The State Department has now designated 12 “Countries of Particular Concern” and placed four more on a “Special Watch List” under the International Religious Freedom Act “for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

Yet here at home, the federal government is seeking to compel people to betray their religious beliefs. While such violations of religious freedom pale in comparison to those that China and Iran perpetrate, they are attacks on conscience nonetheless. And the hypocrisy is inescapable.

The State Department announcement came the same week that Congress disrespected religious liberty by passing the Respect for Marriage Act. Ostensibly about codifying the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision on same-sex marriage, this legislation sets the stage for dissenting religious organizations and nonprofit organizations to lose their tax-exempt status and licenses to operate. The act provides no new benefit for civilly married same-sex couples. It does, however, give activists and bureaucrats new tools to harass people and institutions that profess traditional beliefs about marriage.

It’s been clear from the start that the Biden administration doesn’t prioritize religious freedom . Religious freedom is a fundamental right that upholds others. But Secretary of State Antony Blinken argued that it is just one “co-equal” and “interdependent” right. That’s because it’s a stumbling block for the Left’s pursuit of an ideological agenda that is even less popular in the developing world than it is here. As it turns out, devaluing religious freedom is a critical step in promoting rights based on sexual orientation or gender identity .