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To get to the point you were making, I think the commission should criticize the State Department strenuously for its failure to be on time with its CPCs.

However, they should also be pointing out that [the annual CPC announcement] is the only attention this policy gets. The content of our policy needs to have far more depth than this annual list and the discussion of what that means. The commission has by-and-large not done that.

Why should evangelicals pay attention to this discussion over religious freedom policy?

One, because they are interested in justice. Two, because they are interested in the fundamental interests of their country, especially national security. For me, the two come together in religious freedom.

In Afghanistan, the Taliban was a terrible religious persecutor. When we threw them out by force, of course religious freedom went down. But now it's creeping back up. We have all these problems because we never actually advanced religious freedom in Afghanistan.

What should we be watching for?

I'd invite your attention to whom the Secretary of State is going to name as her ambassador at large. I think this is terribly important. If it's someone who's brilliant and devoted to religious liberty but who doesn't know the first thing about foreign policy or the State Department, it would be very difficult to make a way in that building, let alone in the foreign policy establishment.

Secretary Clinton has named an ambassador at large for women's issues. I have no doubt she will work directly under Sen. Clinton. This ambassador at large for religious freedom has never been that elevated. From the very beginning, it was put under an assistant secretary [for human rights]. It's kind of like a general working for a colonel.

The premise of the [IRFA] bill back in 1998 is that this issue is not getting enough attention. Sticking [the ambassador at large] under that situation is a continuation of the problem that international religious freedom is bureaucratically and functionally buried.

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April (Web-only) 2009, Vol. 53