religious freedom By Adelle M. Banks | February 9, 2017

Jay Kansara, director of government relations for the Hindu American Foundation, asks a question of the panel at Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Frank Wolf speaks at Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom event in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Participants in the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

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John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University, speaks during the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Mohamed Elsanousi, center with microphone, director of the Washington, D.C., office for the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, asks panelists a question during the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Rabbi David Saperstein. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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The Rev. Thomas J. Reese. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Frank Wolf, senior fellow of the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative and former member of Congress. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Joyce Dubensky, CEO of Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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Religion News Foundation CEO Thomas Gallagher, far right, begins the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

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The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, left, reacts as Rabbi David Saperstein speaks with John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University, looking on during the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

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Religion News Foundation CEO Thomas Gallagher begins the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

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WASHINGTON (RNS) Speaking at a forum on tolerance, the former U.S. religious freedom ambassador said complaints about religious freedom problems in this country pale in comparison withatrocities faced by religious minorities abroad.

Rabbi David Saperstein, who recently ended his tenure at the U.S. State Department, said he takes seriously tough issues, such as abortion and gay rights, that have divided Americans who emphasize religious or civil rights.

But make no mistake: As painful and real as these issues are in the hearts and souls of the people making these competing claims, we are talking about people who are being brutalized, we are talking about people who are being imprisoned, he said of international religious freedom challenges.

I pray for the day when across the globe the worst problem that we have is how do we balance our competing civil rights claims, he added. What a day for a hallelujah that will be in terms of the entire vision of our international religious freedom efforts.

The forum, Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom, was hosted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and co-sponsored by Religion News Service and the Religion News Foundation.

The Rev. Thomas J. Reese, left, reacts as Rabbi David Saperstein speaks with John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University, looking on during the panel discussion Tolerance: A Key to Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2017. RNS photo by Adelle M. Banks

The Rev. Thomas Reese, moderator of the event and USCIRF chair, said his bipartisan commission is addressing countries, such as North Korea and China, that are widely considered to be hostile toward religion, and nations such asIraq and Nigeria that have failed to protect the religious freedoms of theircitizens.

There are grave humanitarian consequences when religious freedom is violated, he said. These conditions underscore the need for a different way forward, one of tolerance as a key to religious freedom as well as stability and security.

A representative of the Hindu American Foundation asked the panelists why U.S. agencies that address religious freedom are dominated by members of the Abrahamic faiths and dont tend to include people with Eastern philosophies and secular standpoints.

Reese said the commission is willing to work with Hindu groups to learn more about persecution of Hindus in countries such asPakistan and Bangladesh.

I think thats very important for us to focus on, Reese said. We have to defend not just Christians, not just Jews, not just people from the Abrahamic tradition but people of all faiths or people who have no faith whatsoever, and I think that is a fundamental principle of religious freedom that we should have.

Joyce Dubensky, CEO of Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding. RNS photo by Cathy Lynn Grossman

Other panelists at the forum, attended by about 80 journalists, faith leaders and religious freedom experts, stressed the role of educators in building tolerance and religious understanding.

We have to work with teachers often because they have fears and misconceptions about whether they can even teach about religion, said Joyce Dubensky, CEO of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.

They even wonder, she added, whether they have to avoid talking about the reason Puritans came to the U.S. religious persecution.

John Sexton, president emeritus of New York University, teaches students in Shanghai and Abu Dhabi about government and religion, fostering discussions that range from the Crusades to Mideast tensions.

The heart of the matter is to understand that the core problem here is not anything other than a mindset of certitude and triumphalism that can manifest itself secularly as well as religiously, he said.

Former Rep. Frank Wolf, a longtime religious freedom activist, urged that Republicans and Democrats set aside partisan differences and continue to travel together to global regions to investigate religious persecution firsthand and visit the imprisoned and their families.

The worst thing in the world is being in the darkest place and think no one cares, he said.

Adelle M. Banks, production editor and a national reporter, joined RNS in 1995. An award-winning journalist, she previously was the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel and a reporter at The Providence Journal and newspapers in the upstate New York communities of Syracuse and Binghamton.

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