Religious Freedom Ministerial: Andrew Brunson's daughter shares emotional testimony

The daughter of
imprisoned American pastor Andrew
Brunson gave an impassioned speech during
the first-ever State Department Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, choking up a
bit as she shared how her father feels
"blessed" to suffer for his faith in Christ.
Jacqueline (Brunson) Furnari was among
the family members of persecuted believers
who shared the stories of persecution that
their respective loved ones have faced at the
State Department headquarters Tuesday,
kicking off a much anticipated three-day
conference on international religious
freedom that the federal government has
never hosted before.
"I know my dad's character as only a
daughter can, and I know the charges
against him are absolutely absurd and
false," she told the hundreds gathered at the
Harry S. Truman Building, asking them for
prayers for her father's release. "He is not
an armed terrorist trying to overthrow any
government. He is a pastor who went to
Wheaton College and on to seminary and
got a Ph.D. in New Testament."
For the past two decades, the North
Carolina native has served the Turkish
people as a church leader in Izmir. But on
Oct. 7, 2016, Brunson was arrested and held
for over a year before finally being charged
with having connections to Kurdish
militants and the Islamic Gulen movement
that the government accuses of staging the
July 2016 coup attempt against President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's government.
The pastor has maintained his innocence
and pressure from the U.S. continues to
build as prominent lawmakers have said
that the prosecution lacks credible evidence
and have long called for his release.
Last week, Brunson appeared in court for
his third hearing. Despite hopes that the
court would release Brunson, he was again
remanded back to prison until his next
hearing in September.
"It is important to note that during these
three [hearing] dates, there has not been
one prosecution witness that has been able
to provide one shred of evidence that
support their ridiculous testimony — a fact
that my father pointed out during the May
7 trial date and a fact that none of the
judges on the panel seem to care about,"
Furnari said. "The head judge personally
told my father that all the prosecution's
witness testimony is simply being taken as
truth therefore there is no need for any
evidence."
As the testimonies of the prosecution's
secret witnesses appear to be based off of
second and third-hand information, United
States senators have equated Brunson's
imprisonment to an attempt by the fellow
NATO member nation at hostage diplomacy.
Erdoğan has even suggested himself that
Brunson's fate is tied to United States-based
Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Furnari, who grew up in Turkey and
graduated from the University of North
Carolina, told the crowd that her father has
missed two of the most important days of
her life because the Turkish government has
decided to use her dad as a political pawn.
Furnari got married in civil court in
February 2017, despite the fact that she had
picked out a wedding dress and was excited
to have the wedding of her dreams. But
because of her dad's imprisonment, she and
her husband have decided to hold off on
having a big church wedding until her
father is able to come home and walk her
down the aisle.