White House Committed to Pushing Religious Freedom

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama says his administration is committed to promoting religious freedom across the globe.

CBN News correspondent Jennifer Wishon asked White House press secretary Jay Carney to give some examples of how the administration is promoting religious freedom and assuring Americans it's doing everything it can to help persecuted Christians in Iran.

"Well absolutely we are appealing to the Iranian government when it comes to those who are being held, and we have, and I have raised it frequently from this podium, and we continue to do that," Carney responded. "Broadly, we aggressively support religious freedom around the world and make clear our opposition to policies and countries that restrict religious freedom, and that's a broad, comprehensive effort."

Despite America's new nuclear deal with Iran, Carney says the administration's position toward Iran's human rights atrocities and ties to terrorism remain the same.

What more can be done to reverse the trend of increased religious hostilities around the world? Dr. Robert George, chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, talks about this and more, on Christian World News, Jan. 17.

Meanwhile, Dr. Robert George, chairman of the United States Commission on International Relgious Freedom, says religious minorities must be on the agenda in negotiations with Iran.

George says the government is wrong not to include the status of imprisoned Pastor Saeed Abedini in those talks.

"I think it's a bad mistake, a terrible diplomatic mistake -- one that will result in no progress being made if we sweep religious freedom aside and imagine that can be sacrificed in order to make progress on combatting nuclear arms, or terrorism, or anything else," George told CBN News.