Kasich tones down call for new "Judeo-Christian" agency
Republican presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is dialing back a controversial proposal he made earlier this week that would create a new federal agency dedicated to promoting "Judeo-Christian" values.
"I don't think you need a new agency," Kasich told reporters Wednesday, according to The Columbus Dispatch. "It's really breathing life into something that kind of has become dormant."
He proposed instead that it could be something akin to the Voice of America, the United States' official broadcast news network.
"You don't hear much about the Voice of America anymore," Kasich said after speaking at Regent University in Virginia.
"Once we defeat (Islamic State militants) with bullets, which we need to do, and need to do now, we then can engage in the battle of ideas so that these radical groups don't crop up one after another," he added. "I think it's entirely reasonable for us to begin to tell the world who we are, what we believe, because it's really all about hope, science, education, progress, and the future."
Kasich had first suggested the formation of a separate agency in a foreign policy speech he gave Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
The Ohio governor said he would like to create "a new agency that has a clear mandate to promote the core Judeo-Christian Western values that we and our friends and allies share: the values of human rights, the values of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of association."
After the deadly Paris attacks last week, he also criticized the State Department's efforts at combatting propaganda from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The United States, he said, was "failing to advance our values in the battle of ideas."
Kasich elaborated on those remarks Wednesday, adding, "We represent the Western ethic, Western values ... We're talking fundamentally about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the ability to gather to address our grievances, the equality of women."
But one of Kasich's Republican rivals, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, slammed Kasich for his initial proposal.
"I don't think we should be promoting Judeo-Christian values in the Arab world," Graham, said in an interview with Real Clear Politics. "I think that was the Crusades."