Former Kansas senator and longtime champion of religious liberty Sam Brownback told America Right Now that the persecution of Christians is not a regional problem we can ignore — it is a global moral crisis demanding an urgent, structured response. He made clear that restoring religious freedom as a pillar of U.S. foreign policy means more than rhetoric; it requires hard policy moves and the courage to call out regimes and groups that target people for their faith.
The situation in Nigeria has become one of the worst human-rights catastrophes for Christians anywhere on earth, with reports of mass killings, kidnappings, and church burnings that make a mockery of international promises to protect religious minorities. Conservative lawmakers and advocacy groups have rightly sounded the alarm that Nigeria now accounts for an unacceptably large share of global anti-Christian violence, and America must stop treating this carnage as a distant, ambiguous problem.
Congressional Republicans have begun to act, introducing legislation that would hold Nigerian officials accountable and push for a return to tougher designations and sanctions where warranted. Senator Ted Cruz’s Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act is exactly the kind of leverage the United States should use to make clear there are consequences for tolerating mass persecution. If Washington won’t wield its diplomatic and economic tools robustly, we cannot pretend our values mean anything.
President Trump’s recent decision to authorize strikes against ISIS-affiliated militants in northwest Nigeria showed what decisive American leadership looks like when it is applied to protecting the innocent and standing against Islamist terror. Conservative Americans should applaud a policy that targets the actual perpetrators while coordinating with local authorities to prevent future atrocities. This is not adventurism — it is a moral duty to protect persecuted Christians when a host government cannot or will not.
Brownback and other religious-freedom leaders keep stressing that the answer goes beyond bombs and sanctions: Nigeria needs structural reforms that decentralize power, strengthen rule of law, and enable local communities to defend themselves and live as equal citizens regardless of faith. That sober, realistic view should guide any American assistance package: security help, accountability for complicit officials, and support for civil-society actors on the ground. The Left’s reflex to lecture without offering workable solutions is precisely why conservatives must lead the effort.
Republican members of Congress and conservative policymakers on the ground are also demanding that perpetrators be prosecuted and that the U.S. remain steadfast in supporting victims, not simply issuing press releases and then moving on. Voices from the conservative movement who have visited the region report back heartbreaking scenes and a hunger among Nigerian Christians for America to stand with them, not to look the other way. If we truly believe in religious liberty, we must back those words with policy, funding, and the political will to see justice done.
This is a moment of moral clarity for patriotic Americans: defend the persecuted, punish the perpetrators, and rebuild institutions so faith communities can flourish without fear. Sam Brownback’s warning is a call to action — to sharpen our diplomacy, to use our power wisely, and to never let the slaughter of the innocent be treated as a second-tier issue. The United States was founded on the conviction that human dignity comes from being made in God’s image; it’s time our foreign policy reflected that truth.
