2 of 2

But he is tellingly silent over who put the wind in his vaunted diplomat's sails, and doesn't consider the most likely reason for Kazakhstan's actions: its concern that enacting the law would put it in conflict with a newly aroused American government and people.

Gunn likewise credits former Ambassador Robert Seiple with "free[ing] scores from prisons, chang[ing] laws and administration of laws, and reduc[ing] human suffering." Although helping "scores" of persecuted people in a world where tens of millions exist is barely grounds for acclaim, Seiple's actual record belies even that modest claim.

Gunn fails to describe the real-world effects of Seiple's constant defense of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright's "moral equivalency" views. Examples:

• Seiple's public comment on a tough report describing China's persecution of religious communities: "China could come into this country [and] do a report."
  
  
• Seiple's take on U.S. policy toward Sudan, as told to Christian Solidarity International's John Eibner: the United States should "just let [the Khartoum government and the rebels] play themselves out." And, remarkably, as told to Nina Shea: "I faced a serious moral dilemma [while president of World Vision]. I had to choose whether to give aid to the south and prolong the war or to stop aid and end the fighting. I decided to give the aid but believe I may have made the wrong decision."
  
  
• Seiple's reference, in his major official speech, to World War II internment of Japanese Americans, and his comment that "many actions of the United States have either been—or were perceived to have been—insensitive to Islam" as his sole examples of America's allegedly "shameful history" of religious persecution. Notably, the speech made no call for corresponding "sensitivity" from radical Islamist regimes.

Gunn and Seiple ignore the positive developments created by the religious liberty movement, ignore the failures of State Department-centered diplomacy, overstate the stability of dictatorships, and misunderstand one of history's most enduring phenomena: the power of aroused, decent men and women to shape the world for the better.

Copyright © 2003 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

first page |  2 of 2

share this page

April (Web-only) 2003, Vol. 47