On Christmas eve, while you were tucking your children into bed or attending midnight mass, Christians in Nigeria were murdered in their church pews celebrating the peace of Christ. The attackers, Boko Haram, a militant Muslim terrorist organization, broke through the church doors at midnight and opened fire murdering twelve, before setting the churches on fire. It was but one of many bloodbaths that have taken the lives of Christians, not just in Western Africa, but all over the world.
While the walls may be closing in on religious liberty here in America, the hostility we face is nothing when compared with our bothers and sisters all across the world. For them, the cost of conviction is not in dollars, as it is here for those who reject the HHS mandate, but in their lives. In places like Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria, China, North Korea, or Pakistan, picking up your cross is not a right – it’s a death sentence.
Congressman Frank Wolf, R-VA, has invested years of his career elevating the cause of the persecuted church. He understands that people in other countries depend on America to lead by example on issues such as freedom, life and faith. Today, as that leadership fades in the shadow of the far left, Congressman Wolf has taken it upon himself to plead with American churches to take up the cause.
Congressman Wolf sent a letter to three hundred Protestant and Catholic ministers asking them to “pick up the torch.” Christians “have been targeted, believers kidnapped for ransom, and families threatened with violence if they stay. And what is America – but silent? Has our comfort led to complacency? Has the West ceased to be salt and light? What tragedy must befall this community before we are propelled to act?”
In his letter, Wolf relates a story of a German believer who, during the Holocaust, went to church by a railroad track where trains carried thousands of Jews to their death. “We knew the train was coming and when we heard the whistle blow, we began singing hymns. . .If we heard the screams, we sang more loudly and soon we heard them no more. Years have passed and no one talks about it anymore. but I still heard that train whistle in my sleep. God forgive me; forgive all of us who called ourselves Christians and yet did nothing.”
Congressman Wolf authored the International Religious Freedom Act and President Clinton signed it into law in 1998. The Law mandated the promotion of religious liberty around the world as a central element of American foreign policy. In 2011, the State Department released its International Religious Freedom report. Suzan Johnson Cook, the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, stated: “Freedom of religion is not just an American right but the right of all people. It goes hand in hand with freedom of expression, freedom of speech and assembly, and when religious freedom is restricted, all these rights are at risk. And for this reason, religious freedom is often the bellwether for other human rights. It’s the canary in the coal mine.”
The Act requires Obama, who has delegated this authority to the Secretary of State, to designate as “countries of particular concern” (CPCs) those countries whose governments have engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” which are defined in Section 3(11) of the Act as ones that are systematic, ongoing, and egregious, including acts such as torture, prolonged detention without charges, disappearances, or other flagrant denials of the right to life, liberty, or the security of persons. There were only eight countries designated as CPCs by Hillary in 201 – Burma, North Korea, Eritrea, Iran, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Uzbekistan which are the same eight that have been on the list since 2009.
Hillary, as Secretary of State, has never updated the list and rejected the recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, to include Egypt, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Vietnam on the 2012 list. Under the Act, the Secretary of State must take the Commissions recommendations under consideration but is under no obligation to adopt their recommendation. All one has to do is take a look at the countries the Commission wanted to add to the list to understand why Hillary chose to ignore them.
And to this date, Hillary Clinton and Obama have chosen to remain silent on the persecution and murder of Christians under Muslim domination.
The U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom is one of the few Ambassadors who does not report directly to the Secretary of State, reporting instead to the Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Congressman Wolf tried to rectify this in 2012 when he did everything he could to create a special religious envoy to report directly to the Secretary of State but was thwarted by none other than Obama’s appointee to replace Hillary, Senator John Kerry.
Wednesday, January 16, Obama will declare Religious Freedom Day. I would be surprised if he didn’t choke on his words considering his conscious strategy to eliminate the ability of individuals and religious organizations to control any aspect of religious liberty outside the barest of liturgical proctections.
