[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 60 (Wednesday, May 13, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H3231-H3232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FREEDOM FROM RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION ACT OF 1998

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HOUGHTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to talk for a minute about a 
bill that we will be voting on tomorrow, and that is called the Freedom 
From Religious Persecution Act of 1998. The number is H.R. 2431.
  This has gone through the Committee on International Relations. I was 
on that committee. I voted against it, and it has gone to the Committee 
on Ways and Means for a particular issue of a sequential referral.
  I understand why people are concerned with persecution of individuals 
and various religions throughout this world, and many times it is out 
of a sense of compassion for these people. And yet at the same time, I 
think that there are ways of handling this which I do not think are 
being recognized here.
  What this bill will do, and I know things have been changing rather 
rapidly in terms of the terminology, is, it will establish an Office of 
Religious Persecution Monitoring. Think of it, an Office of Religious 
Persecution Monitoring in our government. And that man who is in charge 
of that office will then recommend, in his own infinite wisdom, to the 
Secretary of State whether persecution is taking place throughout the 
world.
  There are various categories involved here. I will not go into the 
specifics, but the important thing is that if a country has been 
decided to be involved in religious persecution in any way, whether 
this is tribal or whether this is two religions, whether the country 
has no control over it whatsoever, that country will then have a denial 
of United States foreign assistance, it will be subject to various 
trade sanctions, denial of visas, prohibition of exports, U.S. support 
for multilateral bank assistance, and a whole variety of different 
things. I think that is the wrong way of going about it.
  We all in our own way and our own sense have a feeling of religion 
inside us, and we do not want to see anybody persecute it. The question 
is, really, who are the beneficiaries of this? I have talked to members 
of the Russian Orthodox Church. I have talked to the people who are in 
charge of the religious expression of a variety of different sects in 
Sudan. I have been to India. I have been to Zimbabwe. I have talked 
really recently to the National Council of Churches.

  And whether it was in the Middle East or whether it was somebody who 
represented 27 million Muslims in Indonesia, I asked the question, 
``Who wants this?'' The letters that we see supporting this particular 
act all come out of New York or Washington. None come from abroad. 
``Who wants this?'' And there was not a single affirmative answer in 
that whole group.
  So what we were doing, therefore, was literally imposing sort of a 
post-colonial Western sense of what is right and what is wrong on the 
peoples of this world. And in many cases, the governments have 
absolutely no control over what the religious persecution is. I know 
this is true in terms of Sudan. I know it is true in terms of a variety 
of other countries. And by the United States imposing its will upon 
those countries, those areas, which they really know very little about, 
they are going to be hurting more people than they are going to be 
helping.
  So the question is, who are the intended beneficiaries? Not many. 
Billy Graham does not think this is a good idea. The Dalai Lama does 
not think this is a good idea. The Council of Churches does not think 
this is a good idea. A variety of organizations, such as the American 
Farm Bureau, does not think it is a good idea.
  Why are we doing this? I think we are doing this out of a sense of 
compassion, but misdirected compassion.
  It is wrong for us to set ourselves up as the arbiter of what goes on 
in a country. As much as we have a feeling for this thing, we must be 
very, very careful not to superimpose our own standards on the rest of 
the world, particularly when it involves something so

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very, very personal such as your religious feelings.

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