Amid Criticism From Religious Detractors, Vance Speaks at Religious Freedom Summit

WASHINGTON (RNS) — Vice President JD Vance addressed a group of religious leaders on Wednesday (Feb. 5) at the International Religious Freedom Summit, arguing President Donald Trump will prioritize the right to worship freely abroad even as his administration faces lawsuits accusing him of infringing on religious freedom at home and criticism from faith groups whose funding has been affected by the president’s actions.

“Our Founding Fathers rightly recognized this, listing freedom of religion first among the liberties enshrined in our great Constitution,” Vance told the crowd gathered at the Washington Hilton. The annual summit is co-chaired by Sam Brownback, who was appointed as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom during Trump’s first term.

Vance, a Catholic, dedicated a significant section of his address to framing religious liberty as a product of Christianity.

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“Religious freedom flows from concepts central to the Christian faith, in particular the free will of human beings and the essential dignity of all peoples,” Vance said, later insisting it is the “church fathers of classical Christianity to which we owe the very notion of religious liberty,” a historical argument popular in conservative circles.

“We remain the world’s largest majority-Christian country, and the right to religious freedom is protected by the people for everybody, whether you’re a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim or no faith at all,” he said.

Vance celebrated several of Trump’s actions in his first term and over the past two weeks, such as executive orders to “end the weaponization of the federal government against religious Americans,” along with efforts to combat antisemitism and the pardoning of anti-abortion protesters.

Vance also said Trump has worked to “stop the federal censorship used to prevent Americans from speaking their conscience and speaking their mind, whether it’s in their communities or online,” an apparent reference to Trump’s executive order “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” Among the main sponsors of the summit is Meta, the parent company of Facebook owned by Mark Zuckerberg, who attended Trump’s inauguration.

Near the end of the vice president’s remarks, he pivoted to a discussion of international policy.

“In recent years, too often has our nation’s international engagement on religious liberty issues been corrupted and distorted to the point of absurdity,” he said. “Think about this: How did America get to the point where we’re sending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars abroad to NGOs that are dedicated to spreading atheism all over the globe?”

The question appeared to be a reference to a conservative argument criticizing work done by the U.S. State Department to promote a version of religious freedom that includes protecting the rights of nonreligious people. Recently, Republican leaders have listed the argument alongside criticism of the U.S. Agency for International Development, which the Trump administration has aggressively gutted in recent days and placed under the leadership of Secretary of State Marco Rubio. From fiscal years 2013-2022, the largest single recipient of USAID funds was Catholic Relief Services, according to Forbes.

Vance’s speech was met with hearty applause, with several summit attendees celebrating his remarks. The Rev. Greg McBrayer, an Anglican Church in North America priest and a presenter at the conference, said he was “absolutely thrilled” with Vance’s speech, calling it “very encouraging.”

“There’s an administration in place right now that will give us the opportunity to continue to grow as a people and grow our faith,” McBrayer said, adding that he hopes the U.S. will be “used as a global instrument to promote that kind of growth and receptivity around the world.”

But there was also disagreement in the room. Shortly after Vance finished, an attendee walked quickly past where press were gathered and said in a loud voice, “That was gaslighting!”

The Rev. Mae Elise Cannon, head of Churches for Middle East Peace, one of the sponsors of the conference, also expressed frustration with the address.

“Vice President Vance gave lip service to international religious freedom and liberty for all. However, the subtext of his message included deeply disturbing assumptions about the superiority of Christianity and the idea that only the ‘right kind of people’ should have complete freedom and human rights,” Cannon, who was present for the speech, said in an emailed statement a short time later.

“As a follower of Jesus, the idea that America is a ‘Christian nation’ ignores the multi-faceted, complex, and often oppressive history of the United States,” she wrote.

Cannon also wrote that Vance “did not say that our churches and Christians are protected when we seek to live out our faith by ‘welcoming the stranger’ and protecting the undocumented,” a possible reference to the Trump administration’s decision to rescind the sensitive locations policy — an internal government policy created in 2011 that discourages immigration raids at schools, hospitals and churches. The decision is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed against the administration by Quaker groups who argue the government’s actions violate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. At least one immigrant was reportedly arrested while attending worship at a church in Atlanta last week.

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Cannon, whose group has long advocated for Palestinians, also criticized Vance for not mentioning that “the rights of Palestinian Muslims and Christians have been violated in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas” or “the ways Jewish people have been suffering from increased antisemitism around the world because of being unilaterally associated with the unjust policies of the State of Israel.”