Just In: Pompeo On Religious Freedom

In a recent speech held in the state of Iowa on religious freedom, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called religious freedom, “our first freedom – according to the Constitution,” and said, “A high respect for this inalienable right guides our administration.”

Religious freedom remains under threat in many countries. Secretary Pompeo pointed out that four out of five people around the world don’t enjoy full religious freedom. In order to improve conditions for people seeking to exercise their freedom of conscience, the United States is using all the tools it has at its disposal, including naming countries that violate this fundamental right:

“We’ve called out China’s war on faith. Its mass detention of Uyghurs, its godless decisions to replace church displays of the Ten Commandments with words from General Secretary Xi has not gone without being called out.”

Over the past two years, the State Department has hosted two Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom, where nations and religious leaders from around the world gather with the aim of protecting the fundamental right of religious freedom.

America is deeply committed to protecting the fundamental freedoms of people around the world. This is a proud legacy of the nation’s founders, who built the United States on a commitment to guarantee the American people certain unalienable rights that are laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, said Secretary Pompeo.

“Our nation’s foreign policy must be grounded in [that] central understanding,” declared Secretary Pompeo. “That’s the commitment that’s made us a shining star of liberty in the world. . . .Our house of foreign policy is built on solid rock, on these bedrock principles that were made at our founding.”