Vice President Mike Pence announced on Wednesday night that President Donald Trump has directed the U.S. State Department to offer direct funding to groups that are helping Christians and religious minorities impacted by ISIS.
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Pence, who made the announcement during a keynote address at a dinner hosted by In Defense of Christians, pledged support for persecuted Middle Eastern communities that are desperately in need of assistance, The Christian Post reported.
“Our fellow Christians and all who are persecuted in the Middle East should not have to rely on multinational institutions when America can help them directly,” Pence said. “And tonight, it is my privilege to announce that President Trump has ordered the State Department to stop funding ineffective relief efforts at the United Nations.”
He continued, “And from this day forward, America will provide support directly to persecuted communities through [the United States Aid Agency].”
We will no longer rely on @UN alone to assist persecuted Christians in the wake of genocide & atrocities of terrorist groups. #idcsummit2017 pic.twitter.com/bV9DdpVfQR
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 25, 2017
Pence specifically hammered the U.N. during the address, saying that the 160 projects that the international body has touted in Christian areas haven’t solved the crisis.
“The believers in Nineveh Iraq have had less than 2 percent of their housing needs addressed and the majority of Christians and Yazidis remain in shelters,” he said. “Projects that are supposedly marked finished have little more than a U.N. flag hung outside an unusable building, in many cases a school.”
So, he said the new move will rely more on faith-based organizations that have deep connections in the Middle East.
.@POTUS asked me to go to the Middle East in Dec. to deliver the message that it is time to bring an end to the persecution of Christians. pic.twitter.com/IiOU28UFpb
— Vice President Pence (@VP) October 25, 2017
“The United States will work hand in hand from this day forward with faith-based groups and private organizations to help those who are persecuted for their faith,” the vice-president continued. “This is the moment. Now is the time.”
Pence also said that the Trump administration consider ISIS’s actions against Christians and other minority groups to be genocide — a label that has been widely supported as the terrorist group has killed and driven out opposing religious groups.
The vice-president, who will head to the Middle East in December, said that he will tout the message that now is the time “to bring an end to the persecution of Christians and all religious minorities.”
(H/T: Christian Post)