Sam Brownback on the Urgency of Religious Freedom
Religious freedom — the ability to live and act according to one’s faith — is one of our most fundamental human rights. But as Western society has secularized, the importance of religious freedom seems to have been eclipsed by other concerns. Indeed, freedom of religion is too often devalued in the public square, and in some places in the world, is under direct — and even violent — assault.
No one has put more thought into this urgent concern and what to do about it than Sam Brownback, returning for his fifth interview with Wesley on Humanize. In their discussion, Brownback explains why religious freedom is at the core of liberty and explains why he considers religious freedom to not “only” be a fundamental human rights issue, but an urgent concern for the free world’s national security. He also engages his considerable knowledge to discuss various threats to religious freedom internationally as well as the status of the issue in the United States.
Ambassador Brownback last served in government as the Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom in the first Trump administration from February 2018 to January 2021. Before that, he served his state of Kansas as Governor, U.S. Senator, a member of the House of Representatives and Secretary of Agriculture. While a member of the Senate, he worked actively on the issue of religious freedom in multiple countries and was a key sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
Brownback currently serves the non-profit sector as an activist promoting freedom of religion. He is co-chair of the International Religious Freedom Summit and is a Senior Fellow at Global Christian Relief. He is also chairman of the National Committee for Religious Freedom, which he founded in 2021.
Show Notes
- The Brownback Group
- International Religious Freedom Summit
- National Council for Religious Freedom
- NCRF’s Religious Freedom in America Conference
- National Committee for Religious Freedom
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