McCaul Mulls Subpoena for State in Atheism Grant Probe | The Gateway Pundit

This story initially was printed by Real Clear Wire

By Susan Crabtree
Actual Clear Wire

Home Republicans are rising more and more pissed off with what they describe because the State Division’s makes an attempt to impede their investigation into the choice to greenlight $500,000 for a program selling atheism abroad.

Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Home Overseas Affairs Committee, is now mulling his subsequent steps, which may embrace laws, subpoenas, or different oversight choices geared toward forcing the State Division to adjust to the probe’s requests for info, based on panel workers. McCaul and several other different Home Republicans are demanding extra details about the 2021 State Division atheism grant and the way the funds are getting used.

Republican lawmakers have complained about what they describe because the division’s slow-walking of their responses to committee inquiries and requests over the past 15 months. They’re notably upset over the company’s refusal to make key officers obtainable for interviews.

Since turning into speaker in late October, Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and vocal Christian, has strongly supported McCaul’s probe into the $500,000 atheism grant. Johnson and others need solutions from the State Division in regards to the unprecedented grant award that they are saying is geared toward selling and increasing the affect of atheists and humanists within the Center East and North Africa.

McCaul and different GOP Home members concerned within the probe argue this system might be violating the Institution Clause of the Structure, which prohibits the usage of tax {dollars} to advertise theocracy or a particular faith as a result of the grant supplies funds to sure teams however not others in particular nations.

“It’s not complicated – the United States shouldn’t be funding atheism anywhere – not at home, and not in the Middle East,” Rep. Kevin Hern, a Republican from Oklahoma, informed RealClearPolitics. “It’s been over a year, and still no answers from the State Department. What is going on here?”

In the summertime of 2022, Indiana Rep. Jim Banks led the first attempt to press Secretary of State Antony Blinken for solutions in regards to the grant. He accuses the Biden administration of “laundering money to atheists in foreign countries through an unconstitutional and un-American grant program.”

“I’ve sent multiple inquiries over the past year and a half, and the State Department continues to hide basic information about the program from me and the Foreign Affairs Committee,” Banks mentioned. “This administration has ignored the Constitution, Congress, and the American public in pursuit of its radical, far-left agenda.”

In August, McCaul and GOP Reps. Brian Mast of Florida and Chris Smith of New Jersey, who heads the panel’s human rights subcommittee, wrote to the State Division, urgent the company to adjust to its requests. They also complained that the paperwork the State Division supplied both did not reply their questions or raised new questions relating to the company’s grant assessment course of. The August letter was addressed to Erin Barclay, appearing assistant secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and Rashad Hussain, ambassador-at-large for Worldwide Non secular Freedom.

The lawmakers additionally took situation with the State Division’s declare that it doesn’t present funds to any group with “the aim of using such funds to promote or advance specific religious ideologies or beliefs.” The Republican trio mentioned the assertion “directly contradicts the language” within the Discover of Funding Alternative awarding the grant, which they argued “makes it clear that the intent of the funded programs was to expand atheists’ presence and influence in the relevant countries.”

The 2021 $500,000 grant, titled “Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom Inclusive of Atheist, Humanist, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals,” marks the primary time the U.S. authorities has channeled taxpayer {dollars} to a corporation selling atheism and humanism. The funding notification states that the recipients’ applications must be designed to influence two to 3 nations throughout South and Central Asia or the Center East and North Africa.

However the lawmakers argue that this system promotes the curiosity of 1 particular spiritual custom – humanism – versus these of all faith-based minorities. The grant finally went to Humanists Worldwide, or HI, a U.Okay.-based group geared toward selling humanism, an outlook or system of thought attaching prime significance to human effort quite than divine or supernatural powers.

Of their August letter to the Division, the Home critics asserted that “even a cursory look into the operations and mantra” of Humanists Worldwide calls into query the company’s declare that it isn’t offering funds to advertise or advance particular spiritual ideologies or beliefs.

On HI’s web site, the group requires all of its member organizations to pay dues and assist its 5 targets, the primary of which is “the advancement of humanism,” the Republicans level out. HI’s grant software particularly states that it’s going to award sub-grants for “organizing events and seminars to promote the positive aspects of humanism and other ethical non-religious worldviews,” together with atheism, added McCaul, Smith, and Mast.

Early within the Biden administration, Secretary of State Antony Blinken introduced a shift away from prioritizing spiritual freedom over different human rights.

“Religious freedom is co-equal with other human rights because human rights are indivisible,” Blinken mentioned in Might 2021. “Religious freedom is not more or less important than the freedom to speak and assemble, to participate in the political life of one’s country, to live free from torture or slavery, or any other human right. Indeed, they’re all interdependent.”

Final week, the State Division defended its response to the Home Overseas Affairs Committee’s investigation, saying it has been “robust,” involving a number of letters, a number of congressional workers briefings, and greater than 2,000 paperwork so far. The Workplace of Worldwide Non secular Freedom, which manages the grant program, additionally has briefed Home Overseas Affairs Committee workers quite a few instances, a State Division spokesperson informed RCP.

“The Department of State does not define what is and is not a religion,” the spokesperson famous in an announcement. “Consistent with First Amendment principles, Department of State programs never promote specific religious philosophies or doctrines; rather, they promote the rights of all people [to] live free from abuse or discrimination on the basis of whatever their chosen religion or beliefs may be.”

“Programs are designed to provide tools and support to individuals and communities facing persecution, abuses, harassment, discrimination, and violence on account of their religion, beliefs or non-beliefs,” the spokesperson continued.

The State Division official additionally pointed to the contents of the 2016 Frank R. Wolf Worldwide Non secular Freedom Act, or IRFA, which states “that religious persecution and the specific targeting of non-theists, humanists and atheists because of their beliefs is often widespread, systematic, and heinous.” The legislation additionally states that spiritual freedom consists of the safety of each theistic and non-theistic beliefs and the fitting to not profess or apply any faith.

The Republicans counter that the State Division solely supplied paperwork to the committee a yr and a half after their first request, and that the briefings didn’t fulfill the requests and occurred earlier than the committee had the related paperwork. The lawmakers readily acknowledge that the legislation states that nonbelievers and atheists have a proper to exist freed from persecution but in addition argue it says nothing about requiring grants to subsidize atheistic beliefs or develop the presence and affect of atheists and humanists abroad.

The Republicans additionally need to know why the State Division doesn’t outline what’s and isn’t a faith as a result of any group may self-define as spiritual for functions of IRFA and apply for spiritual freedom grants.

Within the case of this $500,000 grant, the Republicans contend, there’s no query that it’s serving to to advertise humanism and atheism abroad regardless of the constitutional points it raises. Of their August letter, McCaul, Smith, and Mast additionally confused that HI works carefully with member organizations that file lawsuits designed to advertise humanism domestically, “often to the detriment of other religious creeds.”

The organizations embrace the American Humanist Affiliation, or AHA, which shares a Washington, D.C. deal with with HI and American Atheists.

“Far from advancing religious freedom, AHA often takes actions that are antithetical to the idea of religious freedom,” they wrote. “HI’s close association with AHA speaks volumes about the true objectives of HI and should be of grave concern to the [State] Department.”

This text was initially printed by RealClearPolitics and made obtainable by way of RealClearWire.