JD Vance: "Importance of protecting religious liberty"

JD Vance: "But I would say, my friends, that it is not enough to simply protect the rights of conscience, to seek funding opportunities and grant-making opportunities that protect people's rights to engage in religious conscience.

We must also remember that, oftentimes, the greatest impediments to religious liberty have not come from malice by the United States government but have actually come from negligence. And one of the things that, to be honest, I am most ashamed of is that in the United States of America, sometimes it is our foreign adventures that lead to the eradication of historic Christian communities all over the world.

And so, when President Trump talks about the need to bring peace—whether in Russia and Ukraine, whether in the Middle East—of course, we must recognize that as a policy aimed at saving lives and fulfilling one of Christ's most important commandments. But I also believe we must recognize it as an effort to protect the religious liberty of Christians.

Because over the past 40 years, it has often been historic Christian communities that have borne the brunt of failed American foreign policy. And that is, in my view, perhaps the most important way in which Donald Trump has been a defender of Christian rights all over the world—because he has a foreign policy that is oriented toward peace.

We have already done so much in the past 30 days, and I am proud that we will work for peace all over the world during the remaining four years of President Trump’s term. And I think that is an important thing."