The US Ambassador At Large For Religious Freedom

Hat tip to Blue in the Bluegrass.

Sam Brownback is your new Ambassador At Large For Religious Freedom.

Contrary to Blue, I see this as a legit concern for a secular state, and something to be supported by secularists, liberals, and progressives as an agency for international promotion of one of our key values.

Freedom of religion is an essential feature of the personal autonomy and freedom of opinion cherished by all of us since the Enlightenment.

And historically as well as today, freedom from religion is the dependent sibling of freedom of religion, everywhere in the world not ruled by despotism.

Efforts to harass, persecute, or suppress religion per se have historically characterized the illiberal, revolutionary, or totalitarian left, only.

Still, Blue and Pierce are no doubt right that Brownback's sympathies are apt to be more aroused by Christians  or other believers persecuted by religious authorities in Iran, in Saudi Arabia, or in Indonesia, or by secular, or ostensibly secular, authorities in Russia or China, than any threat to religious minorities - Muslims, for instance - anywhere in the Occident.

But shouldn't the greatest concern be in response to the greatest threat?

I would expect the US Ambassador At Large For Global Women's Issues to be more concerned about the status and fate of women in Saudi Arabia than in Italy, too.

Wouldn't you?

See also this.