American Public Policy and Religious Liberty: Suggested Actions in the 112th Congress
- Jul 13, 2011 -
Religious liberty is one of the most important rights God has granted to humanity. God has given every human being the right to worship or not to worship according to the dictates of his or her conscience. Even knowing the great eternal consequences of failure to worship Him, God has granted to man the freedom to decide whether or not he wants to acknowledge God, and the means by which he chooses to do so. Jesus Christ, Himself, appealed to people to follow Him and to render to God the things that are God’s, but He didn’t engage in oppressive activities to accomplish this.
Today, this fundamental liberty granted by God to all humanity is under attack in multiple settings around the world. In dozens of countries, people of faith are personally and professionally at risk for having any faith, having the “wrong” faith, talking to others about their faith, converting to another faith, or even dissenting from the central tenets of their faith. The motives for oppressive acts to restrict religious liberty are varied, and sometimes those engaged in the oppression believe their actions are in the best interest of those they oppress, but the results are the same—men, women, and children are denied by man what God has granted.
As we look at the current situation in Congress, we must consider what we can accomplish to help bring relief to those suffering and dying for their faith. I propose four actions that would have fairly immediate results.
Pass the International Religious Freedom Act Amendments (H.R. 1856)
This bill will amend the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 in ways that will make it much more effective. Among its contributions to the Act: (1) It extends the life of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which is set to expire in September 2011. USCIRF has been instrumental in helping resolve numerous religious liberty problems in its short existence. The Commission was the first entity to call for Secretary of State Clinton’s direct engagement in the implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) and was instrumental in strengthening working ties between the government of South Sudan and religious groups that proved essential for facilitating voter education and turnout in the referendum process. After USCIRF visited Nigeria, that government brought prosecutions against the perpetrators of a recent incident of violence for the first time in a decade. The Commission can also be credited with significant accomplishments in places like Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Morocco, and numerous other dangerous places for religious minorities. (2) It authorizes the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom to work with non-governmental religious liberty organizations in other countries to help advance our religious liberty goals; (3) It strengthens efforts to train State Department personnel in the importance of the faith dimension in their respective country assignments; and (4) It gives more teeth to the sanctions component of the Country-of-Particular-Concern designation. At this time, not even all the members of the House International Religious Freedom Caucus have signed on as cosponsors. It currently has 28 cosponsors, yet there are 51 House members in the caucus. We should encourage all of these members to cosponsor the bill and we should work for its passage.
Pass the Near East and South Central Asia Religious Freedom Act (H.R. 440/S.1245)
This bill will create the Special Envoy to Promote Religious Freedom of Religious Minorities in the Near East and South Central Asia. Because of the great need for United States engagement on international religious liberty, the establishment of a special envoy for minority religious groups in particularly oppressive regions should be a priority. This special envoy will focus attention on countries like Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Religious minorities like Ahmadi Muslims, Baha’is, Mandaeans, Sikhs, Yezidis, Zoroastrians, Jews, as well as Assyrian, Chaldean, Coptic, and Syriac Christians, and many other minority religious groups are under incredible pressure in these and other countries in these regions.
The special envoy would be tasked with the following responsibilities: (1) Promote the right of religious freedom of religious minorities in the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia, denounce the violation of such right, and recommend appropriate responses by the United States Government when such right is violated; (2) Monitor and combat acts of religious intolerance and incitement targeted against religious minorities in the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia; (3) Work to ensure that the unique needs of religious minority communities in the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia are addressed, including the economic and security needs of such communities; (4) Work with foreign governments of the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia to address laws that are inherently discriminatory toward religious minority communities in such countries; (5) Coordinate and assist in the preparation of that portion of the report required by sections 116(d) and 502B(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n(d) and 2304(b)) relating to the nature and extent of religious freedom of religious minorities in the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia, and (6) Coordinate and assist in the preparation of that portion of the report required by section 102(b) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6412(b)) relating to the nature and extent of religious freedom of religious minorities in the countries of the Near East and the countries of South Central Asia.
This person would work closely with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Bringing an office into these discussions that is solely focused on these particularly dangerous regions for religious minorities is bound to help the United States direct its help where it is most needed.
Engage in an Aggressive Internet Firewall Breaching Initiative
We should support the creation and aggressive dissemination of Internet firewall breaching technology. Such technology can circumvent efforts by authoritarian governments to restrict access to uncensored information and to prevent free communication between people. The technology already exists. The current problem is that it isn’t able to accommodate enough simultaneous users to reach the critical mass that exceeds the ability of authoritarian governments to control. The technology needs to enable around 50 million people a day in closed societies to access the Internet freely. This level of demand for free access exists. It is prevented primarily by a lack of Internet servers dedicated to the task.
As noted by leaders of pro-democracy movements from such countries as Iran, China, Cuba, Syria, and Vietnam, such a strong initiative would be the stuff of history. Among other things, it would permit worldwide worship services in which, for example, thousands of Chinese House Church Christians could safely join in real time prayer and communication with their fellow American believers. It would enable American leaders to engage in interactive town meetings with such groups as Iranian students, while assuring the identity protection of participants in such sessions. It would offer safe communication to, from and between residents of closed societies when their regimes initiate political crackdowns or seek to cover up internal scandals.
We can accomplish this goal by empowering the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG) to engage in Internet firewall breaching activities. The BBG encompasses all U.S. civilian international broadcasting, including the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Marti, and the Middle East Broadcasting Networks—Radio Sawa and Alhurra Television. BBG broadcasters distribute programming in 59 languages to an estimated weekly audience of 165 million people via radio, TV, the Internet and other new media.
Currently, the State Department believes it has the assignment to advance this effort. It has received most of the funding as well. Its efforts in this area have not been stellar. It has sat on millions of dollars given to it for this purpose and has taken an average of two years to dispense money. No doubt, it has some legitimate reasons for these failings. But, nevertheless, the job is not getting done, and hundreds of millions of people are being denied access to information and relationships that we take for granted, including the freedom to engage in such religious activities as worship, discipleship, evangelism, and association.
The assignment of the firewall circumvention function to the BBG seems to many to make critical sense for a number of reasons. First, it separates the government’s policy making and information dissemination functions—a need that led to the very creation of an independent BBG so that, as Congress put it, the State Department would have “deniability” and be free of conflict of interest pressures while the US facilitated information freedom in the world’s closed societies. Second, it can assign functions in ways that track expertise and experience—the State Department has little in the field, while Internet firewall circumvention is, effectively, the 21st century version of the anti-radio jamming function that the BBG has long and well performed. Third, it avoids overlapping jurisdiction for the performance of government functions, eliminating costly duplications of effort and ensuring agency performance accountability.
The primary thing stopping the BBG from fully engaging with this new technology is funding. The FY11 CR transferred $10 million of the $30 million State Department Internet freedom appropriation to the BBG. We should press Congress and the State Department to transfer at least another $5-$10 million of the FY11 appropriation to the BBG, and we should work to have the BBG designated as the principal entity responsible for this initiative in future appropriations.
Pass a Joint Congressional Resolution Condemning China’s Persecution of Faith Groups
China’s horrific treatment of faith leaders, non-registered faith groups, and disfavored faith groups is inexcusable. Their heavy-handed posture toward registered faith groups is distressing as well. A congressional resolution should be accompanied by public hearings on China’s recent crackdowns in order to draw attention to the problem. The current situation for people of faith in China is frightening. Non-registered churches are under continual scrutiny and harassment. The Shouwang Church in Beijing has had more than 300 members arrested in the last 12 weeks, and most of the 1,000 members of the congregation are under house arrest. In other situations, house church leaders are routinely arrested. Christian activists are regularly arrested, beaten, and threatened, including lawyers who are merely trying to defend the rights of persecuted Chinese Christians. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission’s 2009 John Leland Religious Liberty award recipient, lawyer Dr. Fan Yafeng, has been arrested, put on house arrest, had his wife and 3-year-old son taken to a police station and questioned, had all his electronic communications equipment confiscated, lost his university job, in addition to other regular acts of oppression. The Chinese Muslims known as Uyghurs face regular persecution. The Falun Gong have been the objects of intense, brutal government persecution for years.
A bipartisan joint resolution seems achievable. A 2011 meeting we helped set up between Bob Fu of ChinaAid and Senator Casey’s chief of staff resulted in a letter from the Senator to China’s Ambassador urging the “release of Dr. Yafeng and other religious practitioners held unjustly.” Also, in 2009, in the 111th Congress, Senators Casey and Brownback introduced S. Res. 24, a Senate resolution supporting greater human rights in China. In part, the resolution (1) notes the numerous commitments that China has made to the international community as a signatory to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international conventions; (2) commends the citizens of China who have signed onto Charter 08 and are upholding principles consistent with China’s international commitments on human rights and its own constitution; (3) calls on the government of China to release all people detained because of their involvement or affiliation with the Charter 08 effort, including Liu Xiaobo, in addition to all prisoners of conscience detained in violation of the domestic law and international commitments of China; and (4) calls on President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage with the government of China on human rights issues at every reasonable opportunity using all diplomatic means available, including the U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue, and to resist pressure to replace this dialogue with a weaker alternative. The resolution never got out of the Foreign Relations Committee. A similar resolution should be introduced in this Congress, and we should work to get it adopted.
These are just four suggestions for advancing religious liberty around the world through United States public policy. They address only some of the problems that exist around the world. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention stands ready to work with others dedicated to the cause of religious liberty to advance these and other measures that will help assure that more of the world’s people will have the liberty to exercise their divine right to worship according to the dictates of their conscience without fear.
Further Learning
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