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"Who made you the international morality cop?" The Chinese official from Beijing's Religious Affairs Bureau did not care that I was the first-ever United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom. Nor did he care that the International Religious Freedom Act that created my office represented unprecedented bipartisanship and the overwhelming support of the American people. No, this Chinese official only saw another "ugly American" trying to preach American values to the rest of the world.

Seeing myself that way was but one of the lessons I learned in my 25-month stint as an ambassador at large. The second occurred over many, many meetings. During my years as ambassador at large, the number two man at the State Department, Strobe Talbott, would gather the assistant Secretaries of State together at 9:15 every morning to discuss global events.

In all of those "Talbott meetings," I was never once asked a question about religious freedom. Certainly, religious freedom indirectly came up in the context of disasters such as Afghanistan or Sudan, but the issue was never brought up in its own right—and this during an administration that cared deeply for human rights. But religious freedom was never going to wag the dog.

A third lesson arose as I got deeper into the job: Though I learned about many repressed people who had died for their faith, I unfortunately saw too many others who were more than willing to kill for their religion. There seemed to be little understanding that the right to religious belief brings with it the responsibility to demonstrate tolerance and respect for the faith of others.

These three lessons shaped not only how I tried to implement the International Religious Freedom Act; they also can give us insight into how the struggle for religious freedom should be carried forward.

The International Religious Freedom Act was written over 18 months with considerable input from Roman Catholics, evangelicals, Southern Baptists, and Jews, among others. It was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress (98-0 in the Senate, 416-0 in the House) and was signed by President Clinton in October 1998.

The language of the legislation—especially a section titled "Findings; policy"—is international, but the tone draws deeply from the American experience: "Many of our Nation's founders fled religious persecution abroad, cherishing in their hearts and minds the ideal of religious freedom. They established in law, as a fundamental right and as a pillar of our nation, the right to freedom of religion." The legislation brings to mind Thomas Jefferson's notion that religious freedom is the First Freedom, for where we find religious freedom, we also find the freedom of association, the freedom of speech, certainly the freedom to believe, and many times, the freedom of the press. Religious freedom is a fundamental strand of the fabric of American life.

Yet the document also borrows heavily from the language of international covenants, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. This right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance." (See the U.S. State Department's site for the complete text.)

As I spoke with people like my Beijing interlocutor, I found myself falling back on this these "Findings" time and again. The reason was as pragmatic as it was true. America did not invent this issue. It has been in the international community for decades.

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October 22 2001, Vol. 45, No. 13