It took four days, but President Trump completed a religious trifecta — traveling deep into the heartlands of Islam, Judaism, and Catholicism this week. His first foreign trip has been an eventful one, capped off yesterday by his visit to the Vatican to meet Pope Francis with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in tow. Away from the flashbulbs and cameras, the two men excused themselves from the press and met privately for a half-hour.

Among the topics, we’re told, was an extensive talk about religious persecution around the world — a subject near and dear to both men’s hearts. Unlike President Obama, who refused for years to call Christian persecution by its rightful name, Pope Francis picked up the fight that the U.S., under the previous administration, abandoned. “Today we are dismayed to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus,” he declared. “In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end.”

Now, with the arrival of a president who made religious liberty a core value of both his campaign and his first few months, the pope finally has a partner in the fight against the enemies of religious freedom. After the conversation, the Vatican released a statement reiterating the pair’s “joint commitment in favor of life, freedom of worship, and conscience.” In particular, the leader of one of the world’s largest faiths said the discussions “enabled an exchange of views on various themes relating to international affairs and the promotion of peace in the world through political negotiation and interreligious dialogue, with particular reference to the situation in the Middle East and the protection of Christian communities.”

While the president and the pope still have issues like global warming that reflect their policy differences, a common concern and focus on the human right of religious freedom will certainly have a worldwide impact.

Originally published here.

Haven Can Wait for Refugees

President Trump has been trying to prove his point about the dangers of unvetted refugees for months. On Monday, a radical Islamist did it for him. When a young jihadist walked into the Manchester Arena and detonated his suicide vest, suddenly, the White House’s tough stance on immigration and travel didn’t seem so extreme after all. According to intelligence sources, the bomber had “proven” ties to ISIS and was suspected of making multiple trips to Libya and Syria. His family, it’s been learned, were refugees themselves — fleeing to Britain years ago to escape the reign of Muammar Qaddafi.

Unfortunately, this is exactly the crisis facing America: closing the door that Obama opened wide to Middle Easterners streaming across the border to seek asylum. In what could easily become a dangerous situation for America, hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals have grossly overstayed their limited visas, Congress discovered last year. A whopping 527,127 visitors who were supposed to leave in 2015 didn’t. Obviously, very few immigrants are a threat to American security. But, as too many families can attest, Obama’s lax attitude toward immigration law was another way for the enemy to exploit us.

Like most conservatives, Donald Trump knows that what happened in Manchester is just a preview of things to come here at home if we don’t take the necessary precautions to screen the people pouring into our country. “We must do our part in the United States,” Fox News’s Todd Starnes writes in a powerful op-ed after the horror in Britain. “We must secure our borders, we must investigate those who come here from the birthplace of this radical ideology, and we must do whatever is necessary to prevent American blood from being shed on American soil.”

Part of that, FRC’s Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin pointed out with Stuart Varney, is empowering everyday citizens to speak up when they see something suspicious. “If you look at virtually every one of these terror attacks, somebody knew something ahead of time. There is both individual political correctness and institutional political correctness — and both of them are prohibiting us from doing what we need to do to protect our nation and our people.” The only way to stop the violence is to adopt policy that refuses to be limited by political correctness. That’s exactly what Donald Trump is proposing. In the climate liberals have created, Americans are too afraid of being called a bigot to report anyone who looks suspicious. The Left can talk about tolerance and diversity all it wants until it’s one of its kids lying lifeless on the floor of arenas like Manchester. We have to be willing to take action that puts American security — not sensitivity — first.

Originally published here.

NBA: The Ball Is in North Carolina’s Court

After a year-long struggle over North Carolina’s privacy law, the NBA is finally ready to be a good sport about the policy. League officials announced yesterday that they’re following the NCAA in returning to the state after pulling the 2017 All-Star Game in protest. Now, thanks to a minor tweak to H.B. 2, the NBA is back in business — and proved it by scheduling a return of the 2019 exhibition to Charlotte. Michael Jordan, now the Hornets’ owner, cheered the move, saying, “All-Star weekend is an international event that will provide a tremendous economic impact to our community while showcasing our city, our franchise and our passionate Hornets fan base to people around the world.”

As important as the decision is for the state, it’s a wise one for the league. After the NBA withdrew the game this year, the only one hurting was basketball itself. Ticket sales for the game (which was moved to New Orleans) were in the basement, analysts said. On the eve of the event, the cheapest seats at Smoothie King Center in Louisiana were $184 — a 71 percent decrease from last year in Toronto, where fans were shelling out $644 to sit in the rafters.

Overall, Fox Business tracked, tickets to this year’s game sold for an average of $1,007 on TicketIQ — an enormous drop from 2016, when “the average resale price for the stood at more than $2,000.” Even sales for favorites like the Slam Dunk contest and Three-Point contest were a bargain — costing half as much as last year.

And here’s the irony: Most Americans are fans of the policies these commissioners were protesting! By large margins, people support the idea that men and women should use the restrooms, changing rooms, and showers that correspond with their gender! The NBA’s announcement was especially sweet considering the pressure LGBT activists were putting on the league to leave the state permanently. “We’re not willing to subjugate our moral values or philosophy just for the sake of getting another sporting event,” one state official said. “We all love the NCAA, the NBA, but we have priorities.” Fortunately, they didn’t have to sacrifice either in its quest to accept nothing less but safety for its people and freedom for its employers.

Originally published here.

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