On October 27, 21Wilberforce presented the 2026 Frank Wolf International Religious Freedom Award to Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, Executive Director of the Burma Advocacy Group and General Secretary Emeritus of American Baptist Churches USA, in recognition of decades of faithful advocacy.

Religious freedom for everyone

In his acceptance remarks, Dr. Medley made a strong case that religious freedom must protect everyone, not only Christians. He warned of the danger of faith being used as a weapon against “the other,” a pattern he said repeats wherever religion is fused with political power.

He drew on decades of military oppression of both Christians and Muslims in Burma, and on attacks against religious communities in Nigeria and beyond, to show that persecution does not respect denominational lines, and that a defense of freedom which protects only one’s own community is not a defense of freedom at all.

“Let us together hew a rock of hope.”Rev. Dr. A. Roy Medley, 2026 Frank Wolf Award remarks, via 21Wilberforce

Faith as a sacred compact

Dr. Medley also argued that no state may force belief, because faith is a sacred compact between each person and God. On that view, governments and demagogues have no standing to dictate, compel or punish conscience.

Drawing on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s image of hewing a stone of hope out of a mountain of despair, he called on all people to build a foundation for freedom strong enough to stand up to tyrants and religious demagogues alike.

The argument at a glance

Tap a pillar to expand. FFN summary of the themes in Dr. Medley’s remarks as reported by 21Wilberforce.