Katrina Lantos-Swett of Lantos Foundation
International Religious Freedom Summit 2024
Transcription completed by AI software, please excuse any misspellings or typos present.
Leray Heyne 0:00
Hello, my name is Leray Heyne and when the Lord gave me the vision for the Jesus Christ’s CEOs Media, I asked him why he wanted a state-of-the-art media ministry that would rival the best media organizations in the world. And Holy Spirit replied, I want to tell the world what Jesus is doing in business. I think you will agree. CBS is not sending 60 minutes to my door anytime soon asking me to do a weekly segment on what Jesus is doing in business. Amen. It is for this reason we are asking for your corporate covenant partnership. When your company gives to JC CEOs Media, you are giving to a ministry that is committed to revolutionize the Christian Broadcasting with virtual reality filming studios at the core of our content creation strategy, our studios around the world will be immersed in cutting edge technology that gives JC CEOs Media professional capabilities for creating visually stunning TV shows, documentaries and movies that will tell the world what Jesus is doing in business. Owners with your company's faithful generosity JC CEOs TV will proclaim in 190 nations on seven continents, the power and good news of what Jesus is doing in their nation's public squares of business. So right now, we are inviting you to join JC CEOs TV as a corporate covenant partner of the world's first Christian television network consecrated to tell the world what Jesus is doing in business. Thank you for your corporate partnership, and may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. God bless you.
Leray Heyne 2:09
Hello, Leray Heyne again here at the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC, and I am with one of the chairs, Dr. Katrina Lantos. And I'm thankful that you have sat down and your very busy schedule here to talk with me a little bit.
Katrina Lantos Swett 2:25
Well, it's my pleasure. We're so grateful to have you here. And so grateful for your very unique and important ministry too often, the business community is sort of left out of the discussion of, of these kinds of fundamental fights for fundamental rights. And, and you're, you're really doing very important work. So we're just thrilled and delighted that you're here.
Leray Heyne 2:48
Oh, thank you for having us. And you have also an interesting background. So why don't you tell people a little bit about you and your foundation and your and your dad?
Katrina Lantos Swett 2:57
Absolutely. So I am the daughter of the only survivor of the Holocaust ever elected to serve in the United States Congress. My dad and mom both were Hungarian Jews, who when the Nazis occupied their homeland became targets as 6 million others did for death and destruction. And through a variety of miracles, large and small, they both managed to survive, and eventually, were able to come to the United States and my father after a, you know, long career and became a university professor, he did a variety of things established a study abroad program, he decided on what he thought was a little bit of a crazy effort to chase the American dream to run for Congress. You know, he had a he was a brilliant man, but you know, a notable accent. And I think at times, he wondered, gee, I, I don't know if people will vote for someone as different as I am. But he was elected to Congress, and reelected ended up serving almost 30 years. But because of what he had experienced in his youth, because he knew what it meant to be hunted, and hated and persecuted, he had a very deep commitment to standing up for the rights of others. So he ended up founding the congressional human rights caucus, and was sometimes called the conscience of the Congress, he led out on so many human rights issues, including religious freedom. And actually when he passed away, the leadership of the House of Representatives reconstituted the congressional human rights Caucus as the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the Congress, which was a wonderful tribute, and it continues to do great work to this day. But on the non governmental side, my mother, my sister, and I really knew we wanted to carry on what we felt was a singular legacy. So we established the Lantos Foundation for human rights and justice. And I've been running it for now almost 16 years. And we engage on a wide range of human rights issues, everything from the rule of law, rescuing prisoners of conscience, extending internet freedom behind sort of the digital iron curtain in places like China and Iran and North Korea. But one of the big areas of engagement by our foundation is in the field of international religious freedom. And I had the chance to serve two terms on the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. I was both the chair and the vice chair. And so I was very honored when Ambassador Sam Brownback reached out to me and said, hey, you know, I'm launching this new thing. I want to get a an empowered grassroots movement going to advocate for freedom of religion, conscience and belief for everyone everywhere all the time. Do you want to come on board? And I said, Sign me up. So that's, that's been a wonderful experience.
Leray Heyne 5:59
So I'm going to ask you a different question. Okay. A personal question. All right.
Katrina Lantos Swett 6:05
Getting ready to blush folks getting ready to blush.
Leray Heyne 6:09
So I know that Jesus Christ's CEOs, when they live out their faith with conviction and purpose, it changes them.
Katrina Lantos Swett 6:17
Yes.
Leray Heyne 6:18
You are picking up your dad's legacy.
Katrina Lantos Swett 6:21
Yeah.
Leray Heyne 6:22
How has this work, changed you and given you a greater revelation and conviction for what your dad was about?
Katrina Lantos Swett 6:30
Well, it's a beautiful question. It's a wonderful question. It really has changed me. You know, I think sometimes when you're a child, even an adult child, you just sort of know your father's doing this, or your mother's doing that, and you were aware of it, but you don't really understand fully what it means to them. But when my dad passed away, and I had the opportunity to start this foundation, one of the first things that was really impactful was that barely a week would go by, where I wouldn't get a phone call or an email from someone who would say, Hey, Dr. Lantos Swett, I just need to let you know, your dad was the one who got me out of prison, I would still be languishing in there, if it wasn't for him. Or hey, Katrina, you know, when no one else would speak up for our community, when every door we knocked on in Congress, they said, oh, you know, we wish you well, but they wouldn't lift a finger, your father not only spoke up, but he would open his office, he'd say, you set up shop here, I know, it's hard to schlep across this hill, you consider my office, your office and my staff, your staff. And these stories would come to me on a regular basis. And it was transformative, because it made me realize how personal these fights were to my father, that again, because he knew what it was like to be afraid to not know if you would survive, to not know if your former neighbors would hide you, or turn you in to the SS. He wanted to be there. For those who also felt alone who also felt abandoned, who also felt that nobody was listening to them. And so it sort of developed in me, just, I'd say a greater passion. And the other thing that is very transformative about working in human rights, but especially in the religious freedom spaces, you get the opportunity to interact with so many inspirational people, people who have made such sacrifices to live in, you know, faithfulness to what they believe. They are ready to give up so much. And, you know, we lead in most of the United States, we lead quite privileged lives, we really do. We're rarely asked to make meaningful sacrifices. And so that also has been in a powerful way very impactful, and also quite transformative, to have the opportunity to try and help but also to be inspired by the stories of of people who are really living lives of great courage and conviction.
Leray Heyne 9:18
I would since you've probably now, have your father's voice after all. What a what a great man, what a great story of service and esteeming others greater than yourself, no matter what kind of position the Lord has given you. I want you to impart that gift to business owners in their leadership role. So just look in the camera and just speak to them and impart and if you're comfortable, I don't know if you are but I would even like you to pray for them.
Katrina Lantos Swett 9:55
Well, thank you. Thank you for this opportunity. I know that the people I'm speaking to know a lot more about many things than I do. And so I would be reluctant to try and give you advice. But I would say this, that each one of us, whether you're a successful business person, whether you're a parent in the home, whether you're a student, whether you're retired, whatever this circumstance or situation in your life, we are called by God, to be our brothers keepers to be our sisters keepers. That was something my father echoed to me a lot, that we must answer that question, you know that it comes from the Old Testament where Cain had actually murdered his brother Abel in a fit of jealousy. And after he had committed this first terrible crime, in the history of humanity, he heard God's voice, saying, Cain, where is thy brother, Abel? And Cain's answer was, am I my brother's keeper? So he was trying to evade the question basically saying, Why are you asking me although he knew his guilt, but God expects us to give a very different answer to that question. If we are asked, you know, where is that refugee family that's in your community and struggling? And if their dad can only get a job, they'll make it they'll be okay. He doesn't want to hear us say, well, am I my brother's keeper? He wants us to say, I know, I am my brother's keeper. And I can maybe reach out and help that family. Or if you hear of a community of Christians in Nigeria, who have suffered massacres and persecutions. Again, if God sort of were to say to you, what about this community? He doesn't want to hear us say, well, it's far away. It's not really my problem. I mean, I'm, I feel for them. But but he wants us to step up. And one of the things that I would say to your viewers, and to folks who may be learning for the first time about the IRF Summit is this is a partner driven organization, or organizations like yours. And so somebody's a business person sitting there listening to this conversation, you say, but where do I begin? Well, one great place to begin would be go to that IRF Summit website, and you are going to see, literally 90 partners. And each one of them is an organization like yours, that is engaged in some way or other in doing the Lord's work. And many of them are, in fact, working bravely and courageously in some of the most dangerous parts of the world, to try and rescue to try and help and sucker those who are struggling. And that's a good place to start. Because you don't need to reinvent the wheel. If you're a businessman, you know, I don't want to reinvent the wheel. I just want to find my niche in a market or my way to do things. And in terms of in terms of a prayer, I don't know that I, I can pray for you today. But what I would like to encourage all of you to do is to go online, and Google Eleanor Roosevelt's nightly prayer. It's a beautiful, beautiful prayer that according to her son, the former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, would pray each night and it's, it's a wonderful call to look at the world around us to try and be kinder and more understanding, to look for opportunities to serve and to make this world a little better. Yeah. And so thank you for such a beautiful opportunity.
Leray Heyne 13:55
Oh, thank you and I was just Holy Spirit lead and I just love your how you ministered to our audience. Just impromptu so thank you so much for taking the time to stop by and be with us.
Katrina Lantos Swett 14:08
Thank you. It's been a privilege and thank you for what you're doing.
Leray Heyne 14:11
Thank you so much. Bless you.
