Brownback named ambassador-at-large
Religious freedom advocates applaud governor’s selection
WASHINGTON For advocates of religious freedom, President Trump’s appointment of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to be ambassador-at-large for International Religious Freedom is a much-needed jolt.
If confirmed, Brownback will be the U.S. government’s representative on religious freedom abroad. He would have the task of advocating within the State Department for a greater focus on religious issues, even when they may not run in lockstep with economic or military interests.
“You need somebody who feels it in his bones, and David Saperstein really did feel it in his bones, and so does Sam Brownback. This is why I’m grateful to president Trump, of whom I’ve been a ferocious critic,” said Robert George, who was chairman of the independent U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2015 and 2016. Rabbi David Saperstein held the ambassador-atlarge position during the Obama administration.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised that the “first priority of my administration will be to preserve and protect our religious liberty.” Trump got conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch confirmed to the bench, a move religious freedom advocates celebrated.
Early in his presidency, Trump considered an executive order that would scale back Obama-era protections for gays and lesbians, and religious freedom advocates pressed him to move forward. Trump signed a version that critics — including George — said didn’t go nearly far enough.
It was “so watered down in the end that when it was issued, it had no practical significance that I could see,” George said. “I do not give the Trump administration high marks at all, so far, on religious freedom issues domestically. ... Internationally, I think it is too early to tell, but I’m hoping.”
“We think that President Trump made a great choice” in Brownback, said Emilie Kao, director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society at the conservative Heritage Foundation. “I think it’s a very positive step on international religious freedom. I think that there’s still much more that the Trump administration could still do on domestic religious freedom.”
“I think he’s almost made for the job, and the job was made for him, and he cares deeply, so I think it’s a perfect appointment,” former Virginia congressman Frank Wolf told USA TODAY.
Wolf introduced the law — the International Religious Freedom Act — which created the ambassador-at-large position. Brownback, who was a senator in 1998 when the legislation passed, was a key player moving the legislation through the Senate.
Wolf, who left Congress in 2014 after more than three decades, said the administration is “going to do well” on religious freedom, and “the reason we haven’t seen as much is because there’s no one at home.” The administration has not filled critical positions throughout the government.
Aspects of religious freedom domestically can be a bitterly partisan, such as battles over whether faith groups can be ordered to provide birth control in employee health insurance plans. Internationally, religious freedom is an overwhelmingly bipartisan issue.
The law that created the ambassador-at-large position passed in the House by 375-41 and 98-0 in the Senate in 1998. An amendment to the bill in 2016 that strengthened the powers of the office passed by a voice vote in the House and received unanimous consent in the Senate.
Despite bipartisan support for the position, some worry Brownback — who has been opposed to strengthening protections for the LGBT community — could take the post in the wrong direction.
“The position is obviously one that deals with religious discrimination and protecting people from religious persecution around the world, which is something that, you know, LGBTQ people share in common. In lots of places where there’s really a lot of persecution that takes the form of religious discrimination, it also takes the form of antiLGBT discrimination,” said David Stacy, government affairs director for the LGBT advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign. “Having a position in the State Department that is focused on that is something obviously we support.”
Brownback has opposed gay marriage.
“With Sam Brownback, we’re certainly very worried that he will promote a particular brand of religion,” Stacy said. “Religion does not need to be in conflict with LGBT equality, but if you put someone like Sam Brownback in this position, he does view it that way: that it’s a zero-sum game”