The Eagle Observer | by Harold Pease, Ph.D|Oct. 9, 2019
“Our nation was founded on the idea that our rights do not come from government but from God,” said Donald Trump, before the United Nations Sept. 23, 2019. “Regrettably, the freedom enjoyed in America is rare in the world.”
He explained that 80% of the world’s people do not have freedom of religion and instead face religious persecution. “Today, with one clear voice, the U.S. calls on the nations of the world to end religious persecution,” Trump said. “As President, protecting religious freedom is one of my highest priorities, and always has been.”
It was the strongest, indeed the only, real defense of religious freedom given by a U.S. president before this world body. It merits the accolades of all people.
“The United States of America calls upon the nations of the world to end religious persecution, to stop the crimes against prisoners of faith, to release prisoners of conscience,” Trump continued. “Too often people in positions of power preach diversity while silencing, shunning or censoring the faithful,” Trump said. “True tolerance means respecting the right of all people to express their deeply held religious beliefs. I ask all nations to join us in this urgent moral duty.”
This was not a surprise to the religious community. Before the event, the White House issued a statement, “The President is working to broaden international support for ongoing efforts to protect religious freedom in the wake of increasing persecution of people on the basis of their beliefs and a growing number of attacks on and destruction of houses of worship by state and non-state actors.”
How serious is the danger to Christianity, said to be “by far the most persecuted” faith on the earth in an April 2019 study commissioned by the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office? Dede Laugesen, executive director of Save the Persecuted Christians Coalition, recently said, “More Christians have died for their faith over the last 100 years than in all prior centuries since Jesus’ time” (Troy Anderson, “A Dangerous Time to be a Christian,” New American, June 3, 2019).