RFI President Eric Patterson was interviewed on the state of religious freedom in America on CBN’s QuickStart Podcast this week.

Patterson began by explaining that religious freedom is an inalienable right given by God, not by government:

It’s wrong to think that a fundamental freedom like religious freedom comes from the government. Government should protect what is an inalienable right. In other words, because we’re creatures created in God’s image, male and female, God has put into us the desire to seek Him, the desire to seek the answers about the meaning of life. That’s what’s at the root of what religious liberty is. We are religious people by our very nature; and that’s where it comes from, it’s rooted in the way that God made us.

When asked what is behind the growing push to restrict religious freedom and expression, Patterson pointed to an insidious marriage between progressive, Neo-Marxist ideologies and government power. “In other words, the state is being used to bring the hammer down to coerce people. It’s not just individuals; those attacks are increasingly on faith-based organizations and institutions as well – say a Catholic hospital, a Jewish clinic, an Evangelical college or university,” he said.

He also discussed the dramatic rise of Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since October 7th, and its connection to the growing failure to teach about the history of the Holocaust in schools today. Patterson argued that this is also related to Neo-Marxist ideology, viewing history only through the lens of “oppressor vs. oppressed,” in which the oppressors are almost always Christians or religious people with traditional views on morality.

Listen to the full interview here.