Missionary Finds Himself Staring Prison in the Face

Don Stephens has been a Christian missionary since he was 19 and went to the Bahamas as a college student to aid the poor. Now 39, Stephens has directed several disaster relief-missionary programs in Africa, the Middle East and most of Europe and “enjoyed every minute of it.”

There never was any hint of a problem with his work or with other projects connected with the Youth with a Mission ministry in the 40 foreign countries where it has offices, officials for the Sunland-based worldwide relief-aid group said.

“We’ve been welcomed everywhere we go,” he said.

But Stephens, who lives with his wife and four children in San Pedro, said at a Greater Los Angeles Press Club news conference earlier this week that he faces a 3 1/2-year prison sentence in Greece because he and two others from his ministry were convicted last month of proselytizing and attempting to kidnap a Greek youth, then 16, in 1981.

Ship Was Being Refurbished

The missionaries were in Greece while the M. V. Anastasis, a disaster relief ship Stephens directs, was in port for refurbishing and repairs.

Stephens said he is innocent and is chagrined that such a thing could occur in the Mediterranean nation, the birthplace of democracy.

The case, being appealed in the Greek courts, has also drawn the attention of other U.S.-based Christian missionary groups and some politicians--including Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Hillsborough) and three other congressmen, who said the conviction appears to violate human rights and religious guarantees in the Helsinki Accords, which Greece signed.

The congressmen wrote to the Greek ambassador to voice their concern over Stephens’ conviction. A spokesman for the Greek Embassy in Washington said although he was not familiar with the case, he was certain that the three judges who convicted the missionaries made their ruling based on the evidence.

No Coercion

Stephens said no coercion was used to force Konstantine Kotopoulon, now 19, to become an avowed Christian during the 14 visits the teen-ager paid to the ship.

The young man first boarded with his father, and some crew members happily gave him a Bible when he asked for one and provided him the address of a local Christian youth group, Stephens said.

On subsequent visits, Kotopoulon became a “born-again” Christian but remained a member of the Greek Orthodox faith, he said.

“He even asked to leave with the ship (in 1983) but we refused because he was too young and didn’t have his parents’ consent,” Stephens said.

However, the young man’s mother, said to be unhappy at his being “born again,” filed charges against Stephens and two others, Alan Williams, a Briton, and Costas Macris, a Greek-born missionary. They were accused of proselytizing and attempted kidnap, ministry officials said.

Stephens was with the ship in Hawaii last year when he learned of the charges against him. He returned to Greece to face trial last December.

In court, Kotopoulon, his father and two Greek Orthodox bishops testified on behalf of the missionaries. The man’s mother testified against the three. The parents are estranged.

To the surprise of the defendants and their supporters, a three-judge panel convicted them and sentenced each to 3 1/2 years in prison. Stephens and Williams were allowed to leave Greece while the case is being reviewed.

“If the conviction is upheld, I fully expect to serve time in prison,” Stephens said, adding that it would be un-Christian not to return to Greece.

Spokesman Achilles Paparsenos of the Greek Embassy rejected suggestions that the convictions are in violation of the Helsinki Accord. “How could that be?” he asked. “We are the cradle of democracy and there is religious freedom for all in our country.”

He said a 1975 amendment to the Greek constitution--which has historically protected religious freedoms--does prohibit proselytizing to ensure that individuals can practice their religion “free of outside interference.”

It was not immediately known if any people have been imprisoned under the amendment, and it is possible under Greek law to have the penalty reduced to a fine if the conviction is upheld, the spokesman added. Such safeguards are important to religious minorities in Greece, where 98% of the population is of the Greek Orthodox faith, he said.