With Christian persecution raging across the globe, a broad coalition of experts will be coalescing in Washington, D.C., from Feb. 4-5 for the International Religious Freedom Summit.
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According to IRF Summit co-chair Samuel Brownback, the gathering — which is bringing together 2,000 people — helps foster increased religious liberty for people living in difficult situations around the world.
“Religious freedom [is] for everybody, it’s for everywhere, it’s for all the time,” he said. “So that we can tackle and go at these totalitarian regimes that are pushing against it, we can go against communism and China … and we can really start to try to address this topic.”
Brownback, the former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for international religious freedom, said the most pressing issue right now when it comes to restrictions on religious liberty surrounds totalitarian regimes who have mastered how to “subdue religion” to “stay in control and in power.”
“That’s the very reason why we need to exist … to stand up to this power grab, this power surge,” he said. “And I think maybe the battle is just becoming a lot clearer, even though it’s quite tough and difficult, but it’s basically totalitarianism versus religion, and it’s on a global basis.”
Watch Brownback explain:
It’s no secret that nations like China and North Korea thrive on this dynamic, with the government cracking down on freedom. In other nations like Nigeria, Islamic militants seek power and control and attack Christians in droves, with kidnappings and killings unfolding.
“And this cancer is spreading throughout West Africa,” Brownback said. “You’re seeing this now spread into multiple countries near Nigeria, of this effort of Islamic radicalism and totalitarian mentality of, ‘We’re going to take this over and you’re going to believe in our faith or you’re not going to live.'”
Tragically, experts like Brownback warn that Christian persecution has reached a dangerous fever pitch.
“It’s the highest level of Christian persecution taking place now in the world that there’s ever been in any time in human history,” he said. “But that’s not a reason to despair. It’s really a reason to push for this fundamental right.”
With technology rapidly advancing, Brownback said it’s essential to move aggressively for international freedom to stop rogue governments from using surveillance, artificial intelligence, and other tools to impede people’s freedoms.
“We really probably only have a short window of time before some of these systems are in place in such a profound way that it’s going to make it even that much harder, if not even impossible, to get out from underneath it,” Brownback said.
Watch the interview above for more.
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