allied to the DPRK, Japan is allied with the U.S. This should be enough to encourage all of us to be peace advocates, but there are many other smaller allies for either side that add up to catastrophic consequences should a cold war go hot.
So let’s advocate peace wherever in the world we are and let’s remind our government in the U.S. we have the unalienable religious right to travel to all nations.
Will you support peace making efforts on the Korean Peninsula?
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