Newt Gingrich Calls On United States to Adopt Saudi Arabian Standards of Religious Freedom

OTTAWA — Canada has established an Office of Religious Freedom — to be headed by a public servant lauded for his “deep convictions” — to promote freedom of religion around the world. The announcement, which stems from a Conservative election promise nearly two years ago, was made Tuesday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper at a mosque, in Vaughn, Ont. Harper announced that the office, located within the department of Foreign Affairs, will be headed by an “ambassador” — Andrew Bennett.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday to extend disaster aid to synagogues, churches and other religious institutions damaged by Hurricane Sandy, defying criticism that the move violates the United State’s historic division between church and state. “A fundamental rule of American life is that congregants, not the taxpayers, pay for the construction and repair of houses of worship,” said Barry Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, in a Wednesday statement.

Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time, according to a decision announced on Saturday, the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom.

MAPLE, ONT. — Andrew P. W. Bennett, Canada’s first ambassador of religious freedom, is a Christian academic studying toward a theology degree in Ottawa, an expert on Scottish devolution, and a government policy analyst with experience in the Privy Council, Export Development Canada and Natural Resources Canada. With four staff and a $5-million annual budget, his new role is to promote freedom of religion, belief and conscience around the world by ensuring it is reflected in Canada’s foreign policy.

I’ve seen a lot of people making fun of Newt Gingrich for his view that the anti-Christian views that allegedly dominate America will create a country that’s simultaneously atheistic and subordinated to Islamism:

This is really retarded: “Part of me is inherently medieval. I resonate to Gothic churches and the sense of the cross in a way that is really pre-modern.” – Newt Gingrich, in an interview with U.S. News, on his conversion to Catholicism. I don’t even know what to say. I like old churches too.