By Chad Groening and Bill Fancher
May 16, 2001

(AgapePress) - The vice president for national security and foreign policy at the Family Research Council calls the expulsion of the United States from the U.N. Human Rights Commission “loony.”

Bob Maginnis thinks the United Nations is trying to punish the United States because the Bush Administration has refused to go along with its leftist agenda, which includes issues such as the World Court and global warming. Maginnis says even many of our allies voted us out because of Bush's missile defense plans. And Maginnis says countries like China do not like the U.S. is always pointing out their human rights violations.

“To punish us and to extract us from a human rights forum where we’ve been the champion for the last 50 plus years is loony," Maginnis says, "and of course, I think Americans are becoming very tired of the rhetoric coming out of U.N. spokespersons, especially when it comes down to things like the abuses of human rights in China, which we’ve consistently brought up, and the persecution, the forced abortion, the anti-democracy movements taken by the communist Chinese."

Maginnis believes there is a growing sentiment by some on Capitol Hill to take a serious look at continuing to fund the U.N., which is blatantly thumbing its nose at American taxpayers who are footing the bill.

“I think people like Senator Jesse Helms have been very much opposed to unresponsive, uncooperative types of U.N. programs that are not meeting U.S. interests abroad, “ he says.

The recent expulsion of the United States from the commission it established 30 years ago has angered many in Congress. In addition, human rights activists claim that communist China was instrumental in that expulsion. Larry Goodrich, a spokesman for the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, feels Congress has been sending the wrong message on human rights.

Last year, Congress ignored the Commission’s recommendation not to grant “permanent normal trade relations” with the Beijing regime until it ended its human rights abuses.

“We were disappointed that Congress passed permanent normal trade relations status for China without at the same time taking some action to indicate that religious freedom and other human rights are very important,” Goodrich says.

By that action, Goodrich says, China could only conclude that religious freedom human rights are not important to the U.S. Congress.

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