WASHINGTON, D.C.-It was a long, hard struggle, and, as in all political battles, there were compromises along the way. Those in the U.S. Congress championing the rights of persecuted Christians worldwide did not get everything they wanted with the Religious Freedom Act. In the end, just days before Congress concluded its pre-election business in October, the bill was passed by both Senate and House and awaited the signature that President Clinton promised to give it.

The bill was intended by its original sponsors, Republican Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia and Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, to put teeth into American government disapproval of foreign countries that persecute Christians. It was hoped that mandatory economic sanctions could be ordered against some of the more than 50 countries that engage in persecution of Christian believers.

Those provisions were cut from the bill to ensure its passage, yet the bill's supporters nevertheless gained much.

For one thing, the U. S. Department of State will now have to publish an annual report of the state of religious freedom worldwide. In addition, there will be an independent commission conducting its own review and reporting to Congress.

For many of us, the most exciting aspects of the bill that was passed were the bipartisan nature of the effort and the support from key members of the American Jewish community. It was the passion of Wolf, a deeply committed Christian, that kept the bill alive in the House for most of its two-year struggle. It was the political support and skills of a Democrat who is Jewish, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, that shepherded it through the Senate.

Lieberman understood that freedom from persecution includes freedom of conscience, assembly and of conversion from one faith to another. House members Chris Smith, R-N.J.; Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; and Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y.; with Senators Don Nickles, R-Okla., and Trent Lott, R-Miss., also played a role.

Outside the Congress, the effort to protect Christians brought together men and organizations as different from one another as Chuck Colson of Prison Fellowship, the (Jewish) Anti-Defamation League, the National Council of Catholic Bishops, the National Jewish Coalition, the Episcopal Church and the National Association of

Evangelicals.

Two secular Jews stand out as men who put their reputations on the line to stand up for Christians when

America's overwhelmingly non-Christian, indeed sometimes anti-Christian, intellectual community often turned the other way.

One is the outstanding New York Times columnist and former executive editor A.M. "Abe" Rosenthal. A man who had reported as a correspondent from Eastern Europe during the War. Rosenthal understands totalitarian oppression. Yet in column after column many times provoking fellow Jews, Rosenthal kept drawing attention to suffering of Christian believers in Cuba, China, Sudan, Vietnam and Pakistan.

The other is Michael Horowitz, senior fellow in Washington of Hudson Institute, a private res and public-policy institution headquartered in Indianapolis. It was Horowitz himself who, in 1996, first galvanized this country's evangelical Christian community into a nationwide campaign behalf of the persecuted church the world and kept the urgency of the case in the public eye.

Though he is not messianic, H explained at a recent Washington ' conference that: "As a Jew, I have" such an affinity for these people toted Christians]. Evangelical and charismatic Catholics have the Jews of the 20th century."

Horowitz's bottom line is both eloquently simple and deeply moving. "My intent was to save the lambs,” he says.

"Save the lambs." What a wonderful phrase to remember in prayer as we look ahead from Nov. 15, the day when thousands of U.S. churches honored International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. In our prayers, we should remember to thank God also for men like Rosenthal and Horowitz.