Religious freedom: Trump taps Brownback, advocates applaud – USA TODAY

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has been nominated to head the Office of International Religious Freedom under the State Department. Video provided by Newsy Newslook

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback talks to the media during a news conference Thursday, July 27, 2017, in Topeka, Kan. President Donald Trump nominated Brownback to be ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.(Photo: Charlie Riedel, AP)

WASHINGTON For advocates of religious freedom, President Trumps appointment of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to be Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom is a much-needed jolt from an administration that they feel has been otherwise sluggish to act on critical protections for people of faith.

If confirmed, Brownback will be be the U.S. governments representative on religious freedom abroad. He also has the task of advocating within the State Department for a greater focus on the issue, even at times when it may not run in lockstep with economic or military interests.

You need somebody who feels it in his bones and David Saperstein really did feel it in his bones and so does Sam Brownback, this is why Im grateful to president Trump, of whom Ive been a ferocious critic, Robert George said. Rabbi David Saperstein held the ambassador-at-large position most recently during the Obama administration.

On the campaign trail Trump had promised that the first priority of my administration will be to preserve and protect our religious liberty.Trump was able to get conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the bench, a move which religious freedom advocates celebrated.

Early in his presidency Trump was reportedly considering an executive order that would scale back Obama-era protections for gays and lesbians, andreligious freedom advocates pressed him to move forward. But Trump ultimately signed a version that critics including George felt didnt go nearly far enough.

It was so watered down in the end that when it was issued it had no practical significance that I could see, said George, who was chairman of the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2015 and 2016.I do not give the Trump administration high marks at all, so far, on religious freedom issues domestically ... Internationally I think it is too early to tell, but Im hoping.

We think that President Trump made a great choice in picking Brownback, said Emilie Kao,director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion & Civil Society at the conservative Heritage Foundation. I think its a very positive step on international religious freedom. I think that theres still much more that the Trump Administration could still do on domestic religious freedom.

I think hes almost made for the job and the job was made for him and he cares deeply so I think its a perfect appointment, former Virginia congressman Frank Wolf told USA TODAY.

Wolf introduced the law the International Religious Freedom Act which created the ambassador-at -large position. Brownback,who was a senator 1998 when the legislation passed, was a key player moving the legislation through the Senate.

Wolf, a who left Congress in 2014 after more than three decades,said the administration is going to do well on religious freedom and the reason we havent seen as muchis because theres no one at home,referring to the fact that the administration is not yet filled critical positions throughout the government.

Former Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., is pictured Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, April 12, 2013. Wolf introduced legislation that created the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta, AP)

Certain aspects of religious freedom domestically can be a bitterly partisan, such as battles over whether faith groups can be ordered to provide birth control in employee health insurance plans.But internationally, religious freedomis an overwhelmingly bipartisan issue.

The law that created the ambassador-at-large position, passed in the House by 375-41 and 98-0 in the Senate in 1998. An amendment to the bill in 2016 that strengthened the powers of the office passed by a voice vote in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate.

Saperstein, who was nominated to be ambassador-at-large by then-president Barack Obama, told USA TODAY that the basic areas of religious freedom rights freedom to worship, educate, speak about faith, etc. have broad bipartisan support domestically. The former ambassador-at-large said the friction comes with competing claims, moral claims, between religious liberty rights and other civil rights womens rights and LGBT rights, in particular so there are tensions in these claims. Do people have a religious freedom right to discriminate against other people?

He also cited friction over if corporations have religious freedom rights or if tax-exempt religious institutions can take a political stance, as dividing issues in the U.S.

Saperstein said there are important claims on both sides of these issues but they pale in comparison to the persecution happening abroad. More than three-quarters of the worlds population live in countries where restrictions on religion are either high or very high, according to Pew Research Center.

I pray for the day that the struggles for the religious freedom on a global level will be about whether corporations have religious freedom claims, whether clergy can use tax deductible money to endorse candidates how to best balance out competing claims between religious liberty claims and womens rights and LGBT rights claims, Saperstein said. He said that people around the world are subject to torture, prison and even death for their beliefs.

Saperstein pointed to Brownbacks long track-record of support for religious freedom issues when USA TODAY asked if the Kansas governor was the right pick to take over his job.

Its an issue he knows, he knows well and cares deeply about, Saperstein said.

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Andrew Bennett, the Canadian ambassador for religious freedom from2013 to2016, warned that Brownback may find himself arguing with othergovernment agencies over foreign policy.

At times, you know, Gov. Brownback and his office are going to find themselves working against other particular priorities that the United States might have in its foreign policy and so the challenge for Gov. Brownback is going to be to stand up in defense of religious freedom and to speak out, Bennett told USA TODAY.

Despite the bipartisan support for the position, some worry Brownback who has been opposed to strengthening protections for the LGBTcommunity could take the post in the wrong direction.

The position is obviously one that deals with religious discrimination and protecting people from religious persecution around the world which is something that, you know, LGBTQ people share in common. In lots of places where theres reallya lot of persecution that takes the form of religious discrimination, it also takes the form of anti-LGBT discrimination, said David Stacy, the government affairs director for the LGBT advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign.

Brownback has opposed gay marriage and as governor signed a law that allowed university groups to restrict membership, critics said that could lead to discrimination.

With Sam Brownback were certainly very worried that he will promote a particular brand of religion," Stacy said."Religion does not need to be in conflict with LGBT equality, but if you put someone like Sam Brownback in this position,he does view it that way: that its a zero-sum game

Some in Kansas may be happy to see Brownback go, after he ordered sweepingtax cuts that hampered the state's economy and narrowly won re-election in 2016.

Sam Brownback will be remembered for becoming the most unpopular governor in America. His tax experiment failed to grow the economy as he had promised, Kansas State Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley tweeted after Brownback was nominated.

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Religious freedom: Trump taps Brownback, advocates applaud - USA TODAY