President Trump has appointed soon-to-be-former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback to serve as Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. Brownback will reportedly leave office early to take the position. He departs Kansas with an approval rating of just 25 percent after cratering the state’s finances with massive tax cuts that he foolishly believed would spur massive economic growth.
The failed governor is a poor choice for Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, but not necessarily for the reason many people think.
Contrary to some reactions, this is not a wingnut welfare no-show job that President Trump created to provide Brownback with a six-figure government paycheck and a ticket out of Topeka. The State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom is part of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. Its mission is to:
- Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries;
- Assist emerging democracies in implementing freedom of religion and conscience;
- Assist religious and human rights NGOs in promoting religious freedom;
- Identify and denounce regimes that are severe persecutors on the basis of religious belief.
The office monitors and reports on incidents of religious intolerance and persecution all over the world. Abuses documented in its most recent Annual Report on International Religious Freedom include the nightmarish beating, stoning and burning death of Farkhunda Malikzada, a young woman in Afghanistan falsely accused of burning a Quran; genocidal attacks against Yezidis, Christians and Shia Muslims by Da’esh; and the government-ordered demolition of Protestant and Catholic churches in Zhejiang, China.
The office does important work in documenting and calling attention to the suppression of religious freedom across the globe. A potential problem with the appointment of Sam Brownback is a possible narrowing of the defintion of "religious freedom."
In February, Brownback appeared at a “religious freedom” rally in Topeka where Christians in the United States were characterized as victims of persecution due to the growing social and legal acceptance of LGBT people. One prominent example of this “persecution” was the case of a florist who was sued for refusing to provide services for a same-sex couple’s wedding because “It would dishonor Christ.”
Republican Gov. Sam Brownback exhorted them not to grow weary of the fight.
“This is about freedom of conscience, about freedom of your soul,” Brownback said.
[...]Last July, Brownback issued an executive order to protect “Kansas clergy and religious organizations from being forced to participate in activities that violate their sincerely and deeply held beliefs.” He said Wednesday that he would like to see the order developed as a statute.
The danger in Brownback’s appointment is the possibility that under his leadership, the office’s mission will cease to be about protecting religious minorities around the world from genuine persecution, and more about defending bigotry masquerading as conscience.
