A Christian Nationalist will lead the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

Vicky Hartzler’s long record of bigotry raises alarm over the politicization of USCIRF’s global mission

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The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has named an anti-LGBTQ activist as its chair, giving the Trump administration yet another opportunity to turn a useful bipartisan project into a weapon for conservative Christians.

The USCIRF includes members appointed by both major parties, so there are always going to be a handful of nutjobs in the mix. But the group’s main purpose is to weigh in on religious freedom around the world and make policy recommendations to sitting lawmakers, so it’s not meant to be a platform for those members to spew hate. Among other things, the USCIRF releases an annual report naming certain places “Countries of Particular Concern” because of their continued opposition to true religious freedom. They also suggest countries that the State Department should watch out for because they’re heading in that direction.

A page from the USCIRF’s 2025 report

Those recommendations may influence how the State Department interacts with leaders of those nations or groups. So this isn’t merely symbolic. It’s a way to spread the laudible goal of religious freedom around the world.

That means you want people on the committee who are known for defending religious freedom for everyone, not merely promoting their own views. The USCIRF condemns antisemitism, yes, but also anti-Muslim bias. And last year, the group recommended our country sign onto a statement condemning “persecution of atheist and non-practicing individuals,” which we eventually did.

Occasionally, however, extremism gets added to the mix even though this is supposed to be an independent bipartisan group.

In 2018, Sen. Mitch McConnell nominated Christian hate-group leader Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council to the USCIRF. At the time, his nomination was condemned by several groups who have personally seen the harm he inflicts upon others with his faith.

“Tony Perkins is the most recognizable anti-LGBTQ activist in America. He has espoused the most extreme views of LGBTQ people and other vulnerable communities,” Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of LGBTQ advocacy organization GLAAD, said in a statement. “The idea that Perkins would be making policy recommendations to an administration that is already anti-LGBTQ is dangerous and puts LGBTQ people directly in harm’s way.”

…

“Perkins specializes in spreading false propaganda that demonizes the LGBT community and Muslims,” [the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Heidi] Beirich said. “Perkins’ idea of ‘religious freedom’ is having the freedom to discriminate against entire groups of people he doesn’t like. His well-documented bigotry has no place in any government entity.”

The following year, Perkins was elected chair of the organization, a move that was further criticized by people who actually fight for religious freedom. Rabbi Jack Moline, who was the president of Interfaith Alliance at the time, said Perkins “has no place on a commission designed to protect religious freedom at home or abroad.”

How can Perkins be trusted to stand against religious persecution at a time when people in this country and around the world are being killed because of their faith, while still working for an organization that devalues the realities of persecution by continually asserting that evangelical Christians are “under attack” in this country?

…

Instead of accepting this twisted definition of religious freedom, Americans ought to see Tony Perkins for who he is: a right-wing figure who has dedicated his life to pushing for the legalization of discrimination – particularly against the LGBTQ community.

Congress ought to reverse Perkins’ appointment. Anything less is an affront to the Constitution, damaging the separation between religion and government at the expense of both.

I share that sentiment. As far as I can tell, though, Perkins’ personal bigotry didn’t interfere with the group’s mission. In fact, that same year, the USCIRF called for the immediate release of Saudi blogger Raif Badawi, who was imprisoned for alleged “apostasy” in the Islamic nation… though Perkins was not mentioned anywhere in the group’s press release despite being chair at the time.

Perkins remained on the USCIRF until 2022. (After his stint as chair, he became vice chair, then just stayed on as a regular member of the commission for his final year.)

There hasn’t been much drama about the members of the group since Perkins (though Southern Baptist leader Albert Mohler flipped out when Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, a lesbian, was nominated to the group in 2021).

That drama is now back in full force, though.

Last year, Speaker Mike Johnson nominated former Rep. Vicky Hartzler to the USCIRF.

Hartzler, who represented a Missouri district from 2011-2023, is one of the most anti-LGBTQ lawmakers to ever serve in Congress. She became famous for opposing marriage equality in her state (long before Obergefell)—helping pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. She said at the time that gay marriage was just like polygamy and incest, and that gay couples didn’t deserve equal rights just as “it’s not a right of a three-year old to drive a car.” (Kudos to Right Wing Watch’s Brian Tashman for capturing that speech on video.)

Some people say “Why does it matter to you as a government official? If I
care about somebody else, I'm committed! I should be able to marry!”

Well, think about it. That starts you down the road to opening up licensure to basically… meaning that the license would mean nothing.

If you let everybody with that standard… for instance, you know… If you just
care about somebody, have a committed relationship, why not allow one man
and two women or three women to marry?

There are a lot of people in this country that support polygamy. Why not? If they're
committed to each other, why should you care?

Why not allow group marriage? There are people out there who want that! I think it's called polyamory…

Well, is that the best policy? Why not allow an uncle to marry his niece? Why not allow a 50-year-old man to marry a 12-year-old girl if they love each other and they're committed?

So pretty soon if you don't set parameters, you don't have any parameters at all, a license means nothing, and marriage means nothing... if it’s their right to marry whoever they want.

But we're saying marriage is between a man and a woman. So… there's a difference there. But it's not a right in the Constitution, as far as that goes either. It's not a right… of a three-year-old to be able to drive a car.

You know, the government has to set some parameters that they think is is correct

(She later claimed her comments were “misconstrued” and that she really meant to compare same-sex marriage to 13-year-olds wanting to drive a car. You see? Not three.)

Once she was in Congress, her anti-gay bigotry continued. When Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was repealed, allowing openly gay soldiers to serve in the military without punishment, Hartzler said gay soldiers should have to sleep separately from straight ones.

More than a decade later, she broke into tears while complaining about a bill that would protect same-sex marriages by repealing the (badly named) Defense of Marriage Act which defined marriage as between a man and woman. At that point, even her own nephew, Andrew Hartzler, called out her faith-based hate:

In the video, Andrew Hartzler said his aunt was crying “because gay people like me can get married”. He added: “So despite coming out to my aunt this past February I guess she’s still just as much as a homophobe.”

…

“It’s more like you want the power to force your religious beliefs on to everyone else, and because you don’t have that power, you feel like you’re being silenced,” Andrew Hartzler said to his aunt on his video. “But you’re not. You’re just going have to learn to coexist with all of us. And I’m sure it’s not that hard.”

That’s the main way her personal views have intersected with the mission of religious freedom. That bill simply protected the rights of gay people; it didn’t force her to accept them. But she still opposed it because she believes her religious beliefs should dictate others’ lives.

That’s not the only example of her opposition to religious freedom either. In 2011, after the Air Force Academy dedicated a new space for pagans and witches and other “Earth-based” religions to worship, Hartzler called it “crazy” that the military would spend any amount of money for these “fringe religions.”

“Christianity is the main religion in our country,” she said to, of all people, Tony Perkins.

PERKINS: Do you see this as a part of a growing trend, that we see, that there is really kind of a marginalization of Christianity and… almost a promotion of other forms of, I would have to say, fringe religions?

HARTZLER: I agree, I think so… Christianity is the main religion in our country and, as a policy for the Department of Defense, I mean, we need to defend the practice of religion, but we do not have to obligate taxpayer funds to facilitate it or accommodate it or pay for it.

…

PERKINS: And what we’ve seen happen is, there has been this effort to, as I mentioned a minute ago, to marginalize Christianity while promoting other religions, as if the government has to be the equalizer. And I want to ask you about that. As a congresswoman, as one who understands the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, is it the government’s role to try to put all religions on the same plane?

HARTZLER: No, it’s not their role at all. I mean, their role is to facilitate basic policy for our country and to not to try to lift up one religion over the other. They should be defending the basic rights that we have, that freedom of religion here, and certainly not facilitating or accommodating fringe religions. I mean, it’s crazy.

For what it’s worth, when they recorded that, the Air Force Academy had just spent $3.5 million to build a chapel on campus to accommodate major religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism as well as smaller faiths.

Since leaving Congress, Hartzler has continued pushing her insane views. Just last year, she blasted schools that teach kids “mindfulness” and “yoga” because she says those are based in Buddhism and Hinduism. If schools really want to help kids who have mental health issues, she argued, they don’t need meditation. They need Jesus.

… I say if they want kids to stop having mental health [issues], they shouldn't have kept them out of school for two years during COVID. They should quit telling them that they can change their gender identities. They should tell them that Jesus loves them, and has a plan and purpose for their life. That's the answer to mental health problems with our kids.

This is who Vicky Hartzler is: A conservative zealot who sees everything as Christian persecution and who can’t conceive of a country where other religions are treated with the same respect as her own.

That’s the Vicky Hartzler who was appointed to the group meant to protect religious freedom around the world.

And that’s the Vicky Hartzler who will now be that group’s new leader.

Vicky Hartzler (screenshot via YouTube)

On Monday, the USCIRF announced that Hartzler would chair the organization over the next year:

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) today elected Vicky Hartzler as its Chair for 2025-2026…

“USCIRF is a vital part of the United States foreign policy efforts to promote religious freedom. This human right is enshrined in both our own constitution and in international law, but even more fundamentally it is etched in the heart of every person,” said Chair Hartzler, “It is an honor to serve as chair, and I will work with Vice Chair Mahmood and the other Commissioners continuing our bipartisan efforts to advance this right for everyone and everywhere abroad. I am grateful to outgoing Chair Stephen Schneck and Vice Chair Meir Soloveichik for their staunch and compassionate leadership. I also extend my thanks to former Commissioner Susie Gelman for her work and whose term concluded this past month.”

It’s genuinely hard for me to imagine a worse spokesperson for the cause of religious freedom around the world than a Christian zealot who has spent her career undermining religious freedom in the United States.

Whenever other people’s beliefs have come into conflict with her own faith, Hartzler has used her power as a lawmaker to push those other religions down. It’s never enough to oppose their beliefs personally; she wants her faith (and only her faith) to replace secular laws. She treats neutrality as oppression. She sees criticism of her beliefs as a personal threat.

Even her USCIRF bio focuses on her support for Christians abroad and not religious freedom in general. When Uyghurs—a group that’s mostly Muslim—are mentioned, it’s primarily in the context of her anti-abortion beliefs.

She has long been an advocate for those persecuted for their faith. Prior to her public service, she volunteered with the Voice of the Martyrs organization providing tangible help to Christians persecuted for their faith. In Congress she participated in the Defending Freedoms Project through the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission and the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom ‘adopting’ three Chinese pastors imprisoned for their faith. As part of this work, she met with family members, spoke on the House floor advocating for them, and wrote a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging the State Department to work to release prisoners of conscience in China as part of their diplomatic efforts.

In Congress she was the sponsor of HR4821 “The Combatting the Persecution of Christians in China Act” to imposes sanctions on individuals responsible for the persecution of Christians in China. She co-sponsored the “Ughur Stop Oppressive Sterilization (SOS) Act” with fellow CECC member Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) to impose sanctions on the individuals responsible for the forced sterilizations and forced abortions in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China and she supported passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act in 2021 and the Uighur Intervention and Global Humanitarian Unified Response Act (UIGHUR Act) in 2020 which both passed and became law.

How can any other country take her supposed support for religious freedom seriously when they can simply point to her own past statements as evidence for why they should impose their will on minority faiths? How can she say, with a straight face, that other countries need to respect religious minorities and stop persecuting them when she herself has always been the one persecuting religious minorities?

When she was merely one voice in a larger group, her extremism wasn’t front and center. Now, as chair, she needs to explain how anyone can trust her in this role. A Christian Nationalist who has repeatedly dismissed and legislated against the wishes of non-Christians has no right telling other countries to respect religious minorities.

Even if, like Tony Perkins, her statements are sanitized through the USCIRF staff, there’s just no reason to think she’ll defend anti-Muslim or anti-atheist persecution the same way she would for Christians like herself.

Nick Fish, president of American Atheists, sent me this statement last night about Hartzler’s new role:

Before her appointment to USCIRF last year and during her legislative career, Vicky Hartzler's primary focus seemed to be fanning a moral panic targeting trans people and finding ways to make the lives of all LGBTQ+ people worse. While I hope she recognizes her position as Chair of the Commission requires that she act to protect the interests of all people facing persecution because of their beliefs — including atheists, humanists, and other nonreligious people who often face criminal punishment and even the threat of death for our beliefs — her record shows an alarming lack of commitment to religious pluralism and secular democracy.

Hartzler's appointment as chair continues a long tradition of Christian Nationalists being elevated to positions of power within our government and using that privileged position to protect only their own "freedom" to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. In the 26-year history of USCIRF, there has never been an atheist, humanist, or nonreligious member of the Commission, ignoring more than a quarter of Americans and nearly two billion people worldwide.

The American people deserve better, as do the countless people around the globe who depend on American leadership on religious freedom issues.

For what it’s worth, there are currently seven commissioners on the USCIRF with two open slots. Those slots, if tradition continues, would be filled by the current president. That shouldn’t really matter given the bipartisan nature of the group, but there’s no aspect of government Republicans won’t turn into a culture war battle. The group had a good run while it lasted.

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