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IRFA created a system intended to keep the State Department informed about religious freedom in every nation. This act requires federal officials to determine which nations are the most serious violators of religious freedom and to place them on public notice. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) produces an exhaustive annual report and well-researched recommendations for "countries of particular concern" (CPCs).

But all that information and these recommendations are not translating into effective advocacy or improvements in freedom on the ground. The job of our diplomatic corps has not been (until the passage of IRFA) to encourage religious freedom elsewhere. That is the major shift that IRFA called for, and IRFA has largely been ignored.

Some foreign policy realists plead that the United States often does not have much influence over the worst violators of religious liberty. That's simply not true. Strategically, we may not be able to press every violator of religious liberty at once, but when we do apply pressure, we make a difference. Look at Iraq. Shea notes that in that country, where America has enormous influence, the treatment of religious minorities was not a U.S. policy priority until this past summer, when religious freedom was added to the list of U.S. goals in Iraq.

Vietnam is an example both of the positive effects and the dysfunction of the decade-old act. Embarrassed by being designated a CPC, Vietnam opened some churches—but stopped short of the kind of reform that would bring it up to international standards. The State Department, against the USCIRF's advice, took Vietnam off the CPC list in November 2006.

In short, we now risk returning to the pre-IRFA days, when we were too easily tempted to turn a blind eye to thugs who oppressed religious minorities. That's a foreign policy history we were ashamed of. And we are starting to turn red again.

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the State Department's International Religious Freedom division have more information on religious repression and freedom.

Previous Christianity Today articles on religious freedom include:

The Daniel of Religious Rights | Nina Shea is not someone to tangle with. And the persecuted are mighty glad. (August 26, 2005)

Subverting Dignity | Nina Shea on the greatest threat to human freedom today. (August 26, 2005)

Religious Liberty: How Are We Doing? | The challenges of being an international cop for human rights—a report by the first U.S. ambassador at large for religious freedom (October 22, 2001)

Speaking Out: USCIRF's Concern Is To Help All Religious Freedom Victims | The chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom responds to Robert Seiple's claims that it is only cursing the darkness. (November 1, 2002)

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October 2008, Vol. 52, No. 10