Opinion
By: Joe Schaeffer, Liberty Nation News
House Republicans want to know why the Biden State Department, helmed by Antony Blinken, is promoting atheism abroad. Actually, the progressive ruling class prefers the term humanism. Its religion-free value system lies at the heart of the “rules-based international order” these Western elites are feverishly working to construct.
“Rep. Mike McCaul [R-TX], who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Chris Smith, [R-NJ] who heads the panel’s human rights subcommittee, are reviving a nearly yearlong inquiry into a 2021 State Department grant they say is designed to expand the influence of atheists and humanists in the Middle East and North Africa,” Susan Crabtree wrote in an illuminating Aug. 15 article for Real Clear Politics.
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“We write once again to ask why it is in America’s interest to promote atheism overseas and why the department refuses to provide certain documents that shed light on that misguided decision,” the lawmakers stated in an Aug. 3 letter, which was also signed by House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability Chair Brian Mast (R-FL), to State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor Acting Assistant Secretary Erin Barclay and State’s Office of International Religious Freedom Ambassador-at-Large Rashad Hussain.
“The trio specifically took issue with the State Department’s April 2021 decision to solicit bids for a $500,000 grant titled ‘Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom Inclusive of Atheist, Humanist, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals,’” Crabtree noted. “The funding notification states that the recipients’ programs should be designed to impact two to three countries across South and Central Asia or the Middle East and North Africa.” The letter to the State officials makes clear that the department is funding an international activist group dedicated to fostering a so-called “freedom from religion.”
“The grant eventually went to Humanists International, or HI, an organization aimed at promoting humanism, an outlook and system of thought attaching prime importance to human effort rather than divine or supernatural powers,” Crabtree continues. “Even a cursory look into the operations and mantra of Humanists International (HI) calls the Department’s claim [of not funding activist organizations] into question,” the three GOP representatives accurately assert.
First, let’s define the term “humanism” as used by Westerners today. Why not let Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former White House chief medical adviser who was the public face of the coercive federal social curbs wielded against Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, explain it? After all, Fauci has specifically cited humanism as a key motivating force in his life.
“The [progressive Roman Catholic] Jesuit education I had the good fortune to receive in high school and in college inspired my interest in philosophy and imparted important life principles,” Fauci said while receiving the 2021 “Humanist of the Year” award from the American Humanist Association, whose motto is “Good Without God.” “My outlook has since evolved to align with the concept of making the world a better place rather than being involved in organized religion. Yet these Jesuit principles have been an invaluable guide for decades in my role as a public health official.”
Destroying Old Identities in the Name of New Atheism
Every year, Humanists International releases a “Freedom of Thought” report outlying what it declares to be threats to the rights of those who seek to be completely free from religion. Highlighting the plight of those imprisoned in theocratic Islamic nations certainly seems reasonable, but HI does not stop there.
A “Ratings System” of offenses against humanism contains a section titled “Systemic Discrimination” that reveals an overt hostility to the remnants of what once was a robust religious heritage in the West.
Among stated signs of discrimination:
- “There is systemic religious privilege.”
- “There is state funding of at least some religious schools.”
- “Religious schools have powers to discriminate in admissions or employment.”
If you click on this column, a box comes up that states: “Religious or ideological instruction is mandatory in at least some public schools (without secular or humanist alternatives).”
Read the full article here: https://www.libertynation.com/why-is-antony-blinken-funding-global-atheism/
The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida.
