(The Washington Post)
The first place Andrew Brunson went after he was released from imprisonment in Turkey was the White House, where he knelt on the floor of the Oval Office, put his hand on President Trump’s shoulder and prayed. Nearly four months later, the American pastor — who claimed he was unfairly arrested in Turkey because of his religious beliefs — is still seeking to use the story of his ordeal as a starting point for advocacy.
He’s rapidly writing a book, which he says will be published in the fall. He and his wife, Norine Brunson, attended Tuesday night’s State of the Union address. (“Fun!” he said with a grin Wednesday morning, listing the Supreme Court justices and the senators he saw; “A lifetime opportunity,” Norine Brunson chimed in.) On Wednesday, addressing a room packed with people in the bowels of the Capitol, he urged a few members of Congress, who came to shake his hand, and a larger group of congressional staffers to think more broadly of prisoners who remain in Turkish jails.
Brunson became a cause celebre during his imprisonment, in part because he was embraced by evangelical Christian leaders, who are close to the ear of Trump and Vice President Pence. On Wednesday, the former evangelical missionary said he believes the plight of Christians in Turkey is important — other missionaries have been deported, and the Turkish government’s claim that Brunson was trying to undermine the state has cast aspersions on all Christians in the mostly Muslim nation.
But Brunson, who maintains that he had no ties to political groups and was just the pastor of a local church who lived in Turkey for more than two decades, urged congressional staff to think beyond the sympathy toward a Christian that motivated some to work on his behalf. “There’s a lot of bad stuff happening in Turkey right now, most of it not toward Christians but toward people who are accused of supporting Fethullah Gulen,” he said, naming the exiled Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of plotting against him. Read more