Farr, the featured speaker at the Washington Coalition for International Religious Freedom's Oct. 27 meeting, spoke on the subject, "Still Missing: Religion and American Foreign Policy" to the 40 representatives that make up the group.

"We still don't have this right," Farr observed, "for religion is still missing from statecraft. Religion is broadening and deepening around the world and we tend to ignore it."

He explained that because of secularism and the idea that religion should be a private matter, policy makers often fail to recognize religion's impact on society and policy both domestically and internationally.

But without understanding underlying religious beliefs it is impossible to understand the way individuals and societies function. As democratic ideas are promoted, it is important to reject the notion that "democracy means you have to check your religion at the door," he concluded.

"Religion informs and motivates much of what occurs in this world," added attorney James Standish, associate director of the Seventh-day Adventist world church's Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) department, and the church's representative on Capitol Hill. "Therefore, failure to delve into the power and diversity of religious thought around the globe results in policies dangerously out of sync with reality on the ground."