WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 18, 2014Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, urged U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid today to allow a vote on the nomination of Rabbi David Saperstein as the ambassador-at-large for religious freedom.
The whole world is on fire on the issues of religious liberty and religious conflict, Moore said. This nomination is too important to leave hanging simply because senators want to get back on the campaign trail. Leader Reid controls the Senate calendar and I strongly urge him to allow a vote, up or down, on President Obamas nomination of Rabbi David Saperstein to the role as U.S. Ambassador on Religious Freedom. We need all the diplomatic and intellectual power we can muster in addressing these critical matters of human rights and global security. That should be more important than politics.
Moore previously commended Obama for making a nomination to fill this vacancy. Dr. Barrett Duke, ERLC vice president for public policy and research, expressed that he believed Saperstein would be a tireless, eloquent, fair-minded, effective champion for religious liberty.
In December 2013, Robert P. George, recipient of the ERLCs 2013 John Leland Religious Liberty Award and then-chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, called upon the Obama administration to appoint a new Ambassador-at-Large. On July 15th, Moore wrote a letter to Obama to nominate another ambassador for this position without further delay.
The Southern Baptist Convention is Americas largest Protestant denomination with more than 15.8 million members in over 46,000 churches nationwide. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is the SBCs ethics, religious liberty and public policy agency with offices in Nashville, Tenn., and Washington, D.C.
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