Twenty-Eight Years of Standing for the Persecuted — and the Party That Left the Room

October 27 is International Religious Freedom Day. On that day in 1998, President Bill Clinton signed the International Religious Freedom Act into law. Twenty-eight years later, I want to give thanks for what our nation did, pray for those who still suffer for their faith, and speak plainly about where I believe our country stands today.

A law America chose to write

The bill was H.R. 2431, introduced by Congressman Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia. It passed the House on May 14, 1998, by a vote of 375 to 41. The Senate passed it on October 9, 1998, by a vote of 98 to 0. The House agreed to the Senate's changes by voice vote, and on October 27 it became Public Law 105-292.

Think about that Senate vote. Ninety-eight to nothing. Men and women who disagreed on nearly everything agreed that America should stand up for people imprisoned, tortured, and killed for what they believe.

The Act established an office at the State Department led by an Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, and it created the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. For the first time, the defense of believers around the world became a fixed part of American foreign policy, not an afterthought.

No other Western country has done this with the same consistency and the same weight. The United States, more than any other Western nation, has helped advance religious freedom in the world. I say that not out of pride, but out of gratitude to God, because our freedom is His gift before it is any government's.

What a Democrat president said in 1998

Read President Clinton's signing statement. He wrote:

"The United States was founded on the right to worship freely and on respect for the right of others to worship as they believe."

And again:

"When we promote religious freedom we also promote freedom of expression, conscience, and association, and other human rights."

He announced his intention to nominate Dr. Robert Seiple as the first Ambassador at Large created under the Act. To be fair to the record, President Clinton also voiced reservations about parts of the law — the economic sanctions provisions and some limits he believed it placed on presidential authority. But he signed it, he praised Congress for passing it, and he spoke of America's founding in the language of freedom of worship.

That was the Democratic Party of 1998. A Democrat president could stand beside a Republican congressman's bill and call religious freedom "a central element of U.S. foreign policy."

The party that left the room

Here is my conviction, and I state it as my own opinion and commentary: Clinton's Democrat party doesn't exist anymore. In my view, today's Democrats are extremist leftists who are grounded in Neo-Marxist ideology — an ideology I believe is, at its root, Satanic — and not in allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.

I do not say that lightly, and I do not say it about every person who votes Democrat. Many sincere believers still do.

I say it about the direction of a party and its ruling ideas.

Marxism, old or new, has always seen faith as a rival to be managed, shamed, or removed. It divides people into oppressors and oppressed and asks the state to be the final judge of conscience. Wherever that ideology has ruled, churches have been closed and believers have been jailed. A movement that sees the world through that lens cannot be trusted to defend the freedom of the church — at home or abroad.

The Constitution does not grant us our rights; it recognizes them as coming from our Creator and binds government to respect them. The First Amendment begins with the free exercise of religion for a reason. Allegiance to that Constitution is not a partisan matter. It should be the common ground of every American leader, as it was in 1998 when the Senate voted 98 to 0.

What our State Department said this year

This year the U.S. Department of State marked the day with a short video on X (about 45 seconds; I describe it here only from the post's own words). The post read:

"America, more than any other nation in world history, was shaped by the Christian tradition of spreading the gospel unto all nations. Join us in celebrating International Religious Freedom Day."

I am grateful to hear our government say this out loud.

Are you?

Jesus said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations" (Matthew 28:19). Our nation's story cannot be told honestly without that commission.

Remember those in chains

Franklin Graham wrote on the anniversary:

"I am thankful for our religious liberty in this country—but we also need to pray for those around the world who do not have the freedom to worship and live out their faith."

Do you pray for the persecuted?

Scripture tells us, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body" (Hebrews 13:3). Right now, there are brothers and sisters meeting in secret, losing jobs, losing homes, and losing their lives for the name of Jesus. In Belarus, in Sudan, in China.

Freedom of religion is not an abstract policy to them. It is the difference between a prison cell and a Sunday morning.

Paul urged that "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Timothy 2:1–2). So we pray for our leaders — all of them — that they would return to the Constitution and to the God who gave us the liberty it protects.

Our call

Here is what I ask of every member and friend of Threefold Christian Alliance this week:

1. Give thanks. Thank God for the freedom to open your Bible, gather with believers, and speak the name of Jesus without fear.
2. Pray for the persecuted. Name them before the Lord. Ask Him to strengthen them and open prison doors.
3. Stand for the Constitution. Vote, speak, and act as citizens who know that our freedoms come from God and must be guarded.
4. Share the Gospel. Religious freedom exists so that people can hear the truth and choose Christ freely.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free" (Galatians 5:1). That liberty came first from the cross. May our nation never forget it, and may we never stop standing for those who are still waiting to taste it.

— George Bakalov, Founder, Threefold Christian Alliance