A WORLD DESPERATE FOR HEALING

A World Desperate for Healing

February 02, 2017 - The Family Research Council 

The U.S. State Department is the face of America to the world, and among other things, is tasked with ensuring the protection of religious freedom worldwide through diplomacy and advocacy. 

In the wake of the Left's global campaign of sexual anarchy, violence, and porous borders however, those protections have fallen by the wayside. 

For the good of the world, religious freedom must be restored to its proper role in U.S. foreign policy.

Yesterday, Senators James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to President Trump and new Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, urging Trump to appoint an ambassador for international religious freedom as quickly as possible. 

This important position within the State Department stands vacant, and the longer it does, the easier it is for the world to view our nation as one that doesn't prioritize religious liberty. 

Even mainstream publications recognize that religious persecution around the world is at an all-time high. Jews, Yezidis, Christians, and Shia Muslims are suffering the loss of property, freedom, and life at the hands of totalitarian regimes. The world is crying out for our intervention!

In their letter, the senators reminded Trump and Tillerson that, "As mandated by the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act (P.L. 114-281), this bipartisan law requires that the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom 'shall report directly to the Secretary of State,' rather than being buried in the bureaucracy of the department, underscoring the centrality of religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy..."

This diplomatic advocate in the State Department falls within the Office of International Religious Freedom, which also works closely with the independent, bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. 

These offices, together with the ambassador, the Secretary of State, and the president must work diligently to effect religious freedom protections in foreign policy. 

This includes, but is not limited to: integrating and prioritizing the promotion of religious freedom in all U.S. foreign policy, including conducting the proper training of those responsible for this task. 

We also must fully implement the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act, protect refugees and asylum seekers who are persecuted on the basis of religion, provide foreign assistance to protect religious freedom, and respond swiftly to the suppression of religious freedom around the world.

We must also ensure that key State Department personnel understand the importance of religious freedom. That means we need an Assistant Secretary of State in place to oversee the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor -- someone who is fully engaged in protecting religious freedom around the world.

Along with the Department of State, other U.S. agencies engaged abroad should strengthen the work they have begun and initiate additional efforts in the United Nations and international organizations to (1) broaden the number of countries willing to support and defend religious freedom, (2) strengthen the role of civil society advocates on behalf of religious freedom within and through multilateral fora, and (3) strengthen the policies and programming of multilateral institutions on religious freedom.

I encourage you to join me in praying for the persecuted overseas. I also encourage you to pray for our government at large, that our elected and appointed representatives would not take lightly the critical task of protecting the most vital of human rights.

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Tony Perkins' Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers.