The president, vice-president, and cabinet secretaries need to be clear voices for religious freedom, engaging leaders and the peoples of the world. And they need to insist that countries that violate the religious freedom of their citizens live up to the international agreements most of them have already signed.

If you’re like me, you typically associate national security with diplomacy, intelligence, and, of course, the military. That’s why I was intrigued by a recent conference at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs at Georgetown University.

The conference was called “Religious Freedom and National Security Policy.” “Under what conditions,” the speakers were asked, “might greater U.S. support for religious liberty abroad help to reduce political instability, religious radicalism and terrorist violence?”

On this question, they all agreed that religious freedom is a bellwether, the canary in the coalmine, if you will. For example, University of Texas professor Will Imboden, formerly of the National Security Council, showed how any erosion in a country’s religious freedom invariably signals the erosion of all other liberties and human rights.

Governments that are not committed to religious liberty become increasingly intolerant and coercive, insisting that they have a monopoly on truth that must be forced on others.

Imboden went on to say that not only is such a government a threat to its own people, it becomes a threat to its neighbors, growing increasingly aggressive and belligerent.

Without religious freedom, democracy suffers, economic stagnation becomes inevitable. But in countries where religious freedom thrives, so does democracy and economic vitality.

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