Religious Liberty: The Cornerstone of All Human Rights

You may remember him as a U.S. senator, governor, or 2008 candidate for president. During the Donald J. Trump administration, Sam Brownback served as Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom from February 2018 through January 2021. He currently serves as co-chair of the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit and chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom.

Earlier this year, the Southern Poverty Law Center attacked the International Religious Freedom Summit, complaining about the presence and influence of “anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups” and other conservative religious organizations. “To many of these extremists,” the SPLC wrote in an article, “religious freedom means, simply, the right to discriminate – particularly against the LGBTQ+ community.”

Ironically, according to The Daily Signal, the IRF Summit “highlighted persecution of Kyiv-aligned Christians in Ukraine, Christians in Nigeria, and many religious minorities—particularly Uyghur Muslims and Tibetan Buddhists—in China. Members of atheist, Baha’i, Falun Gong, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, and Yazidi organizations took part in the summit, as did Christian minorities such as Assyrians.”

Religious liberty is a fundamental, God-given right. Not only is it enumerated in and protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, but it is also recognized by dozens of nations around the world as the cornerstone of all human rights. We can ill afford to ignore that there are still far too many instances where religious liberty, conscience, and practice are violated around the world. Here in the United States, attempts to regulate or censor religious thought, practice, and/or speech continue to raise their ugly heads.

Should Crisis Pregnancy Centers be fined $50,000 for disseminating Biblical views about the sanctity of human life because some believe it is “misinformation?” Should florists, photographers, and bakers be forced to provide their services for same-sex weddings and celebrations that violate their religious beliefs? Should peaceful pro-lifers be arrested for praying in front of abortion mills?

Religious freedom is more than the “freedom to worship” at a synagogue, church, or mosque. It means people shouldn’t have to go against their core values and beliefs to conform to the creed of a dominant culture or government. Religious freedom protects people’s right to live, speak, and act according to their beliefs peacefully and publicly. It protects their ability to be themselves at work, in class, and in social activities.

Join us on June 1^st to hear from Ambassador Brownback about the threats to religious liberty around the world and here at home, as well as how we can reinforce this critical right. There will also be a time of Q & A when you will be welcome to ask the Ambassador your questions.

We will also be joined by Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s Director of the Center for Religious Liberty and co-author of the organization’s “Hostility Against Churches” report. This new report “indicates that criminal acts against churches have been steadily on the rise for the past several years… The first three months of 2023 saw approximately 3x the number of acts of hostility perpetrated against churches in the same timeframe last year.

UPDATE:  We are pleased to announce that former state legislator Peter Breen has been added to our line-up of speakers for the IFI Special Forum on Religious Liberty.  In addition to being a pro-life hero, Peter leads the Thomas More Society’s Legal Team in service of its Life, Family, and Religious Liberty missions.

>>> Click HERE for a flyer! <<<

We are pleased to announce that former state legislator Peter Breen has been added to our line-up of speakers for the IFI Special Forum on Religious Liberty.  In addition to being a pro-life hero, Peter leads the Thomas More Society’s Legal Team in service of its Life, Family, and Religious Liberty missions.

Peter recently testified in front of an Illinois House committee to highlight the legal and practical flaws of SB 1909 – a bill designed to punish traditional Christian beliefs about the sanctity of human life at pregnancy resource centers (PRCs) throughout Illinois. SB 1909 allows the Attorney General to investigate any PRC and levy fines up to $50,000 against any PRC that the he/she “believes” is engaging in deceptive practices.

What are false and deceptive practices? Any information the Attorney General believes is deceptive.

Once the Attorney General concludes its formal investigation with your tax dollars and imposes the fine against the PRC, the law would allow the Attorney General to provide this biased information to a person to file a civil suit against the PRC for more monetary damages. You can imagine the damage this will cause.

Planned Parenthood and Attorney General staff testified in favor of this freedom-quashing bill. Their argument contained no complaints (not one) that could be verified — they were all anecdotal accounts they claimed to have witnessed at PRC’s or heard second hand.

In fact, before the hearing, Peter had requested that the Attorney General’s Office provide all complaints it received against PRC’s in the last 10 years. Their response? Zero. Zero complaints against pregnancy care centers have been documented. There is simply no demand from “we the people” for a bill like this. It’s another opportunity for Big Abortion and their allies in the General Assembly to go after and bully people of faith into silence.

Make no mistake, this is an infringement on the First Amendment rights of those who work and/or volunteer at PRCs and want to save preborn babies and minister to women facing unplanned pregnancies. Specifically, this quashes our right to freely exercise our religiously informed views about what abortion does to mother and baby. These beliefs are shared by the vast majority of orthodox Christians, Jews and Muslims.

The state has no business regulating speech it doesn’t like. Yet tyrants at the Illinois State Capitol passed SB 1909 and sent it to the Governor for his signature.

The Illinois Senate passed this bill on March 31^st by a vote of 36 to 19.

The Illinois House passed this bill on May 10^th by a vote of 72 to 40.

Click HERE to listen to this week’s IFA podcast in which Monte Larrick interviews Peter Breen.

Join us on Thursday, June 1st! You won’t want to miss hearing from Peter Breen and the plans to challenge this unconstitutional law in court as well as hear from our featured speaker, Ambassador Sam Brownback, who serves as chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom. He will report on the international situation in countries like China, Nicaragua, and Nigeria, as well as domestic attempts to eradicate religiously informed conscience rights for medical professionals and those working at pregnancy centers.

We will also be joined by Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s Director of the Center for Religious Liberty and co-author of the organization’s “Hostility Against Churches” report. This new report “indicates that criminal acts against churches have been steadily on the rise for the past several years… The first three months of 2023 saw approximately 3x the number of acts of hostility perpetrated against churches compared to the same timeframe last year.

Religious liberty requires our vigilance because its degradation affects the exercise of every other constitutional right. Literally, our freedom is at stake.

“[T]hat the opinions of men are not the object of civil government, nor under its jurisdiction;
that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain
the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy,
which at once destroys all religious liberty.” ~Thomas Jefferson, 1779.

Written by Brandon Showalter

Vice President Mike Pence swore in Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as the new Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom [last week], a key State Department post that advocates for persecuted religious minority groups worldwide.

Following a contentious nomination process, Pence had to cast the tie-breaking vote twice in a divided U.S. Senate last month for Brownback to be confirmed. Brownback took the oath of office at a White House ceremony attended by dozens of friends and religious freedom advocates Thursday afternoon.

In remarks before administering the oath, the vice president praised Brownback for his three decades of public service, and referenced their close friendship while serving in Congress and as state governors at the same time.

“In all the years I’ve known him, I’ve never ceased to be encouraged or inspired by his example, his faith, his unwavering belief in the goodness of the American people and his dedication and commitment to fight for what’s right. It’s all those qualities I know that made this decision an easy one for President Donald Trump,” Pence said.

In brief remarks after taking the oath, Brownback noted that never before has there been so much religious persecution in the world, highlighting the plight of the Rohingya people in refugee camps in Myanmar, and the 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded on a beach in Libya. The right to determine the destiny of one’s own soul is a freedom Americans cherish and it’s a freedom worth fighting for on the world stage, he said.

Religious liberty for everyone is one of America’s most “noble efforts,” Brownback said, and “perhaps, and in my opinion it is, the greatest of our efforts and the greatest of our causes.”

Religious freedom is a “foundational human right,” he said, “and its establishment is foundational for a nation to prosper and move forward in freedom.” Americans believe in this and “we will fight for it,” he added.

“If you want more security and less terrorism in your country, have more religious freedom. It’s a byproduct, a fruit of more security and peace. It’s in all the data, and now we need to spread it to all the world.”

The new ambassador expressed confidence that with the backing of the Trump administration the Islamic State’s atrocities against religious minorities in the Middles East will cease.

“We will see the expansion of religious liberty around the world. Mark my words. This is going to happen. We will get it done,” he told the crowd to enthusiastic applause.

“So as a son of the prairie, I humbly accept this high role for our nation. May God bless this cause,” Brownback concluded.

In addition to his wife and three of his children, guests attending Brownback’s ceremony included his predecessor, David Saperstein, and Federal Communications Commission head Ajit Pai, who once worked for Brownback when the Kansas governor was a U.S. Senator. Also present was former Congressman Frank Wolf, a passionate advocate for religious freedom and human rights, after whom the revamped International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 is named.

This article was originally posted at ChristianPost.com