International Religious Liberty

Few Americans realize that Fourth of July celebrations once occurred in a place where they are now inconceivable: Pyongyang, now the capital of North Korea.

In a world where might makes right, it is the U.S. military—not international treaties, presidential speeches, UN resolutions, protest marches, Wall Street, or Wal-Mart—that protects us from enemies who would either stamp out all faiths or force submission to one faith.

It is imperative that we understand that a Middle East devoid of Christians and other religious minorities would be a tragedy—a tragedy not only for Christians and others who have lived in the Middle East for centuries, but a tragedy for an outward-looking and tolerant Islam.

After the UK general election this month, reactions to a Tory minority government with DUP support and Tim Farron’s privately-held Christian beliefs reveal religious intolerance in British politics.

When President Trump took office in January, he made a promise to help persecuted Christians worldwide, and especially Christians subjected to the Daesh genocide in Syria and Iraq.

Speaking to leaders of 55 Muslim-majority countries, President Trump gave the speech an American president has needed to give but perhaps only Trump would have felt comfortable delivering.

In the city of Mosul, gasping through its fifth month of urban warfare, two histories of the world are crossing.

After reading Secretary Tillerson’s recent address, which tried to explain how “this administration’s policies of ‘America first’ fit into our foreign policy,” I am struck not so much by Tillerson’s attempt to decouple American interests and ideals, but by the chasm separating this speech from one given more than 75 years ago.

The growing trend among conservatives to support Putin’s Russia is problematic because Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) engage in activities that run directly contrary to U.S. national security objectives, values of Western civilization writ large, and teaching of Christian scripture.