Celebrating Christmas may be a luxury that other Americans take for granted — but Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ) doesn’t. And over the December holiday, he flew to the cradle of the Christian faith to offer comfort to the survivors of ISIS’s war on the church. It was a sobering visit, as a once-thriving population now lives in fear of the slaughter that’s taken so many of their Iraqi brothers and sisters.

In a meeting with the highest-ranking Catholic in Erbil, Archbishop Bashar Warda warned that the situation was dire. Without the help of the United States, he pleaded, Christians are on the verge of extinction. “This Christmas season,” Rep. Smith said, “the survival of Christians in Iraq, where they have lived for almost 2,000 years, is at stake.” Hunted down, tortured and driven from villages they’ve lived in since ancient times, the population is desperate for the world to step in and stop the violence. In winter, when diseases are running rampant, even basic necessities like food, blankets and medicine are rare.

Like us, Rep. Smith knows who is to blame. “The president has been asleep at the switch in my opinion [and] unwilling to engage on the genocide issue — until recently.” And then, only after significant pressure from his own party — including extreme liberals like Hillary Clinton. But even after acknowledging the genocide, the administration still has barely lifted a finger to offer real relief. Instead, it’s seemed preoccupied with letting other Syrians stream into the country unchecked, slamming the door in the face of the thousands of Christians desperate for a safe place to start over. In fact, Rep. Smith told reporters [yesterday], U.S. officials at the consulate in Erbil, Iraq, were so disinterested that they hadn’t even visited a refugee camp that was only a 10-minute drive from their office.

After nine congressional hearings on the issue, Rep. Smith is hoping the new president will treat the crisis with the seriousness it deserves. To get the ball rolling, the New Jersey conservative mapped out how the United States can get involved in meaningful ways in his Iraq and Syrian Genocide Accountability Act, just introduced in the House this week. Calling the slaughter of Christians one of Obama’s biggest “failures,” Smith knows the new Congress has a fresh chance to shrug off the indifference of the last eight years. The bill, he explains, “is a blueprint for how to assist Christians and other genocide survivors and hold perpetrators accountable.” Among other things, it would jumpstart the asylum process for religious minorities — but not in a way that would leave the U.S. vulnerable. “Everyone will have to go through a vetting process,” the congressman reassured people. But in a big departure from the past, the U.S. would cut through the red tape of the UN and actually conduct the first interview for refugees overseas. Not only would H.R. 390 speed up the application process, but it would also prosecute those committing war crimes against Christians and fund relief efforts for survivors of Middle East genocide.

Of which there are plenty. Open Doors USA made that painfully clear [yesterday] in the release of its annual World Watch List. For the last several years, Dr. David Curry’s group has highlighted the most dangerous places to be a Christian on earth. As usual, the most brutal regions are no surprise. North Korea has topped the list for 14 years (followed this year by Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, and Eritrea), but the blood spilled in the Middle East, where Christians are routinely tortured, kidnapped and executed, is raising the alarm. The march of ISIS through Africa and Arab countries is spreading terror at a horrifying rate, especially in places like Nigeria, where the killings of Christians climbed by a stunning 62 percent in the last 12 months alone.

According to Curry, 2016 was the “worst year yet” in terms of global religious persecution. Saying the situation has become frighteningly volatile, Open Doors points out that South and Southeast Asia, where this kind of faith-based oppression was never as widespread, is rapidly ranking as violent as Sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, as many as 215 million Christians experience “high, very high, or extreme” persecution, the group found.

FRC’s Travis Weber, director of our Center for Religious Liberty, said the most powerful part of the Open Doors press conference may have been Pastor Edward from Syria, who stayed in the country to pastor his church despite the threat level. “It seems like the age of martyrdom is back,” he said. Yet his joy and peace wasn’t suppressed. He told the story of a convert to Christianity who posted his decision to get baptized on Facebook, declaring openly that it was important news that he wanted everyone to know. The convert recognized the potential danger but believed his witness was more important. As Christians in America we are obligated to him — and the millions of our brave brothers and sisters in Christ around the world — not only to speak, but act. And one of the loudest messages we can send is our choice for secretary of state. Will America continue leading from behind or pick up the torch of religious liberty? The person who occupies that desk will help decide — and I remain uncertain about whether or not President-elect Trump’s nominee is up to the task.

For more on what you can do to help the persecuted church, check out Travis’s column here.

Originally published here.

A Swine of the Times

Usually, people are upset about what’s done in the Capitol — not what’s hanging in it. That all changed at the end of last week, when House Democrats and Republicans almost came to blows over a controversial piece of student art on the wall. “The U.S. Capitol represents many things to different people,” Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) argued, “but one thing it’s not is a modern art museum.” The piece in question is the work of an 18-year-old Missouri student with a bone to pick with police.

In what was meant to be a political statement on Ferguson, he painted a police officer as a pig pointing a gun at an African-American person. Not surprisingly, law enforcement groups everywhere are outraged. Andy Maybo, president of The Fraternal Order of Police District of Columbia Lodge #1, said, “This piece of art, which depicts officers as pigs, is both offensive and disgusting. During a time in our society when tensions are so high that someone can be offended by a single word, this painting does nothing but attack law enforcement to its core. The fact that a member of Congress would advocate and praise such a painting is reprehensible. We, in law enforcement, regardless of the police department we work for, are held to higher standards that certain Members of Congress now have made a mockery of.”

Rep. Hunter agreed, and on Friday he took the picture off the wall and walked it straight to the office of Congressman Lacy Clay (D-MO), whose district sponsored it. Within hours, the painting was back. But not for long. The tug-of-war continued as Reps. Doug Lamborn (R-CO), Brian Babin (R-TX) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) took turns taking the artwork down. “It doesn’t belong in the U.S. Capitol,” Hunter told reporters. “It’s that simple. It violates the rules of the art competition. You cannot have offensive things in the competition and this does.” His Missouri colleague disagrees — so much so that he’s threatened to have Hunter arrested.

Good luck, the Iraqi veteran said. “The Capitol Police aren’t going to arrest me for taking down a picture that portrays them as pigs.” Especially not now, as the rash of police killings continues to rock a country more deeply divided on race than before President Obama. According to the National Law Enforcement Memorial Fund, more police officers were shot by civilians in 2016 than the last five years. And the nightmare continued this week, as Master Sgt. Debra Clayton was gunned down in the line of duty in Orlando. Like many of the victims, she was an African-American who paid the ultimate price for wearing the badge that too many now despise. As Rep. Hunter tried to remind people:

“There is a thin blue line on which police officers stand in protection of us all. They deserve our respect and appreciation. And if ever there’s a poor decision on the part of one or a few, it does not reflect the true character and commitment of an entire organization of men and women nationwide committed to protect and serve the public. There’s nothing inclusive or healing when police officers are referred to as swine. Even if the painting is put back where it once hung, at least the message was sent to America’s police departments and law enforcement that their service is valued.”

As a former police officer, I understand risks of a job that requires you to interact with some of society’s most violent and malevolent individuals. But the danger has grown exponentially as a result of the lawlessness we witnessed in the last eight years from the Obama administration combined with the incitement of hatred toward those who are tasked with upholding the laws of society. The personal toll on law enforcement officials and their families is unnecessarily driving good men and women from the ranks of law enforcement. Their families see the growing threat and want them to get out before they’re the next target of the #BlackLivesMatter rage. And tragically, no one seems to be spared in this blind backlash. Black and Hispanic officers are being hunted down at a rate just as high — if not higher — than their white colleagues.

But the impact doesn’t stop with the law enforcement community. The impact on law abiding citizens in many communities is staggering. For every criminal on a corner, there’s a mom or a dad living in a crime-ridden neighborhood trying to protect their children while trying to inspire and equipping them to rise above their surroundings. #BlackLivesMatter is not just an attack on the police. It’s an attack on justice in America. The rule of law is the key to keeping neighborhoods safe and giving all our children the hope of a future.

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.