Category Archives: Freedom

(Editor's note: Part three of a four-part occasional series about Norman Rockwells paintings the Four Freedoms)

The third of the Four Freedoms outlined by Franklin Roosevelt and illustrated by Norman Rockwell in the early 1940s, is freedom from want.

This freedom isnt explicitly spelled out in the Constitution like the first two -- freedom of speech and freedom of worship. Yet the freedom from want is perhaps implicit in the safeguards our Founders intended.

In the Constitution, the Founders prohibited the taking of life, liberty or property without due process of law. Likewise, they expressed in the Declaration of Independence our inalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

What Roosevelt and Rockwell later referred to, in FDRs words, was an economic understanding which will secure every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants. When they suggested this in the early '40s, the U.S. was fighting Nazi Germany, which was systematically stripping people of rights, possessions, and even life itself based solely on race or creed. In this context, Roosevelts affirmation of a freedom from want became a direct attack on what Hitler represented.

In our own time, freedom from want stands for the belief that every person should have a reasonable opportunity for employment earning wages sufficient to support oneself and ones family. As jobs grow more scarce through technology advances and often pay less than a living wage, this basic freedom becomes harder and harder to assure.

Yet if we are to go beyond merely protecting the bare right to life, and instead assure the opportunity for each person to survive and thrive, well need policies and programs to educate our children and to create new jobs in which folks can be gainfully employed. Whats more, leaving this to the private sector alone wont work. In a constant race to the bottom line, businesses daily automate or outsource jobs and lay off workers to be more competitive with their rivals.

Government incentives and controls are needed to encourage investment in job training and creation that can move us toward the day when the freedom from want becomes a reality for all.

This does not mean folks who can work but choose not to should get a free handout. Instead, it means we should extend a hand up to all able-bodied workers -- like FDR did with the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. This remarkable program generated hundreds of thousands of jobs and major public improvements, such as the wonderful buildings at Black Hawk State Historic Site we still enjoy today.

The point is, we cannot reasonably expect people to work and support themselves if decent jobs arent available.

Protecting the freedom from want is a tough challenge, particularly in an age where jobs give way daily to automation. But with all the public works that need improving across America -- from roads to railroads to schools to bridges to energy farms -- there are a vast number of potential jobs that could both make America stronger and allow folks a living wage to move us towards securing the freedom from want.

As this series on the Four Freedoms suggests, we will need to work together and embrace what unites us to make this freedom alive and real for us all.

Mark W. Schwiebert, an attorney, served as mayor of Rock Island for 20 years.

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Freedom from want essential to the Founders - Quad-Cities Online

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC) has sought pricing and marketing freedom to help bring to production a one-trillion cubic feet gas discovery that will open up a new sedimentary basin after over three decades.

ONGC, which has opened for commercial production six out of Indias seven producing basins, has made a significant natural gas discovery in the Gulf of Kutch of Gujarat coast that can produce about three million standard cubic meters per day, a senior company official said.

This will open up the countrys eighth sedimentary basin the first in over three decades for oil and gas production in two years.

We can bring to production the find in 23 years time, he said. The present government-mandated gas price of $2.48 per million British thermal unit does not make the discovery commercially viable. Since the find is in shallow waters, it does not qualify to get the $5.56 per mmBtu cap price set for difficult fields, the official said. The current rates of gas are uneconomic, he added.

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Gas discovery: ONGC for pricing freedom - The Hindu

WASHINGTON, D.C. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, President Trumps nominee for international religious freedom ambassador, describes religious freedom as the choice of what you do with your own soul.

If confirmed, the 60-year-old, two-term Republican governor, former U.S. senator and one-time presidential candidate would be the first politician confirmed as the ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Previous ambassadors were religious or nonprofit leaders, and Brownback would follow a rabbi and a Protestant minister.

Religious Freedom is the first freedom, he said in a tweet responding to Trumps announcement. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

Here are five faith facts about this Methodist-turned-Catholic politician:

As senator, he supported the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which also created the ambassadorial post.

During his two terms as governor, his actions on international religious freedom would be minimal, said Rabbi David Saperstein, the most recent international religious freedom ambassador. But Brownbacks support of the State Department office while he was senator, and his efforts to end the South Sudan civil war, were noteworthy, Saperstein said.

Issues of religious freedom were very much at stake in his lead work on the Sudan Peace Act, he said, adding he thinks Brownback will be an effective ambassador-at large.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, at far right, and three bishops attend the religious freedom rally on Feb. 17, 2016, in Topeka, Kan. With Gov. Sam Brownback is, from left, Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Bishop Edward J. Weisenburger of Salina, and Bishop Carl A. Kemme, of Wichita. (Credit: Photo courtesy of Joe Bollig/The Leaven.)

Brownback has been a bit of a Christian church hopper. He grew up a Methodist butconverted to Catholicism in 2002.Today he attends Topeka Bible Church, said Teresa Jenkins, a spokeswoman for the nondenominational evangelical church with an average weekly attendance of 1,400.

Sometimes, he rises early for Mass before joining his family at the church, calling the routine, according to author Jeff Sharlet, a great mixture of the feeding.

Sharlets book,The Family, about a secretive Christian group to which Brownback belonged, said the governor was baptized not in a church but in the Catholic Information Center, a Washington chapel run by Opus Dei.

In 2016, he joined a Rally for Religious Freedom alongside Catholic bishops, the lead pastor of Topeka Bible Church and Barronelle Stutzman, a Washington state florist who was sued after she cited her religious beliefs in refusing to create an arrangement for a gay wedding. I have never seen a bigger rally at this statehouse than this one, Brownback told the demonstrators, according to a Catholic diocese website. It is fantastic.

When then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry, now U.S. energy secretary, invited 49 other governors to attend The Response: A Call to Prayer for a Nation in Crisis in Houston in 2011, Brownback was the only other governor who showed up in person. (One other sent a video.)

In 2012, he was criticized by church-state separationists for promoting a ReignDownUSA.com prayer event for which he said, Weve been favored like no nation in history and yet too often weve forgotten God.

The National Association of Evangelicals called Brownback a strong candidate. Faith and Freedom Coalition declared help is on the way after dozens of reports of Christian persecution abroad in the last month alone. Southern Baptist ethicist Russell Moore noted Brownbacks dealing with AIDS in Africa and advocating on behalf of persecuted religious minorities. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson called him a man of deep personal faith.

The 2016 bill allows religious organizations to establish religious belief as qualification for membership, he said at that time.

The ACLU, reacting to his nomination, said, In Gov. Brownbacks view, religious freedom has meant issuing a license to discriminate against others, especially against LGBT Kansans.

University of Vermont political science professor Peter Henne said a Brownback appointment could change emphasis on LGBTQ issues abroad: If there are countries repressing LGBTQ people for reasons they claim are related to religion, we might not push back on that as much as we would otherwise, he said.

Read more:

5 faith facts about Sam Brownback: Political champion of religious freedom - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

ATLANTA-- How do you define freedom? Gwinnett County teacher Alex Robson is completing a 48-state tour to ask everyday people how they define it.

Robson is asking people what freedom means to them, where they live and how they express freedom. He calls it the "Freedom Summer," and along the way he is collecting note cards - asking people to write how they define the term.

Traveling around his summer school teaching schedule, Robson made it a point to drive to each of the 48 states and 78 cities during the Freedom Summer tour so that he could reach as many people as possible.

Over the last 10 years of Robson's Freedom Cards project, Robson has interviewed celebrities, politicians, and everyday people to see how they define freedom.11Alive reached out to Robson about his Freedom Summer project.

His interview is below:

What is the most powerful story you've heard while collecting the Freedom Cards?

While I was in Kansas, I met a Gold Star Mother who is a mother who lost a child while serving in the military. She and I had quite a connection because I have the same name as her son, Alex. She made his favorite meal and we talked a lot about how for everyday people Alex was a soldier who died in battle and that it was an honorable way to die. To his parents, he wasn't a soldier. He was their son and he never came home. They didn't just sacrifice a soldier; they sacrificed their son. On their Freedom Card, they had a picture of their son and the words "this is the face of freedom."

How do you define freedom?

My definition of freedom is that you can have dreams and you can act on those dreams without people telling you not to. As a teacher, some of my students don't have the same opportunities that other students have. Many of them face obstacles, whether it is socioeconomic or have families that are not able to support them. I believe that being a teacher helps me spread freedom in America.

"All of these stories are connected and interwoven in a complex way," Robson says. "Even though we are inherently different, we are all connected that we get to share the same freedom."

To participate in the Freedom Cards project, send a 3x5 note card to: The Freedom Cards PO Box 606 Atlanta, Georgia 30301

See the original post here:

Defining Freedom: Metro Atlanta teacher completes 48-state tour to find true meaning - WXIA-TV

Ad will collapse in seconds CLOSE / the national interest July 27, 2017 07/27/2017 10:59 pm By Jonathan Chait Share Photo: Yuri Gripas/AFP/Getty Images

Shortly after 10 p.m., the Senate Republican leadership introduced the Health Care Freedom Act. As advertised, the bill would eliminate the individual mandate, a key underpinning of the exchanges that allow insurance to be made affordable to people too affluent for Medicaid who cant get it through work. But the changes would not end there. States could have more leeway to weaken consumer protections. Health-savings accounts, a tax shelter used by affluent people, would grow. Planned Parenthood would lose federal funding, as would the Centers for Disease Control, whose public health budget would be cut 14 percent.

More detailed analysis is difficult given the time constraints. That is, of course, the point. Since their unexpected election victory forced them to actually write and pass replacements for Obamacare, the Republican proposals have been a series of public-opinion disasters on a scale unseen in the annals of polling. The partys response to the publics disgust has been to conceal its intentions, and the Senate vote is the ultimate expression of that furtive impulse. Mitch McConnells sincere belief is that his plan can only pass if experts and authorities the Congressional Budget Office, insurance actuaries, think tanks cannot inform his members of its likely effects.

A handful of recalcitrant Republican senators called the preliminary outlines of this bill a disaster, and insisted they would vote for it only if the House promised not to pass it into law. Even this absurd condition was not met. House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement indicating that he would like to go to conference and write a different bill, but pointedly refusing to rule out passing the Senate bill unaltered. Attempts to further clarify his position simply underscored Ryans outright refusal to commit himself to the simple and clear promise not to pass the law.

Republican aides say it is a coin flip whether the House will pass the Senate bill. There really is no cover for senators who vote for this, no room to insist they have been fooled if it passes into law unaltered. Their cooperation in the charade has been given willingly.

The public, on the other hand, has ample grounds for complaint. The Senate is engaged in a mockery of legislating. The Senate vote is a scandal, a crime against the public good.

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Three Republicans Susan Collins, John McCain, and Lisa Murkowski voted against the bill.

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The 'Health Care Freedom Act' Is a Scandal - New York Magazine

News & Observer

Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built News & Observer In Raleigh, once its $5 million price tag has been raised, a design by the Durham office of Perkins+Will for the North Carolina Freedom Park will offer an optimistic take on slavery and the African-American experience here. Slated for a postage-stamp ...

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Freedom Park will be an inspirational addition to Raleigh if it ever gets built - News & Observer

GREENSBORO The North Carolina Coaches Association over the weekend announced the East-West All-Star Game coaches for football as well as mens and womens basketball and mens and womens soccer in July 2018.

Freedoms Casey Rogers will serve as West head coach in boys basketball. He will be assisted by Brian Carver of Enka.

Rogers, 37, earned his second N.C. Basketball Coaches Association (NCBCA) District 10 coach of the year honor last season after guiding the Patriots to the NCHSAA 3A West Regionals for the third time in the last four years. Last year, Freedom won 28 games, tied for third-most in program history, despite graduating its top two scorers and starting three underclassmen for much of the year.

Rogers is also a four-time conference coach of the year and was both AP and NCBCA state coach of the year in 2013-14 when he led Freedom to its third state championship.

Rogers, who also enters his sixth year as FHS athletic director, has compiled a 232-79 record in 11 seasons, having led the Patriots to both conference regular-season and tournament titles in three of the last six years.

Other notable 2018 West coaches include Hickorys Barbara Helms (womens basketball, assistant) and Shelbys Lance Ware (football, assistant).

Continued here:

Freedom's Rogers will coach in 2018 East-West Game - Morganton News Herald

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, speaks to reporters on March 23 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP

'Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there,' says Rep. Mo Brooks.

By LOUIS NELSON

07/28/2017 10:36 AM EDT

House Freedom Caucus members lashed out Friday morning at the Senates dramatic failure to move forward on an Obamacare repeal bill, complaining that their colleagues on the other side of Capitol Hill let the American public down.

Let's be clear about what's happened over the last 24 hours in the United States Senate. It was an abject failure of the United States Senate to do what America needs doing, Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), a member of the conservative House group, told CNNs New Day Friday morning. He urged his Senate colleagues not to leave for August recess without making progress on health care and suggested that perhaps a change in Senate Republican leadership might be in order.

Story Continued Below

If they're going to quit, well then by God, maybe they ought to start at the top with Mitch McConnell leaving his position and letting somebody new, somebody bold, somebody conservative take the reins, Brooks said. It's not necessarily anything bad about Mitch McConnell himself personally, but he's got a job to do, and if he can't do it, then as The Apprentice would say, you're fired. Get somebody who can.

McConnell (R-Ky.), the Senate majority leader, and the rest of the GOP leadership team had worked furiously this week to shore up support for legislation that could advance the Republican goal of repealing and replacing Obamacare. After previous efforts at compromise failed to garner the necessary votes, Republicans settled early Friday morning on a skinny repeal intended to advance legislation out of the Senate such that negotiations on a final repeal bill could begin in a conference committee with House members.

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But in a dramatic vote Friday morning, Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined with the Senates 48 Democrats in voting against the skinny repeal, defeating the measure and leaving Republicans without a clear path forward that does not include cutting a deal with the minority. It was McCains vote just after 1:30 a.m., cast with a dramatic thumbs-down gesture from the well of the Senate, that struck down the skinny repeal and sent an audible gasp through the chamber.

Brooks, in his interview with CNN, noted that House Republicans had successfully negotiated a compromise on health care, but not without great gnashing of teeth and a lot of intense emotion. He called the Senates Friday morning vote a failure from the newest member Luther Strange at the bottom to the very top with Mitch McConnell as majority leader, specifically name checking the Alabama senator whose seat he will attempt to take beginning with next months Republican primary.

Other GOP House members were similarly disappointed but sought to deliver an optimistic message that their partys repeal-and-replace efforts were not dead. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), flanked by three other conservative members, said Friday morning on Fox News Fox & Friends that the Senate vote was certainly disappointing and not what we promised the American people but that President Donald Trump had already begun reengaging on the issue.

Appearing with Meadows on Fox News was his predecessor as Freedom Caucus chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who called for a little bit of a shift in how we approach health care. He said efforts by some Republicans in the House to force a vote on a so-called clean repeal that does not include a replacement would put pressure on the Senate to act.

I'm optimistic we can still get it done. People are losing faith but I can tell you we are still staying in, Meadows told Fox & Friends, adding that he spoke with Trump by phone Friday morning after the vote. I can tell you who is staying in: the president is staying in on this fight. He is going to deliver. He made it clear this morning.

Meadows and Jordan both expressed frustration that they and their House colleagues were likely to be sent home for August recess next month with health care left unfinished. Meadows told Fox News that it blows my mind that were probably not going to be here in August.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), in his own Fox & Friends interview, said his vision for transformational health care reform would require the cooperation of at least some Democrats.

If you're going to fail, fail doing what you really fundamentally believe, said Gowdy, who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus. It's not going to get done with 24 hour's notice and a bill that has the word skinny in it. It's hard to persuade people.

Brooks suggested that a failure on healthcare could spell doom for much of the rest of the presidents ambitious conservative agenda, a list that includes an overhaul of the tax code, a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and a major infrastructure package. Health care was placed first in line, Brooks recalled, because an Obamacare repeal would make subsequent goals easier to attain. Without an undoing of former President Barack Obamas signature legislation, Brooks asked, how will the rest of Trumps agenda get done?

Unquestionably the leadership at the top is responsible. The buck stops there. That's why you take on that kind of responsibility, he said. And if Mitch Mcconnell cannot get the job done on this, how is he going to get the job done on the rest of President Trump's agenda over the next three-and-a-half years. As I see it right now, this is a killer.

Jake Lahut contributed to this report.

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Freedom Caucus blasts Senate GOP's 'failure' to pass Obamacare repeal - Politico

David Messenger, acquitted by reason of insanity in the 1998 beating death of his pregnant wife in their Chaplin home, has progressed so far in his treatment that he should be allowed to travel anywhere in the state except Windham County, have a smart phone, and stay out until midnight on weekends.

That was the testimony Friday of a forensic psychologist and the supervisor of Messenger's release in the community at a hearing before the Psychiatry Security Review Board.

Messenger had asked for the phone, a later curfew, and the ability to travel beyond Hartford County. Initially committed in 2001, Messenger has been living in a supervised apartment and receiving treatment at a regional mental-health center in Hartford since 2015, with no violations, according to testimony.

Assistant States Attorney Andrew Slitt, who works out of the Windham office, peppered psychologist Fred Storey and release-manager Archer Bridgeforth with questions about whether a further expansion of Messenger's freedoms would heighten the risk to the public. Both said it would not.

The Psychiatric Security Review Board, which supervises 150 people who were acquitted of crimes by reason of mental disease or defect, will vote on this new request by Aug. 25.

Ellen Lachance, who supervises the staff that supports the board, said it's common for community mental-health teams to ask for additional privileges for patients who are responding well to treatment in part so they can gauge how the person will do when he or she is no longer under any supervision.

In the early years of his commitment, Messenger was confined in the maximum security Whiting Forensic Division at Connecticut Valley Hospital. He has steadily gained freedom which has been unsettling to the family of Heather Messenger, who was 42 when Messenger beat her to death with a fireplace poker. The couple's son, then 5, witnessed the attack on his mother.

"We don't think a killer deserves any privileges and of course wonder how and why he can already have so many and yet ask for more," Hannah Williamson, Heather Messenger's sister, said Friday in an email from Michigan.

"We still believe he should be in jail. After all, Heather was the victim and she is still dead," Williamson said. "He seems to have more freedom than any other 'acquittee.'"

Messenger's 20-year commitment expires in 2021. A Superior Court judge would decide whether to grant a discharge. The prosecution can file a request for continued commitment.

Messenger's long push toward freedom hasn't been lost on Middletown officials. When they learned in 2006 that Messenger at that point was making trips into Middletown escorted by staff, then-Mayor Sebastian Giuliano said he would have a police officer "stapled to his butt" as soon as he left the hospital grounds. CVH in June 2006 voluntarily decided not to let Messenger go on any unsupervised visits. But that order has long since been lifted.

He still is not allowed to drive a car (he has no driver's license). He cannot leave Connecticut, and he must continue to wear his GPS device so his whereabouts can be monitored. He lives in a supervised residence in Hartford, which has a curfew of 11 p.m. on weeknights and midnight on weekends. Messenger's curfew had been 10 p.m.. He is now asking for permission to abide by the later curfew of the residence.

Heather Messenger's family has argued that Messenger should not have been released to the community because he has access to significant amounts of money that he could use to track them down.

"Our position has been well stated, and we regret the decision that was made and, in doing so, we fear for the people in Hartford who may inadvertently run into the killer," Daniel Williamson, Heather's brother, said in 2013.

Williamson and his wife, Melody, have raised Heather Messenger's son, Dane, from boyhood at their home in Illinois.

The Courant has reported that Messenger has access to nearly $2 million in property, bank accounts and investments, including an island house in Maine.

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

Zinke reportedly said Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. (July 27, 2017)

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Acquitted Wife-Killer Asks For Smart Phone, Later Curfew, Freedom To Travel In State - Hartford Courant

Kansans will be glad to see the last of Gov. Sam Brownback, whose disastrous supply-side economic policies have turned the state into a dysfunctional Brownbackistan with spiraling deficits and public services in tatters.

But Brownback, President Donald Trumps pick to lead the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, brings to the office a religious rsum that is bizarre to say the least.

A practicing Catholic himself, Brownback is closely linked with the New Apostolic Reformation. He has appeared at numerous NAR events, including The Response, the huge 2011 prayer vigil hosted by then-Texas Gov. Rick Perry (Brownback was the only other governor to attend); the Kettle Tour, a national series of events meant to link prayers to those of past generations; and four iterations of The Call, prayer rallies organized by NAR leader Lou Engle. Brownback was once even roommates with Engle for several months after his Washington, D.C., condominium burned down.

Brownback was pressured to denounce the movement, which many Pentecostal Christians believe to be a cult, in the 2010 gubernatorial election. He refused to do so, though he said Engle has said things I dont agree with and that they only worked together on human rights and helping people live better.

When Brownback won, NAR leader Chuck Pierce boasted that his prayers had gotten Brownback elected.

Modern Day Prophets

Its easy to see why Brownback wants to distance himself from the NAR as soon as you start learning about the NAR.

NAR founder C. Peter Wagner, Engle, Pierce, and other NAR leaders believe themselves be modern day prophets who will establish dominion over all aspects of American society to prepare it for the Kingdom of God.

For the NAR, the restoration of the Kingdom of God will be the result of active efforts on the part of these new prophets, including the dominion of Christians over the seven mountains of culture and the mass conversion of Jews to Christianity. When apostles hear the word of God clearly and when they decree His will, history can change, Wagner said in 2001.

The churchs vocation is to rule history with God, said Engle.

Because the NAR derives its authority not just from the Bible but also from present day prophecies, the results can be bizarre. For example, NAR leaders have ascribed the problems of citiesliberalism in general, but also specific disasters like earthquakes and terrorist attacksto the cities being controlled by demons. The demon Baal controls the Freemasons; the demon Jezebel controls the Democratic Party.

As The Daily Beast reported two years ago, Wagner said in 2011 that the nuclear meltdown at Fukushima was a result of the Japanese emperor having had sex with the sun goddess, that there is a lot of demonic control in Congress, that it is important to cast spells to protect politicians from witchcraft, and that non-Christian religions are part of the kingdom of darkness.

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His successor, Pierce, said in 2011 that God told him in 2005 that a black man would be elected president; that, in 2008, God said President Obama would cause the United States to split into two nations by abandoning Israel; and that the resulting civil war would tear down, raise up, overthrow, [and] rebuild our society. He added that Obamas 2011 speech about Israel had caused tornadoes in Missouri and that his own prayers can cause earthquakes (as well as electoral results).

Dominion Over United States Politics

Among all the various sects of the American fundamentalist right, the NAR is the most overt about seeking dominion over politics, culture, and all other aspects of daily life. As Pierces comments indicate, the NAR sees no distinction between secular and religious. It is uniquely unapologetic about obliterating the church-state line in order to bring about the End Times.

And, paradoxically, it is open about working in secret, holding that deceptive tactics are necessary to do Gods work.

In 2009, for example, two NAR prophets told Rick Perry that God had anointed Texas to lead the United States into revival and that Perry himself would play a central role. Perry, in turn, organized the Christians-only prayer rally the Response, which drew 30,000 people and which, Perry said, was based on a prophecy from the Book of Joel, which NAR leaders often cite.

Perrys 2012 and 2016 runs for president may have been a sideshow for most people, but for the NAR, they were the hoped-for culmination of dominion over United States politics. Sen. Ted Cruzs candidacy was also framed in explicitly messianic, dominionist terms by his father, Rafael Cruz, a well-known dominionist pastor not affiliated with the NAR.

It Is Time to Cause a Revolution

In this context, seemingly innocuous statements begin to take on a sinister resonance.

For example, at a Washington gathering of the Kettle Tour, Brownback said, Weve made it up the mountain a long way, but we have to make that final assault on the peak. We can make that final leap to the top, if we stay on our knees.

Innocent metaphor? Or reference to Seven Mountains dominionism, which refers to government and other institutions as mountains that must be conquered by believers?

Later, after becoming governor, Brownback declared several statewide Days of Restoration. Does restoration simply mean restoring Christianity to the center of American religious life, or does it refer to the NAR doctrine of restoration of Christian rule over the Earth?

In 2014, Brownback spoke at a Topeka prayer gathering whose organizer said, We need revival, we need a Great Awakening, but it is time to cause a revolution. We need to get some freedom fighters up and going to take this country back.

Typical Christian right rhetoric? Or something more literal and more ominous?

Or, as is more likely the case, something in between, with meanings elastic enough to mean different things to different people?

Even the human rights work that Brownback said he did with Engle, including staged apologies to Native Americans and African Americans, were part of the NAR policy of Identificational [sic] Repentance and Reconciliation, aimed at removing barriers that prevent non-white people from becoming evangelical Christians.

According to Wagner, these barriers are actually demons such as Baal, Leviathan, and the Queen of Heaven, fed by the sins committed against these groups. Brownbacks apology to Native Americans was literally an exorcism.

Redefining Religious Freedom for the World

Once again, the trouble with people like Brownback isnt the beliefsits the actions.

As governor, Brownback delivered on his dominionist promises. He convened multiple prayer gatherings and campaigns. He regularly consulted with Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council. And he issued a wild executive order in 2015 decrying the recent imposition of same sex marriage by the United States Supreme Court and specifically exempting all religiously affiliated organizations from having to recognize legal same-sex marriages or accommodate them in any way.

As the United States new point man on religious freedom, Brownback will surely take his expansive redefinition of religious freedom onto the international stage. Programs that empower women violate the religious freedom of religious conservatives. LGBT equality is against religious freedom. Promoting anything other than the so-called natural family is against religious freedom as well.

Indeed, its an easy step from the dominionist notion that religion must be all-pervasive in all aspects of society to the redefinition of religious freedom to allow discrimination in the workplace, discrimination on the part of public employees, and nullification of legal marriages. There is no place for the secular in this understanding of religion.

Brownback and his allies in the NAR already have a built-in international network of religious extremists. The sponsors of Ugandas Kill the Gays law, for example, were trained by Kansas Citys International House of Prayer, affiliated with Lou Engle, and Engle frequently exhorted his followers to support the backers of the bill.

We dont know, thanks to Brownbacks equivocation, how much of the dominionist theology of the NAR he believes and how it might impact his actions in his new international role.

Does Brownback see his role as a secular one promoting the value of religious freedom for people of all faiths? Or does he, like his partners in numerous religious events and political initiatives, see it as a divinely ordained mission? Or, once again, somewhere in between? Does the United States chief international representative for religious freedom believe that he must rule history with God?

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Does Trump Religious Freedom Pick Sam Brownback Believe in Dominionism? - Daily Beast