The Friendship That Changed International Religious Freedom for America and the World

The Religious Freedom Institute will present this year's Defender of Religious Freedom award to Congressmen Frank Wolf and Chris Smith.

The two men began their work in religious freedom policy following a 1985 trip to Bucharest, Romania. During that visit, they met with victims of the Nicolae Ceauşescu regime who shared accounts of torture and imprisonment for their faith. Thomas F. Farr of Public Discourse reports that Wolf described the regime as more evil than any other on earth after hearing these accounts. Smith noted that the memoir Tortured for Christ, which details the abuse of Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabinat, challenged him to take action.