The Institute for Global Engagement  encourages religious freedom worldwide. Robert and Margaret Seiple began the organization when they decided Christians should do more to foster religious freedom. Seiple, a former head of World Vision, was the first to serve as the U.S. State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, from 1998 to 2000. The organization encourages knowledge of one’s own faith and enough about another’s faith to respect it.

I lived for several years in foreign countries, including one in which I could practice my Christian beliefs only in private. When I returned home to the United States, I became aware of a lack of interest on the part of my fellow believers in the United States about other countries and cultures. Though Christians were called to go out into the world from the beginning, many American Christians, it appeared to me, fixated on domestic issues.

How do those of us who are Christians interact with other cultures and their religions? Do we want religious freedom only for, say, Christians in Saudi Arabia? Or are we also concerned when Tibetan Buddhists are persecuted in China? What about freedom for those who wish to practice no religion?

Baptists in Virginia after the American Revolution struggled for the freedom to practice their beliefs outside of the established churches. Are those of us who profess Christianity still as adamant for religious freedom as those early Baptists? Are we interested in religious freedom only as long as we are the odd ones out?

I would be interested in hearing from you, Christians and non-Christians alike, on this issue of religious freedom. The idea of publicly commenting on a blog may inhibit some of you. If this is the case, feel free to email your comments to me at islandfiction@hotmail.com. I won’t use your name or other personal information in my blog response; I’ll only comment on your thoughts.