Trump Taps Christian Fascist Crusader for Office of International Religious Freedom

July 28, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Kansas Governor Sam Brownback has been chosen by the Trump/Pence regime to be ambassador at large for the Office of International Religious Freedom. Under the State Department, the OIRF “promotes religious freedom as a core objective of U.S. foreign policy.”

Brownback has been a leading figure in the Christian fascist movement for decades. Two core pillars of this movement are the patriarchal enslavement of women and the imposition of theocratic, biblical literalism on society. Now he’s being tapped to be an international mouthpiece for the Christian religious “freedom” of the Trump/Pence regime to crusade and plunder the world wrapped in the Bible taken literally (as interpreted by them) and the American flag.

Brownback is driven by a vision of a theocracy led by the “will of Christ alone.” He spent 15 years in the U.S. Senate promoting anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage legislation and other religious bigotry, opposing anti-bullying laws, and attacking secular public schools under the guise of promoting school vouchers. In 2006, Brownback blocked the confirmation of a federal judicial nominee because she had attended a same-sex commitment ceremony. At the same time, Koch Industries was Brownback’s chief campaign donor when he ran for governor of Kansas in 2010 principally because of his promotion of unrestrained free-market capitalism, including tax cuts for businesses and elimination of state jobs.

As governor, Brownback signed three anti-abortion bills the first year, one of them while standing in front of giant pictures of “fetal citizens,” as he calls them. “I see it [abortion] as the lead moral issue of our day, just like slavery was the lead moral issue 150 years ago.” He signed the “Unborn Child Protection from Dismemberment Abortion Act,” which deliberately used false, unscientific, and inflammatory language to ban the safest and most commonly used method for abortions in the second trimester. And he issued an executive order protecting the “religious freedom” of clergy and organizations that opposed same-sex marriage. He rescinded an executive order by his predecessor protecting LGBTQ people from being fired because of their sexual orientation. And in 2016, he signed a law that prevented Kansas colleges and universities from requiring religiously affiliated clubs to not discriminate in their membership.

Brownback is an “evolution denier” who wants the anti-scientific “theory” of intelligent design—the latest form of creationism—to be taught in the classrooms to counter evolutionary theory.¹

Persecution of any person for religious beliefs should be opposed—but the Office of International Religious Freedom is not about that. It is a propaganda weapon in the political and military arsenal of U.S. capitalism-imperialism, with “religious freedom” used as a club for U.S. objectives. The Trump/Pence regime has declared “international religious freedom” a priority—with Vice-President Mike Pence pointing specifically to violence against Christians.

Brownback claims that more Christians have been persecuted during the last 10 or 20 years than throughout human history, and that Christianity is fighting a worldwide war against secularists and Muslims. This paradigm of a global clash of civilizations between Christianity and Islam underlies the Trump/Pence fascist regime’s contention that the billions of people in the nations ravaged by the U.S. and other imperialist powers pose a mortal threat to Christian civilization. And where reactionary Islamic Jihad has taken root in some of those places—in the soil and environment created by imperialism—the Trump/Pence regime declares it must be crushed by overwhelming military force.

Every day brings more and more evidence that the Trump/Pence regime is on a march to consolidate fascism—with a major Christian fascist component—and wield it to serve the goal of “America First” and “Make America Great Again.” People need to confront the reality that each new outrage and crime by the Trump/Pence regime is part of a fascist strategy and program. And this understanding is the starting point for a movement that mobilizes millions and millions aimed at doing what only the masses of people can do—stop this fascist regime and drive it from power.

1. Ardea Skybreak breaks down how intelligent design is a form of creationism in her book, The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism: Knowing What’s Real and Why It Matters.[back]

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