Campaign '04: Religious freedom not on candidates' radar screen

Published: 2004-07-14

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- "Religious freedom does not seem to be on the radar screen" in the 2004 race for president, according to Trinitarian Father Stan DeBoe, director of justice and peace at the Conference of Major Superiors of Men. "I have not heard it mentioned once" by either presidential campaign, the former aide to Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told Catholic News Service. The situation was very different a few years ago, when "a strong interest in the issue of religious liberty in many offices in Washington" led to passage of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, Father DeBoe said. That legislation established at the State Department the Office of International Religious Freedom, headed by an ambassador-at-large, and the Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan, independent commission. Since then, Father DeBoe said, interest in international religious freedom has waned. This drop-off might be in part a result of the homeland security climate that has consumed the country since Sept. 11, 2001.

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