When voters headed to the polls Tuesday, they weren’t just deciding Americans’ fate — but the fate of hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world. As hostile as this administration has been to believers in the U.S., its overseas legacy is worse. Abandoned, displaced, and penniless, the Christians lucky enough to survive ISIS’s rampage have fled to other countries, living in refugee camps where there is just as much uncertainty. Even there, jihadists disguised as refugees are “killing inside the camps, and they’re buying and selling ladies and even girls,” aid workers are reporting.

And while Secretary of State John Kerry insists he shares “a huge sense of revulsion over these acts,” the words are as empty as Iraq’s once-thriving Christian villages. “It’s time for America to act,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) insisted during a congressional hearing with Kerry last week. “We are talking about the lives of tens of thousands of people who are being brutally slaughtered, targeted for genocide.” More than 200 members of Congress understand this. The European Parliament understands this. Even former Secretary Hillary Clinton understands it. Yet a year into this faith-based bloodbath, the president refuses to use the eight simple letters that could help more Christians escape their terror: genocide.

With that one word — a word that’s already been invoked by most of the Western world powers — President Obama could help add weight to the asylum requests of so many who are suffering. And, as The Washington Post points out in this great primer on the “genocide” label, terrorists and terrorist-harboring countries could start being held accountable. “ISIS doesn’t care,” expert Greg Stanton explained, “but they will if their people are starting to come back and get tried for war crimes.”

While the U.S. hashes out a designation that should be a no-brainer, Canon Andrew White told me in a sobering interview on “Washington Watch” that “The Christians have really been forgotten.” (Listen at the 37:30 mark.) From his vantage point in Baghdad, he’s witnessed the horrors first-hand. “It’s real,” he says. But, he laments, “The awareness is minimal… It’s not in the media. Most of the churches don’t even know what’s going on.” Of course, he says, “People will talk about it, but they do nothing about it.” Dr. White, who has seen members of his own church targeted and killed, could only shake his head at a nightmare few Americans could comprehend. “Recently, my people have been massacred when they left Baghdad… They’ve gone to Northern Iraq, and most of them are living in refugee tents and camps in horrendous conditions.”

Where do they go from there? No one knows. The U.N. and other nations have given these families — most of whom have lost everything — no assurance of a permanent home. “There are so many people waiting to immigrate — literally thousands and thousands of people.” And the latest U.S. statistics bear that out. Since the Paris terrorist attack in November, America has admitted 651 Syrian refugees. Three are Christians. Less than one half of one percent. Of the remaining 648,647 are Muslim. How’s that for a religious test? While Christians languish in makeshift camps, often in fear of ISIS or other Muslim radicals, the administration continues to give preferential treatment to every faith except the one our nation was founded on.

And while the pressure on the White House has ratcheted up in recent weeks, Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the president is no closer to acting on his supposed “concern” than he was before. “We… know that they target Christians in the area too,” Earnest said. “…That’s one of the many reasons that we’re concerned with [ISIS] and their tactics, which is that it’s an affront to our values as a country to see people attacked, singled out, or slaughtered based on their religious beliefs.” But, the reporter pressed, “You’re not prepared to use the word ‘genocide’ yet in this situation?” Earnest, like Kerry, insisted they were reviewing “legal standards and precedents” — something they’ve had more than a year to do.

Who knows how many Christians are paying for our silence with their lives? Every day that goes by without America’s help is a lost opportunity. Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. And pray for our nation, which should always be leading on religious liberty — not following.

Originally published here.

Par for the Courts, Says GOP

Republicans aren’t breaking the rules on Supreme Court nominees. They’re simply playing by the Democrats’. For years, the president’s party has insisted a vacancy on the Court should go unfilled in an election year — until now, when a Democrat has a chance to fill one. Suddenly, Senate liberals have had a change of heart, insisting all of the comments they made in the majority were somehow misinterpreted. So far, the only thing that’s been misinterpreted is the strength of the GOP’s stance.

Within hours of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made it clear the Republicans would heed the president’s advice from his Senate days. “There are some who believe that the president, having won the election, should have complete authority to appoint his nominee…” then-Senator Obama protested. “I disagree with this view.” Now, squirming under the scrutiny of their own previous statements, Democrats are doing whatever they can to discredit a position they all held under George W. Bush.

Left with few alternatives, President Obama tried to break through the GOP’s resolve with a special meeting at the White House [yesterday]. Obviously, the situation must be pretty desperate if the president is willing to meet with Congress, a body he hasn’t had much use for in his seven years of lawlessness. Like Senator McConnell, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warned in advance that the meeting had little chance of softening Republicans’ view. “We will reiterate that the American people will have a voice in the vacancy on the Supreme Court as they choose the next president,” the chairman of the Judiciary Committee said. “In other words, we’ll observe the Biden Rule,” he told reporters, referring to the vice president’s decision to block any Supreme Court nominees when he served as Senate Judiciary Chair. “The American people deserve the opportunity during this election year to weigh in on whether the next justice should apply the text and original meaning of the Constitution, or, alternatively, his or her own life experiences to changing times to advance his or her own sense of what would be ‘just decisions and fair outcomes.’”

One of those just decisions will be debated tomorrow in one of the largest abortion cases before the Supreme Court in 25 years. Without Justice Scalia, the remaining eight members of the Court will hear oral arguments on Texas’s common sense law to protect women from monsters like Kermit Gosnell, whose office looked more like a combat zone than an abortion clinic. Under H.B. 2, which was upheld by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, Texas simply asked abortion facilities to comply with the same safety standards as surgical centers — like wider hallways for emergency gurneys, for example. Abortionists would also have to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital in case of emergency. Nothing about the law should be controversial for a movement that insists it cares about women.

Unfortunately, these clinics would rather make money than spend any on state-of-the-art care for mothers. Groups like Planned Parenthood have complained that the law forces some clinics to shut down, which is ridiculous. All these centers have to do to stay open is make some much-needed improvements to their offices. Of course, with the wave of pro-life legislation like this one sweeping the country, the fate of several state laws hinge on what happens in the Court. Without Justice Scalia, if there is a 4-4 tie on the case, the 5th Circuit’s ruling in favor of Texas would stand.

We were joined at the news conference by pro-life leaders from the Justice Foundation, Texas Values and representatives of more than 3,300 women injured by abortion. Each speaker addressed the horrific lack of health and safety standards that are leading to death, disease, and depression in states without protections like Texas’s. Led by the Justice Foundation, these testimonies were filed in a special amicus brief before the Supreme Court. Based on their own testimonies, 210 Texas women must be hospitalized for botched abortions or abortion complications every year — proving the absolute necessities of laws like H.B. 2. To hear some of these harrowing stories H.B. 2 would help prevent, watch the video of [yesterday’s] event here.

Originally published here.