Sam Brownback, who recently joined Open Doors USA as a senior fellow, has a long history of working on behalf of religious freedom. He most recently served as U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom; prior to that, he served two terms as governor of Kansas, represented The Sunflower State in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives – and was a key sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
At Open Doors, Brownback will continue to research the most pressing issues in religious persecution and advocate on behalf of persecuted religious minorities worldwide. In an interview with AFN, Brownback urged more attention to the plight of Christians and other religious minorities in China.
"[China's leaders] are at war with faith – Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Falun Gongs," he began. "They are an atheistic regime [and Chinese President] Xi Jinping is a dictator. He is intent on maintaining power [and] putting down people of faith because they have an allegiance to something beyond the government."
America, he said, needs to announce that information worldwide with great clarity.
Brownback also noted that most countries organize their thinking on the basis of their faith.
"And here is [China], the largest country in the world, [which] seeks to be the globally dominate nation in the world, that's atheistic – and doggedly so to a point of pursuing and killing people of faith and driving their faith out. That's not global leadership," he emphasized. "That's global tyranny."
Brownback added that people trapped in Afghanistan, including Christians fleeing for their lives, is an extremely serious matter and those who want out need to be accommodated.
