The Obama administration has not shown us it cares about the persecution of Christians. This is obvious. At a time of rising persecution of Christians throughout Muslim lands, the president has nominated Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook -- a "motivational speaker" with questionable qualifications -- to hold the critical position of U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.
Respected diplomat Thomas Farr, who headed the State Department's International Religious Freedom desk, has written in The Washington Post: "The Obama administration seems to have decided that other policy initiatives -- outreach to Muslim governments, obtaining China's cooperation, advancing gay rights -- would be compromised by vigorous advocacy for religious freedom."
The situation for Christians around the world is increasingly dire. In Afghanistan, a government we support and largely fund is hounding Christians, pursuing them, and threatening them with death.
Christians in Iraq are suffering more now than at any time since the dawn of the Christian era. Fully half of Iraq's Christians have fled the country since the 2003 U.S. invasion. They can no longer survive where their ancestors lived for thousands of years.
Christians in Egypt were murdered at Christmas by Muslim militants. Christians in Lebanon are newly threatened by the rise of Hezbollah -- backed by Iran.
In Iran itself, 100 Christians were arrested in 24 cities on Boxing Day, the day after Christmas. The Iranian regime -- to which this president extended an "open hand" and to whose people he sent Persian New Year's greetings -- is committed to a totalitarian variant of Islam. No wonder they want nuclear weapons.
By way of comparison, in 2005, President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. Columnist George Will then wrote that if the top one hundred conservative scholars each made a list of one hundred outstanding conservative legal minds, with no duplications, the resulting list of ten thousand names would not have included Harriet Miers. The conservatives rebelled.
I suggest a George Will test for Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook. None of the top experts in the very difficult field of international religious freedom would have named Dr. Cook to this post.
That is not to say this estimable woman does not have excellent qualifications for other posts -- in education, for example, or in the office of faith-based initiatives. International religious freedom is a thorny thicket. We have to balance urgent U.S. security needs, including our need for allies in the war on terror, with America's heavy responsibilities to speak for the voiceless.
In 2006, Family Research Council's president, Tony Perkins, called for U.S. action to save the life of Abdul Rahman. Rahman, an Afghan, was threatened with death for the "crime" of having converted to Christianity. The government of Hamid Karzai -- from the lowest village council all the way up to the parliament and judiciary -- was in full-throated cry for this innocent man's blood.
Sec. Condoleezza Rice quickly interceded with President Karzai himself. Doubtless Sec. Rice explained the political facts of life to Karzai. U.S. support for his notoriously corrupt government would evaporate, she probably said, if he allowed an Afghan national to be murdered simply for embracing Christianity.
Abdul Rahman's life was spared only because he agreed to go into exile. What would have happened had not Tony Perkins and hundreds of Western Christians not raised a hue and cry?
Our State Department seemed to view Abdul Rahman's expulsion as acceptable. They talked about years later, there has been no maturing on religious freedom.
Failure to respect your neighbor's right to worship as his conscience dictates dooms a nation to barbarism. Jefferson and Madison were both Secretaries of State -- and highly successful ones, too. They believed that religious freedom was the foundation for civil liberty, not merely a nice add-on. We call our U.S. military mission in Afghanistan Operation Enduring Freedom. What freedom is there in Afghanistan to endure?
The U.S. needs to demonstrate a renewed commitment to international religious freedom. Laborers in that vineyard call it the First Freedom.
President Obama should withdraw the nomination of Dr. Cook for the post of Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom. Or, the Senate should follow the lead of South Carolina's stalwart Sen. Jim DeMint and vote this nomination down. Liberals should show as great a commitment to principle now as conservatives showed at the time of the Miers nomination.
Bill Clinton famously said he regretted he did nothing about genocide in Rwanda on his watch. Many Americans are remorseful today that the U.S. did not bomb the railroads leading to Auschwitz in 1944.
Will Americans of the future condemn us because we failed to heed the cry of the persecuted Christians around the world? Dr. Paul Marshall's powerful book on religious persecution is titled Their Blood Cries Out. Tragically, the blood of the martyrs cries out louder today than ever.
Ken Blackwell is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Commission and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Bob Morrison is a Sr. Fellow at the Family Research Council.
Joseph K. Grieboski: Why America Needs an Ambassador for Religious Liberty
The narcissism is amazing....they can take any story and make it alllllll about them.
Christians go to Uganda and urge the people to kill homosexuals there, since they are not allowed to do that here....what is there to respect? I think they can take care of themselves, and if they think they are more righteous than the rest of us, then they should expect god to protect them! Hes not doing that? Well then maybe something is wrong with their agenda.
There is a huge difference between a Supreme Court nominee who's education consists solely of one Methodist university, and a religious ambassador.
Maybe Obama should have nominated Jim Bakker, he's back in the preaching for cash game.
By Thomas F. Farr
Friday, June 25, 2010
"Last week President Obama nominated an ambassador at large for international religious freedom, a position created by the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act. The nominee, Suzan Johnson Cook, is a distinguished pastor who will, if confirmed by the Senate, be strongly supported by advocates of religious freedom. "
Perhaps if Christians did not feel that they were superior to other religions, or could refrain from proselytizing in countries that do not share our religious freedoms, people of other faiths might leave you alone!
as many of us argue for a more realistic assessment of our ability to be world police matching defense of our long term interests with our available long term resources, we shold take on another crusade? and our present "power projection" is something that every nation trembles under now? How bout we fight murder and subjection of gay and lesbian and trasngender people in other nations? for a starter.
(Sarcasm and lots of it)
Remember we need those two statements of faith. Without them God won't be telling any other Presidents to invade another country as he did with Bush. The last thing we want to do is invade without God being on our side. (more sarcasm of course),
They have been on the attack for years now, trying to deny rights to homosexuals, trying to outlaw abortions, trying to keep women from obtaining equal rights, and trying to impose their own morals - many of them non-biblical - on the rest of society. Non-Fundamentalists are finally fighting back by speaking out against their campaigns, their media onslaughts, and their mistaken notions of truth, and the Fundamentalists don't like it very much. They can dish it out, but they can't take it. So when people of good conscience stand up for their rights, Fundamentalists cry foul - they claim they are being persecuted.
Fundamentalists see this "persecution" as biblical proof of being on God's side. It's not. Their so-called persecution is merely the rest of society defending itself from their attacks. If they can't get their schools to allow them to pray to their God during class time, they claim they are being attacked. What would happen if Buddhists and Muslims tried to get the same special rights?
This is not the persecution mentioned in the Bible. The leaders of the Christian Coalition are not being hung on crosses (Philippians 2:8). The leaders of the Family Research Council are not being stoned to death (Acts 7:59). The leaders of Focus on the Family are not being thrown to the lions (Daniel 6:16). And yet these people have the gall to claim they are being persecuted in God's name. Brian Elrod quote
Outstanding post!
I will add that the christian coalition and family research council are totally and fundamentally unchristian in all their views and actions, and dont deserve any protection under the law!
It isn't the President's role to create the Jesus Police to serve and protect Xianity across the globe. In summation, the administration "shouldn't care"!
"Will Americans of the future condemn us because we failed to heed the cry of the persecuted Christians around the world?"
Really? Is that our job? To speak out for Christians?
Guess you should've thought of the consequences before giving the ol' evangelical green light to our "christian" congress-critters or our commander in chief back then eh?