By Douglas Burton
(WASHINGTON) The difference between the Biden and Trump Administrations on religious freedom couldn’t have been clearer at the Religious Freedom Summit in Washington last Wednesday.
It was the first time for the White House to send a Vice President to address the 1800 religious activists from dozens of faiths, and Vice President J.D. Vance gave an erudite and pointed speech. There has been abuse of religious people by government, he pointed out and assured his listeners, “Hopefully our Administration can help.”
“The administration is intent on not just restoring but expanding the achievements of the first four years [of Mr. Trump’s leadership] and certainly of the last two weeks,” he said.
“In recent years, too often has our nation’s international engagement on religious liberty issues been corrupted and distorted to the point of absurdity,” Mr. Vance said. “How did America get to the point where we’re sending hundreds of thousands of dollars abroad to [nongovernmental organizations] that are dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe? That is not what leadership on protecting the rights of the faithful looks like, and it ends with this administration.”
The Trump administration will uphold the core American value of religious freedom – the first freedom enumerated by the founders in the U.S. Constitution, and it will expand protections for people of all faiths while rolling back federal censorship efforts, “used to prevent Americans from speaking their conscience and speaking their mind,” Vice President Vance said Wednesday.
Nigerian human rights lawyer Kola Alapinni gave his take on the Vice President’s speech to TruthNigeria.
“There will be a basic change in policy toward religious freedom,” Alappini told TruthNigeria. “Taking the nation of Nigeria off the list of Countries of Particular Concern was a huge disservice,” he added. “CPC means that the US is saying ‘we have our eyes on you.’ Yet the previous Administration comes along and takes them off the list. After that, the killings in Nigeria went up.”
What do you see as the aspiration of Nigerians now?
“We expect to see where Nigeria is designated as a country of particular concern. Name them and shame them, and we will start to see changes in their behavior,” Alapinni said.
Vance spoke on the third day of an annual summit that handled persecution problems of Christians in Syria, Armenia, Nigeria and many other countries. On the first day of the summit, Rep. Gus Bilirakis and Rep. Chris Smith joined a panel on the trials of Nigerian Christians working their way through a Christian genocide.
