Rubio urges more aid for persecuted Christians

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) called on the State Department Thursday to provide more funding to help Christians persecuted abroad. 

“Reports suggest that the State Department is ready to designate the Islamic State’s terror against the Yazidis as genocide, which it clearly is, but they might not … do so for equally embattled Christian communities,” the presidential candidate wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. 

{mosads}”This is only one part of a refusal to come to grips with the full weight of these facts,” he wrote in the op-ed, co-authored with Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

They said ISIS and other jihadist groups have led a “ruthless religious cleansing campaign,” bombing churches and converting them to mosques, in order to drive Christians and minorities from their homes, force conversions to Islam or require compliance with Islam. 

“We need to recognize the importance of U.S. foreign assistance, which comprises less than 1 percent of our federal budget, in helping to support and protect Christian refugees fleeing persecution,” they said. “Some of this assistance needs to be targeted to religious minorities who have been forced to leave their homes and are now seeking safe haven elsewhere in the region.”  

The op-ed comes a day before Christmas, a Christian holiday. It also notes that Rubio worked to reauthorize the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The bill was signed into law in October. 

Refugee resettlement has become a major issue in the Republican presidential race, with several candidates suggesting only Christian refugees fleeing ISIS be allowed into the U.S. 

President Obama put out a statement on Wednesday saying he was praying for persecuted Christians. 

“We join with people around the world in praying for God’s protection for persecuted Christians and those of other faiths, as well as for those brave men and women engaged in our military, diplomatic, and humanitarian efforts to alleviate their suffering and restore stability, security, and hope to their nations,” he said.