Former congressman Frank Wolf was born in 1939 as the Second Word War was starting in Europe and two years before the United States joined. It was a period of clarity concerning America’s place in the world. Freedom of speech, free elections, and the basic principle that government should be responsible to its people rather than the other way around were on the rise and became essential parts of how Americans viewed their country.
Fast-forward to the current environment, and American identity has dramatically changed. Debanking and deplatforming have become familiar features of a country that sees itself as the product of an oppressive colonial system that upended functioning societies and created iniquity.
Viewing ourselves through that lens has allowed our enemies to present themselves as totems of resistance. College students protest in support of would-be totalitarian dictators in Gaza. Information detailing strikes on Iran is leaked by those who have come to view the oppressive regime sympathetically. Perhaps the most potent example is the ability of the Taliban to continuously find new recruits through the course of twenty years of American military and logistical dominance. There were always people willing to die on behalf of totalitarians in the name of “resisting imperialism.”
So perhaps it's inevitable that it took someone who spent most of his life in another era to champion the creation of a position designed to promote the ideals Americans associated with their country in a time when they believed it to be a force for good. Congressman Wolf spent years pushing for the creation of the United States ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom position, the groundwork for which was laid in his Freedom from Religious Persecution Act of 1997. The very existence of this position harkens back to a time when individual freedom of thought took priority in the American consciousness over concepts of communal guilt and generational victimhood.
Having someone who can articulate the importance of an individual’s right to self-determination and draw attention to those denied that right is an important step in defining ourselves. When the ambassador highlights Iranian imprisonment of religious minorities, he's not attempting to remake that country in our image. He is reinforcing the values that define us and clarifying our identity for ourselves, our allies, and our enemies. That clarification strengthens our hand at home and abroad.
Accentuating individual liberty, and our position as its champions, strengthens our ability to resist the deplatforming and debanking that defined the lockdown period surrounding 2020. It adds weight to our condemnations of totalitarian governments and provides a response to college protesters embroiled in hatred of their own country.
The ambassador for international religious freedom is just one front in the battle to reassert our identity as champions of individual liberty and restrained government. It merits focused attention right now because it is an easily accessible victory that we are denying ourselves.
President Trump has nominated former congressman Mark Walker to serve in that position, but instead of confirming him, the Senate has chosen to include him in the long list of nominees trapped waiting for a hearing. None of the nominees should be stuck in limbo, but can we no longer find even the bipartisan agreement necessary to move forward with restoring our nations close affiliation with individual liberty?
It's time to take that step, confirm the president's nominee for ambassador for international religious freedom, and continue the long road to rebuilding a national identity that takes pride in our ideals.
Image: Darkmoon_Art via Pixabay, Pixabay License.