United States Commission on International Religious Freedom Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Laos=== The first-ever [[U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom]], [[Robert Seiple]], criticized the USCIRF's emphasis on the punishment of religious persecution over the promotion of religious freedom. In his view, the USCIRF was "only cursing the darkness". As an example, he highlighted the Commission's decision to designate [[Laos]] a Country of Particular Concern in 2002 despite the release of religious prisoners. He further stated, "that which was conceived in error and delivered in chaos has now been consigned to irrelevancy. Unless the Commission finds some candles soon, Congress ought to turn out the lights."<ref>{{cite web|title=Speaking Out: The USCIRF Is Only Cursing the Darkness|url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/octoberweb-only/10-14-31.0.html |publisher=Christianity Today|access-date=August 19, 2009}}</ref> The Commission responded that despite the releases, the [[Marxism|Marxist]], [[Pathet Lao]] government in Laos still had systemic impediments to religious freedom, such as laws allowing religious activities only with the consent of Pathet Lao government officials, and laws allowing the government to determine whether a religious community is in accord with its own teaching.<ref>{{cite web|title=Speaking Out: USCIRF's Concern Is To Help All Religious Freedom Victims|url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/novemberweb-only/11-4-41.0.html |publisher=Christianity Today|date=November 1, 2002|access-date=June 4, 2010}}</ref> Other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), religious freedom and human rights advocates, policy experts, and Members of Congress have defended the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom's research work, and various reports on the Pathet Lao government's increased and serious religious persecution in Laos, from Seiple's controversial criticism. They have pointed out potential conflicts of interest involving reported grant monies Seiple, or a non-profit organization connected to Seiple, reportedly received from officials at the U.S. Department of State to apparently seek to minimize grossly increased religious persecution and widespread human rights violations by the Lao government and the [[Lao People's Army]].<ref>Smith, Philip, [[Center for Public Policy Analysis]] (or Centre for Public Policy Analysis), (10 December 2004), Washington, D.C. [http://www.centreforpublicpolicyanalyis.org]{{Dead link|date=July 2018|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page