Written by Don Byrd
Late last week, President Obama signed the Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016 into law. As I posted earlier, the bill makes a number of enhancements to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, including requiring foreign service workers to receive training in religious freedom, and elevating the position of ambassador-at-large for religious freedom within the State Department.
The bill has drawn bipartisan praise, and support from numerous religious freedom advocates. The Baptist Standard reports on the new law and quotes Baptist Joint Committee Executive Director Brent Walker.
“We are pleased that religious liberty still finds broad bipartisan support,” Walker said. “Strengthening the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, including by protecting nontheistic beliefs and requiring increased religious freedom training for our foreign service officers, emphasizes our shared value of religious liberty for all people across the globe.”
Representatives from the American Humanist Association likewise praised the bill for including protections for nontheistic religion, as well as the right not to practice religion.
The bill states “freedom of thought, conscience and religion is understood to protect theistic and nontheistic beliefs as well as the right not to profess or practice any religion.”
You can read the law here.
