WASHINGTON (WNS) – The new State Department ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom articulated a robust view of religious liberty in his first testimony before Congress. Rabbi David Saperstein’s comments came at a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing convened to discuss his office’s budget and role in combating religious persecution. Saperstein’s predecessor, Suzan Johnson Cook, served two-and-a-half ineffective years in the role and often only defended freedom of worship—limiting religious practice to what happens inside a place of worship or at home. Saperstein denounced that limited view, noting freedom of worship leaves out a person’s right to religious education, proselytizing, and generally live out one’s faith in the public square: “It is important that that be the message going out to the world.”