The International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, held in Washington, D.C. each year, is a beacon of hope for all of us
By Benedict Rogers in UCA News
In a deeply toxic and polarized political environment in the United States and in a profoundly divided and turbulent world, there is one initiative that stands out as a beacon of hope and light, around which we should all gather.
It is called the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit, which takes place in Washington, D.C. each year.
It brings together people of all faiths, beliefs, and political persuasions around the simple but foundational principle that every human being has the right to choose, practice, share, and change their beliefs.
It is about freedom of conscience, freedom of religion or belief, and freedom of expression.
Spearheading this remarkable endeavor are two Americans who, in many ways, could not be more different — yet epitomise a grace and generosity of spirit that transcends ideological boundaries and is beautiful to behold.
Sam Brownback is a Republican, a conservative Catholic, a former congressman, senator, governor of Kansas, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, and a presidential candidate, and is fiercely anti-Communist.
Whether or not you agree with his politics, he is the embodiment of dignity, humility, and grace in public life.
Two years ago, I was sitting around a table at an IRF conference in Tokyo with him, and someone asked him, “Should I address you as Ambassador, Governor, or Senator?” With a typically humble and gracious smile, he replied, “Well, you could use any of those. Or you could just call me Sam.”
Katrina Lantos Swett is a lifelong Democrat, former congressional candidate, former chair of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, wife of a former congressman, and daughter of long-time congressman, Hungarian Jewish immigrant, and Holocaust survivor Tom Lantos. She heads the Lantos Foundation and is a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints.
Reading their bios and reflecting on the division in American politics today, you would think these two would have little in common. And yet to see them on stage together at the IRF Summit, they appear the closest of friends. Why? Because they are bound together in a common cause captured in what Brownback calls religious freedom “for everyone, everywhere, all the time.”
In essence, what the IRF Summit is about is the adage attributed to Voltaire: “I may not ascribe to what you believe, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
For that reason, this annual gathering brings together persecuted Christians of all traditions from around the globe, Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar and Uyghur from China facing genocide, persecuted Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners, alongside Baha’is, Ahmadiyya Muslims, Yazidis, and Jews facing rising anti-Semitism.
I had the privilege of moderating a panel that included a Uyghur, a Rohingya, a Falun Gong practitioner, and an international lawyer, Dr. Ewelina Ochab, who has written widely about genocide and mass atrocities and had just minutes before our panel been manning a stall selling toys knitted by Yazidis.
On the main stage, the IRF Summit heard from Uyghur activist Rushan Abbas, whose sister, Gulshan, has been incarcerated in prison in China for the past eight years.
We also heard from Grace Jin Drexel, whose father Pastor Ezra Jin, founder of Zion Church, was arrested in China last October.
We heard from Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong — the prime minister — of the Tibetan government-in-exile.
We also heard from Nigerian Catholic Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza, who told the audience that despite the persecution his community had faced from Islamist extremists in Boko Haram, he “decided to raise funds from my own diocese in order to build a mosque for the Muslims. The mosque and the church exist side by side, and both communities, Christians and Muslims, they are really very happy to live together.”
What a vision of hope and reconciliation for the future.
When Brownback, alongside several current Trump administration officials, welcomed former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi onto the stage, many conservatives had palpitations. But that gesture — and the statement she read out from His Holiness the Dalai Lama — is a message the world desperately needs.
The day after the IRF Summit, I gave a talk about my book, The China Nexus: Thirty Years In and Around the Chinese Communist Party’s Tyranny, in a remarkable Chinese dissident bookstore in Washington, D.C.’s Dupont Circle.
The bookstore had originally existed in Shanghai, was shut down during a crackdown, and reopened in the US capital. To my surprise, despite being in constant demand all week, Brownback showed up — and spoke about why religious freedom in China, and my book The China Nexus, matter.
The Summit was followed by a hearing in the US Congress on religious freedom, chaired by Congressman Chris Smith, which heard from Ambassador Brownback, Grace Jin Drexel, and former USCIRF Chair Dr. Stephen Schneck. It was a profoundly important moment.
Human dignity, human liberty, human rights, and human life are surely bipartisan concerns — always.
The world is more divided today than I have known in my lifetime. It has more conflicts than I have ever known. There are crises in the headlines — Ukraine, Gaza, Iran, Venezuela. But there are many others which deserve more attention, not least those in China, North Korea, and Myanmar.
It is clear that the IRF Summit is a way of bringing like-minded people from differing faiths and political traditions together to speak with one voice against the atrocities perpetrated against humanity of all races, religions, creeds, colors, and affiliations. It should be strengthened and supported. It is a beacon for us all.
The day before the IRF Summit began, I went to Holy Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
During Mass, I prayed for all communities facing persecution because of their ethnicity and religion, and immediately after Mass, I knelt and prayed specifically in front of the image of Our Lady of China, for my Catholic friend Jimmy Lai, who had just been convicted on trumped-up charges in Hong Kong and earlier this week sentenced to 20 years in jail.
But as always, and in the spirit of IRF, my prayers are not limited to my co-religionists. They are for everyone, everywhere, all the time.
Until the human heart is free to praise and worship unimpeded, until the human soul is liberated to pray without constraint, and until the human mind and conscience are free to think unhindered, none of us are free.
So with that in mind, we must all fight for freedom of religion or belief — for everyone, everywhere, all the time.
This article was originally published in UCA News.