Last month IFA intercessors joined Ambassador Sam Brownback on a call to pray for an important summit for religious freedom. Well, that summit begins on Tuesday (July 13), so now it’s crunch time!

Brownback, a former governor and senator, was the top diplomat focused exclusively on international religious liberty during the Trump administration. And while he’s no longer at the State Department, he continues to lead in this critical fight around the world. For next week’s summit, he has teamed up with Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, an organization named for the late Congressman Tom Lantos — her father, a Holocaust Survivor, and human rights champion. Together they have rallied Members of Congress and other leaders from across the political aisle, faith traditions, and the world to stand together for freedom.

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And that’s what Brownback wants. In a podcast episode released just days ago by International Christian Concern, Brownback emphasized his belief that individuals should have the liberty to choose what to do with their own souls. “And no government has the right to interfere with that, nor does communal violence have the right to interfere. Government’s role is to protect this common human right,” he said.

Brownback lamented faith groups getting “picked off” when they’re left to face oppressors on their own. But with true relationships built in common cause for freedom, he believes things will be different.

“To me, what I want to see is relationships built… not networks, relationships. There’s a difference. Networks use each other; relationships support each other.… And if we could get that to take root amongst various faith communities, we can win this fight. If you just had the religions of the world come together and say, 'We’re going to stand for each other’s religious freedom.’ Game’s over,” he said.

With a fascinating line-up of speakers including legislators (of both major parties), leading activists, and well-known persecution survivors like Andrew Brunson, Mariam Ibraheem, and Asia Bibi, the 3-day IRF Summit promises to pack a powerful punch. In fact, it seems reminiscent of formal government-led gatherings hosted by the Trump State Department in years past when actions spoke even louder than words that the U.S. was wholeheartedly invested in the promotion of religious freedom as a top foreign policy priority.

Notably absent from the speakers list are Executive Branch officials. But one can hope and pray that the Biden administration will use the occasion of this week to express tangible support for advancing our first freedom around the world. One such step, if the administration wished, could be the nomination of a strong and well-equipped leader to take on the role of U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom.

In any case, the IRF Summit comes at a critical time. According to an article Brownback co-authored earlier this year with Gayle Manchin, then the Democratic Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), 80 percent of people in the world live with restrictions on their religious liberty.

“[T]his foundational human right is among the most abused in the world,” they said.

In his podcast interview, Brownback noted his hope that this summit will be a catalyst for a movement that “can mirror the human trafficking movement that’s really gone grassroots…because that’s what it’s going to take to stand up for this right everywhere around the world, for everybody, all the time.” He then urged people to come and, if they can’t, to please pray.

Will you pray for this summit? Will you pray that a grassroots coalition forms to demand governments honor religious liberty?

(Aaron Mercer is a Contributing Writer with two decades of experience in Washington, D.C.’s public policy arena. Photo by Pikist.)