I believe the compromise legislation designed by Senators Nickles and Lieberman takes a positive and meaningful step in the cause of religious liberty worldwide. The bill asks the State Department to report on the wide range of religious intolerance experienced worldwide. It requires consultation with religious communities, both here and abroad, prior to any action to ensure that any U.S. response will help, not harm, the religious minority on the ground. I believe this is a moderate, flexible response to human rights abuses that strikes the right balance between imposing inflexible sanctions and overlooking serious human rights abuses. The West cannot impose its way of doing things on other parts of the world.
Different conditions require different actions.
I do not make this call for religious freedom as a way of imposing our ideals on a resistant world. I carry this message to you as a clear call from our brother and sister Anglicans and other people of faith abroad. I hope that you and I can be faithful to that call. Thank you for your fullest consideration of this legislation.