To Whom It May Confirm: Groups Appeal to Senate on Pompeo
It would be difficult not to be impressed with a man who graduated at the top of his class at West Point, earned a degree from Harvard Law, built a successful business career, and served his country — and Congress. Even the most relentless of Democrats would have a tough time poking holes in a résumé like that. But on Thursday, when Mike Pompeo sits before the Senate and defends his qualifications to be the next secretary of state, liberals will still try.
It would be difficult not to be impressed with a man who graduated at the top of his class at West Point, earned a degree from Harvard Law, built a successful business career, and served his country — and Congress. Even the most relentless of Democrats would have a tough time poking holes in a résumé like that. But on Thursday, when Mike Pompeo sits before the Senate and defends his qualifications to be the next secretary of state, liberals will still try.
Of course, the Democrats’ problem with Pompeo isn’t his credentials — it’s his convictions. From his early days in the House to his job at the CIA, Mike’s opponents know that he’s never been easily intimidated. When it comes to protecting America’s interests or the values he cares about, Pompeo — like the president — is fearless. He stands up for what’s right, regardless of which way the political winds are blowing. And Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), for one, thinks that’s exactly what our nation needs. “Director Pompeo is clear-eyed and hard-nosed about the threats we face, and he speaks in the direct, blunt manner of a man who has no time to waste when confronting those threats,” he said.
After the mess President Obama made of America’s reputation and its relationships, Mike would be the powerful presence this administration needs to get our diplomatic efforts back on track. In a letter to Senate leadership, a coalition of 49 groups talked about one of the most important facets of that work: reviving the department’s work on international religious liberty. “Mr. Pompeo,” the group writes to Senators Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), “is a strong nominee who will make international religious freedom a foreign policy priority — a matter which is especially important given that we now know religious freedom, long protected for its own sake, is also intricately connected to the security and prosperity of nations themselves.” As we’ve said for years, the only path to long-term peace is making religious freedom a foreign policy priority. Mike Pompeo understands that.
If you ask most conservatives, one of the greatest tragedies of the Obama years was watching the president turn the State Department into the global headquarters of LGBT propaganda. With an army of 75,000 employees, he set out to convert “unenlightened” countries to his brand of cultural extremism. Now, more than a year into Donald Trump’s term, it’s no wonder that groups like GLAAD and Human Rights Campaign are up in arms about Pompeo’s nomination. They can’t stand the idea of ending these social distractions and returning the agency to its true purpose.
Unfortunately, Obama’s obsession with LGBT issues didn’t just come at the expense of America’s relationships or taxpayer dollars. It also cost the agency any real progress on religious liberty. And unlike Obama’s off-mission social engineering, protecting and promoting our First Freedom is a stated goal of Congress under the International Religious Freedom Act. Besides, the coalition reminds Senate leaders, “Promoting religious freedom is simply good foreign policy. Indeed, one of the pillars of our National Security Strategy, recognizing ‘the hope of every soul to live in freedom,’ is to ‘advance American influence’ by ‘protect[ing] religious freedom and religious minorities.’” With Ambassador Sam Brownback in place and a secretary of state as committed Mike Pompeo, the millions of suffering men and women of faith around the world would finally get the help they need. Contact your senators and urge them to support Mike Pompeo’s nomination.
For more on how Mike Pompeo could transform the culture at the Department of State, click over to my new op-ed in Fox News.
Originally published here.
Haley’s Comment: Ambassador Takes China to Task
If there’s one thing the headlines tell us, it’s that Americans take the simplest things for granted every day. The ability to worship freely or buy a Bible are luxuries for so many people around the world. Just last month, people in China started to notice that online bookstores have stopped selling the Chinese translation of the Bible on major Internet sites. So much for the country’s pledge to protect religious freedom!
For the first time in two decades, Chinese leaders caved to pressure from critics and made a weak attempt to clean up their reputation on religious liberty. But, as our own Travis Weber points out, this latest policy paper shows how little the socialist regime understands the concept. Section I makes it clear that China’s version of religious liberty still puts faith under the thumb of government:
Actively guiding religions in adapting to the socialist society means guiding religious believers to love their country and compatriots, safeguard national unity, ethnic solidarity, be subordinate to and serve the overall interests of the nation and the Chinese people. It also means guiding religious groups to support the leadership of the CPC and the socialist system; uphold and follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics; develop religions in the Chinese context; embrace core socialist values.
That’s not religious freedom! True religious freedom is letting God impact everything we do, not the state. By definition, it fulfills an obligation to God over the state. Unfortunately, socialist societies like China think the state is god and want faith to conform to government policy (not vice versa).
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley sees right through this cheap ploy and called out China for its “assault on their citizens’ freedom.” Pointing to the crackdown on Bibles, she went to bat for the country’s more than 70 million Christians, insisting that “Religious Freedom is one of our most precious rights — one that should be enjoyed by all no matter where they are born.” Certainly, no one should have to “adapt themselves to the socialist society” to exercise that right.
In the meantime, Americans are grateful for the leadership of Ambassador Haley, who isn’t afraid to stand up to countries like China. Incidents like this one also point to our country’s need for a man like Mike Pompeo at the helm of the Department of State. It’s time for our country to pick up the torch Obama dropped and light the world’s way back to freedom.
After all, religious freedom is more than a humanitarian concern. It’s in the interest of our own security to advance it around the world. “Despite a pattern of ongoing persecution and instability in various countries around the world,” Travis explains, “which is clearly related to a lack of religious freedom in those places, we have nevertheless resisted the possibility that homeland security threats exist because we have failed to cultivate religious freedom elsewhere. We tend to want to separate our own national security from worldwide religious freedom.” Emerging evidence, he writes, suggests we’ve been wrong. “With ongoing security threats around the world … shouldn’t we at least be open to the possibility that we need to change our thinking on this issue?”
To find out why our foreign policy leaders should care about religious liberty — and why it’s in the United States’ long-term interests — check out Travis’s new paper, “Religious Freedom and National Security.”
Originally published here.
Planned Parenthood Gets the Ax in Nebraska Budget!
There might not be a more unpopular idea in Nebraska than sending taxpayer dollars to Planned Parenthood. At last check, only 19 percent of voters thought the state should sign another check to America’s biggest abortion business. And late last week, legislators made it clear they were listening.
For the first time since Congress gave back control over their Title X “family planning” dollars to states, Nebraska used it — ending its $2 million partnership with Planned Parenthood in its new budget. For the next two years, taxpayers can relax, knowing that local dollars aren’t going to a group that thinks abortion is the best form of birth control.
Gov. Pete Ricketts (R), who had fought for the budget to “reflect our values,” inked his name to the bill late last week. To the cheers of Nebraskans, he announced, “The budget adjustments I have signed help to further control state spending. Additionally, these bills contain important new budget language, which ensures that Title X taxpayer dollars do not fund abortion services, including abortion referrals, at any clinic in Nebraska.”
But even with voters’ support, this was no easy task. As Nebraska Radio Network points out, Gov. Ricketts really had to stick his neck out to change the budget.
Controversy engulfed the budget when Ricketts inserted language restricting the use of federal family planning funds. The language directs the money only to clinics which provide family planning services without performing abortions, effectively carving Planned Parenthood out of the budget. Supporters had to overcome a filibuster which derailed approval of the budget twice. It passed only when a handful of legislators negotiated a compromise, which changed the language, but left the restrictions in place.
Fortunately for the state, Gov. Ricketts knows that life is worth fighting for. And, like us, he’s grateful for the president’s leadership on the issue. If it weren’t for Trump and the GOP leaders in Congress, Obama’s rules would still be in place — making it almost impossible for states to defund Planned Parenthood. Let’s hope that Ricketts’s courage inspires other governors to do the same!
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
