The Daily Signal - Ep. 289: The State of Religious Freedom Abroad

Episode Date: September 4, 2018

Religious freedom is facing new threats here in America, but you don’t have to look very far overseas to see that we still have it remarkably good. Andreas Thonhauser of ADF International weighs in about the state of religious freedom abroad, and what his organization is doing to fight for it. Plus: The next season of "The Bachelor" will feature a virgin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Wednesday, September 5th. I'm Kate Trinco. And I'm Daniel Davis. Religious freedom is facing new threats here in America, but you don't have to look very far overseas to see that we still have it pretty good. I recently spoke with Andreas Tonhauser of ADF International about the state of religious freedom abroad and what his organization is doing to fight for it. We'll bring you that discussion.

Plus, the next season of The Bachelor will feature a man committed to abstinence and not everyone's happy about it. We'll discuss. But first, we'll cover a few of the top headlines. Well, just three days after Senator John McCain's funeral in Washington, Arizona governor Doug Deucy announced that he would appoint former Senator John Kyle to Phil McCain's vacated seat. As I contemplated who could best serve our state in the U.S. Senate,

I kept coming back to one name and one person, John Kyle. there is no one in Arizona with the stature of Senator John Kyle. Kyle served in the Senate for 18 years before leaving in 2013, and most recently he worked to Shepard the nomination of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, escorting him from one Senate office to the next. Kyle will serve out the remainder of the year in McCain's office, but hasn't committed to serving the following two years of the remaining term. He said he has no interest in seeking re-election.

Tuesday was the first day of confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, and they became explosive almost immediately, with Democrat senators talking over Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican from Iowa, to try to get the hearings delayed. Listen to the CNN clip. Brett Kavanaugh. Mr. Chairman.

To serve as associate justice. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to be recognized for a question before we proceed. Regular word, Mr. Chairman, I'd like to be recognized to ask a question before we proceed. The committee received just last night less than 15 hours ago 42,000 pages of documents that we have not

had an opportunity to review or read or analyze. You're out of order, I'll proceed. We cannot possibly move forward, Mr. Chairman. I extend a very warm welcome to Judge Havanaugh to have a meaningful hearing on the nominee. There are two daughters.

Mr. Chairman, I agree with my calling Senator Harris, Mr. Chairman, we received 42,000 documents that we haven't been able to review last night. And we believe this hearing should be postponed. I know this is an exciting day for all of you here. And you're rightly proud of the judge. Mr. Chairman, if we cannot be recognized, I move to adjourn. The American people. Mr. Chairman, I move to adjourn.

Directly from Judge Kavanaugh later this afternoon. Mr. Chairman, I move to adjourn. Mr. Chairman, we have been denied real access to the documents we need to advise. Mr. Chairman, regular orders called for. Which turns this hearing into a charade and a mockery of our norms. Mr. Chairman, I therefore move to adjourn this hearing. Okay. Well, as you just heard there, the protesters made a loud splash at the hearing,

heckling senators and provoking police to forcibly remove them. At least 22 were arrested. amid the heckling, Kavanaugh's wife actually removed their two young daughters from the room. Well, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel isn't running for a third term. Here's what he said via CBS's Chicago affiliate. The time has come to make another tough choice. As much as I love this job and will always love this city and its residence, I've decided not to seek re-electure.

Manuel was previously a member of the House of Representatives and Chief of Staff Department. President Barack Obama before becoming the Chicago mayor in 2011. Quote, with record job growth and record employment over his terms in office, Chicago is better and stronger for his leadership. Obama said in a statement, Emmanuel faced high crime rates in Chicago as well as pension issues. President Donald Trump criticized Emmanuel last month, saying in reference to the violence in Chicago, quote, it's called bad leadership.

Well, Bob Woodward, an associate editor of the Washington Post, is soon to release a book titled Fear, in which he claims to quote sources within the White House. The Washington Post says the book is written on deep background, meaning that the sources are unnamed. The book is filled with explosive alleged quotes from people ranging from the White House Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defense. Chief of Staff John Kelly is quoted, as having said at one point to his aides, quote, he's an idiot. It's pointless to try to convince him of anything. He's gone off the rails. We're in crazy town. I don't even know why any of us are here. This is the worst job I've ever had, end quote. The book also alleges that high-ranking aides at certain times would steal papers off the president's desk in order to, in their minds, protect the country. The book is set for release on September 11th.

Colin Kaepernick is starring in a controversial new Nike ad, which says, believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. over Capernick's face, as well as Nike's famous slogan, Just Do It. But now the Wall Street Journal reports the company's stocks have declined slightly, down 2.9% to $79.78. And that's not all. One Twitter user, Sean Clancy, posted a video of him burning his Nike's shoes that has been watched five million times. I'm going to enjoy. Hell, I might buy some Adidas. You know how many other sneakers there are to buy to choose from?

You're going to go ahead, you're going to go ahead and say, hey, buy them our shoes. We stand with people who kneel for the national anthem. Well, sorry Nike. I've been buying you for the past 20 plus years. Not anymore. Not only my burning my favorite pair of Nike's, you are burning your sails. sales. Have a good day. Oh snap. Capernick, who is no longer in an NFL team, famously refused to stand for the national anthem as a sign of protest. He also attracted controversy by wearing socks that

had pigs dressed as police officers. At the time, Capernick released a statement saying, quote, I wore these socks in the past because the rogue cops that are allowed to hold positions in police departments not only put the community in danger, but also put the cops that have the Right intentions in danger by creating an environment of tension and mistrust. I have two uncles and friends who are police officers and work to protect and serve all people. Well, another corporation is coming out for gun control. Levi Strauss, the classic American denim brand, is launching a series of initiatives in an effort to help prevent gun violence. As part of these initiatives, it'll donate over a million dollars over the next four years to various nonprofits and youth activists that work to

and gun violence in their view. We'll see if that money ends up going to support folks like David Hogg. And up next, I sit down with Andreas Tonhauser of ADF International. Did you know you can now listen to all of our events through SoundCloud or just by visiting our events page on heritage.org? You now have access to hundreds of events and compelling discussions on policy issues from your car, on the train, or the comfort of your own home. Visit heritage.org slash events for more information.

or search for the Heritage Foundation on SoundCloud. Well, I'm joined now by Andreas Tonehouser. He's director of External Relations for ADF International, the international arm of Alliance Defending Freedom, which is a large nonprofit here in the United States that defends religious freedom. Andreas, thanks for joining me. Well, thank you for having me.

I want to turn attention here to a new initiative that ADF International is involved with called I'm Human Right, It has a question mark on the end. So I'm human right. And this is a new initiative essentially calling the United Nations to return to the intent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Before we get into that initiative, give us some context. What is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? And what is it meant to do? Well, the University Declaration of Human Rights has been established 70 years ago in order to have a common set of rules, really, that we can, on a global level, live together. So like the right to life, the right to freedom of speech, the right to religious freedom, for example. And it's been after the catastrophe of World War II, where in Europe and really around the world, all of the values of the things, that we have believed in, like the human dignity,

and also seeing all those, witnessing all those atrocities that, for example, Nazi perpetrated and so on, world leaders came together and said, never again. We do not want this to happen ever again, and we need to make sure that this doesn't happen again. So we need to set up a code of conduct, a code of rules, that we can all, regardless of our religion or beliefs, can agree upon. And that was the moment where the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was born.

And up to this day, it has been very, very influential in addressing matters of human rights. And it's the main document. We want to draw attention to this because we believe it's an important document. At the same time, we also want to, as you said, we want to urge the international community to return to the original intent of those human rights because very often we see at those multilateral organizations that we mentioned, very often we see them being hijacked for ideological matters like promoting abortion instead of protecting life, promoting forms of family and marriage that most of the countries who are member states to the UN, especially in Africa, Asia, Latin America would not agree with. But those agendas are being pushed there. And so we urge to have a, to have a

an understanding of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that is respecting those fundamental rights in the original intent. Yeah, it sounds like from some of those developments that UN bodies have drifted from the original intent of the document. Can you give us just a couple of examples? You kind of alluded to it. Are, you know, is it UN bodies like trying to bring to liberalize abortion laws in these countries?

Give us a couple examples. Yeah, absolutely. No, absolutely. So, for example, one example of what we've been facing is a lot of people confirm me and asking you, why are you working at the United Nations, right? Like, why do you even engage there? And because we don't see anything good coming out of it. We don't see anything happening afterwards. And so, I have to say, I believe they're not the most effective organization that I have seen, but for example, General Secretary Ban Ki-moon had a campaign called Free and Equal with billions of dollars of budget. And if you have billions of dollars of

budget for a campaign that goes on over several years, promoting a certain set of rights, like in this case LGBT rights, using even, you know, people like Mother Teresa as poster childs, to promote those values, you can be inefficient and still go a long way. And that's why it's so important if we're advocating for matters like religious freedom or for the family or for marriage or for the right to life, that we are present also at those institutions because international politics are being made there. And we do see a huge push on countries in Africa and Asia to adopt the stance of the Western world on abortion, for example, to adopt the stance of the Western world on family and marriage. It was Pope Francis who called this New Colonialism that we're witnessing

there. Since you also asked the question here in the U.S., there are enough religious freedom issues to concentrate on. But what is also true is that not least because of social media and the digital age, really, our world has become smaller. The issues are globalized now. And we see that see that, especially on the left, there has been intensive collaboration between the Europe, between the U.S., all of the Western world and towards developing nations as well, to push for what they believe is right. And I see on the conservative side that the gap is still sometimes too wide between continents or regions to work together on certain issues. And we believe this is something we have to overcome and have also to work together in order to protect life,

in order to protect religious freedom. Yeah, a lot of, I mean, for some of the reasons you mentioned, just on the bureaucratic and inefficiency side, a lot of Americans get frustrated with the UN, but it's one thing for it to be inefficient. It's another thing to use all of our taxpayer dollars from our country and others to advance ends that are pretty outside the scope of what the UN should be doing. Absolutely. And if I may just add to there, it's not only the UN. There's an organization called OAS, organization for American states based in Washington, 35 member states,

also the U.S. and Canada members of it. They have their own court in Costa Rica, into American Court of Human Rights. And one of the main funders is the U.S. just because of its size and economy and it's unbelievable what kind of values are being pushed there sometimes and we're working there on a permanent level we're present there and try to advocate as well for for religious freedom and family and the right to life but it's it's it's it's it's really important i believe so for for those people who are funding it also to be aware of what is going on there and to take influence in a positive way as well to say you know if you believe religious freedom at home, you should also make sure that this value is being respected

in other regions where you give your money to. So we do have a responsibility. The same is true when we talk about persecution of Christians. We do a lot of work in India where the persecution is growing. And we do this work for our partners who are litigating in the courtrooms there, priests, pastors, lay people who are faithful, who don't want to do anything else, but just live according to the faith, of being dragged before the court,

being accused of missionary work, unlawful missionary work, and terrible situations happening there. And at the same time, we see all of the Western world not addressing this with India. And so here we have a great responsibility. Europe has it. the U.S. has it and other nations as well who have those ties to those nations.

Well, as you mentioned earlier, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is turning 70 this year, and you have an initiative to call the United Nations back to the original intent of that document. Tell us about that initiative and how people can actually sign on to it. Yeah, so thank you for mentioning this initiative. It's called I'm Human Rights. I'm human right.org. Everybody can check it out there. And there's a possibility to sign your support for something we call the Geneva Statement. And this Geneva Statement, which will be delivered together with all the signatures that we can collect around the world, will be delivered at this anniversary in December to delegates of the United Nations and to the international community as such,

to make the point that we have to refocus it. We have to go back to the original intent. of human rights. I invite everyone to go online to go to the website. I'mhumanright.org. Now, read through the petition, read through what we're asking the international community. And if you agree with it, which I really hope, please sign a petition as well. Make your voice heard. Help us to make our voice heard at the United Nations. I believe it's a great and much needed initiative. Terrific. Well, Andreas, thank you so much for your work and for joining us. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

The next Bachelor on the popular reality show is Colton Underwood, who says he is a virgin. It doesn't appear from my admittedly very not in-depth research that Underwood is motivated by any particular religious beliefs or religious beliefs at all. But whatever the reason, he's already been criticized for being a virgin. Talk show host Wendy Williams said back this summer, speaking about Underwood's admission on the Bachelor, or I think it was actually the Bachelor Ed, sorry. quote, I don't trust people that have never had sex. And the headline of a BuzzFeed news piece is, quote, The Next Bachelor is Colton the Virgin and many fans are not pleased.

Joining us to discuss is Rachel Del Judas, who wrote an op-ed for the Daily Signal this summer, about how Underwood was treated after his admission that he hadn't had sex. Rachel, thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me here today to talk about this. Okay, so how do you think we should be handling Underwood? Wood's admission here. I think, I mean, it should not be, here's one way we shouldn't be calling him out and Wendy Williams shouldn't have basically personally slammed him for being a virgin.

Even the title that you mentioned, the announcement that he was going to be the next bachelor, Colton the Virgin. Imagine if someone had come out as LGBT and it was like the next bachelor is transgender. I don't know. I mean, we may see that, but I feel like we wouldn't see it in this culture that prides itself so much on being accepting of other people and being tolerant and putting that as such a pedestal. And personally, whenever I watched Williams rant about this, I could honestly never imagine her saying anything that would have such harsh criticism directed at someone who came out as gay or bisexual transgender. But it was perfectly fine for her to kind of like personally attack him for something that he has chose to do is to be a virgin and say that. And that

was something that he personally disclosed, which was up to him. But I think it's also sad a sad commentary on our society that we have such harsh criticism for people who share these things about themselves, who don't go along with the left's rhetoric about being accepting of other people who may be transgender or bisexual or gay. Yeah, I guess my take from this is that, like, prude shaming is okay in our culture. That's kind of a pejorative term in itself. I don't like to use that word. But it seems like, you know, he's being ostracized by some people. because of this. Like, it seems to be consistent with the principle that the progressive left puts forward,

that you should be true to yourself and just whatever you are is a-okay. I mean, this is definitely consistent with that. It's so consistent with it. I guess don't see why they get off. But we're attacked. People are attacked for stepping out and saying, oh, this is who I am. And then Wendy Williams. And he's not even, he hasn't even mentioned religion as a potential reason or motivating factor.

It's just something that he. Which is, I find very interesting. I really wonder if he's religious. I know. But usually people are upset when people bring religion into it, and he's not even bringing religion into it. Yeah, it was just a personal conviction of his. And something I also thought was interesting,

and this is just my opinion 100%. But I find it interesting that these shows, well, The Bachelor and now The Bachelor will, you know, he'll be the main concessant on. But these shows are centered around finding, like, your soulmate, someone to fall in love with someone to get married to. and there's been so much research that has come out, one from the Family Studies for National Survey of Family Growth,

where it's been proven again and again, these various studies that have happened that people who have the fewer amount of sexual partners, the more successful the marriages are down the road. So if we're going to have successful marriages, like, wow, this is interesting that we're demonizing this guy for not having lots of sexual relationships when it's, in fact, that science has proven

that people, the fewer sexual relationships people have, the more successful the marriages. Well, actually, that's interesting because when I was doing my not very extensive research for this segment, one of the topics that came up was that Sean Lowe, a former bachelor contestant who I believe the article I read said was the only bachelor contestant who actually married the woman he got engaged to at the end of the series. And he was, sorry, this is awkward, but I think he was someone who was, I guess, practicing not having sex before marriage at the time of the bachelor. and I believe spoke publicly about that. And he and his wife are married. I think they're expecting or just had number two.

So yeah, it is sort of interesting that maybe there's a clash between these opposing desires in our society. One, this sort of like have sex whenever you want on demand. It's super important. And two, the desire that I think many people have for a good long marriage. But yeah, I think another point you made in your article that I really liked was, you know, we have these. You know, there's such an aversion to any sort of shaming people. for how much sex they have. There used to be, I don't know if they still exist,

but these slut walks or something where they would like somewhat provocatively push back on that idea and like, oh, that shouldn't be a term of derision, I think was part of it. And so, yeah, it's really interesting that now it's like we've got to have something that we condemn in society. So it's turned all the way around to virgins. Yeah, you're right.

And something that I've noticed too is these kinds of people, a lot of times their convictions are ignored, like the media will praise, people who come out as gay or lesbian or transgender, but then people who talk about these things, sometimes they're ignored, and then when they're not ignored, they're belittled for sharing their personal views on these things.

And even Colton mentioned this, how he said that this was something that he was ashamed of, but now he kind of embraces it. And I think, you know, part of that may be to his own personal walk and what he's learned from that, but I think the very last thing we should be doing as a society that prize ourselves

on being so accepted. is belittle these convictions and these people when they end up talking about them. I'm just really curious why they selected him. They probably had a lot of options and so they selected him knowing this, right? I think there was a lot of, just interest in him after all of this came out.

I think that could be why. I'm curious if maybe the ratings will go up and people will be interested. Yeah. In my more cynical view, I think they might see him as like, oh, such an interesting, like a foreign, from a foreign country.

You're like, it's like you're, you're, oh, I'm a hundred percent sure that's why they think of him. It's like, you know, you come into our show and let's observe you. It's like, I feel like that's kind of what it is. I think it probably is that. I think they probably hope it'll help ratings and be exciting and spur a lot of media coverage. Um, at least on the 30 seconds I saw of him in an interview. It didn't seem like he had like some amazing personality, but whatever. We'll see. But hopefully the show will actually. display him as an example of someone who is fulfilled as a person without this part of their life that so many people nowadays think is essential to your being fulfilled. Yeah, and I would say, you know, he comes from a sports background. And, you know, it seems that men, especially in sports, there is so much pressure that, like, sexual prowess is equal to being manly. And it would be sort of nice if someone could sort of push back on that narrative and be like, if your choice, your decision is to be a virgin or wait until marriage or whatever, that that's also acceptable.

And, you know, you're not any less manly because of it. So that's a lot to put on The Bachelor. This reminds me a lot of the way Pence is treated like by the media. You know, like, oh, Pence, he's never had an affair. He's always with his wife. Like, yes, that's great. We should be happy about that. We should celebrate it.

Right. And I think it sort of shows that so much of our culture is like it's all non-judgmentalism. intolerance until you hit a belief that they don't like. And then suddenly the niceness flies out the window. Well, we'll leave it there for today. Rachel, thank you for writing the piece and for joining us in the studio. Thank you for having me. We'll be with you tomorrow. Thanks for this link to the Daily Signal podcast brought to you from the Robert H. Bruce Radio Studio at the Heritage Foundation. Please be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Google Play, or SoundCloud. And please leave us a review or a rating on iTunes to give us any feedback. We'll see you tomorrow.

You've been listening to the Daily Signal podcast, executive produced by Kate Trinko and Daniel Davis. Sound design by Michael Gooden, Lauren Evans, and Thalia Rampersad. For more information, visitdailySignal.com.