Newt Gingrich sends a message to the conference in South Korea at a critical moment, defending religious freedom: “Rights come from God, not the state.”
A speech by senior American politician Newt Gingrich, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, 1995-1998. His message was delivered as a pre-recorded video at a Special Dinner on 2nd February during the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit 2026 at the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C.
Prepared by Knut Holdhus
I want to thank everyone for allowing me to address this International Religious Freedom Summit from Bern, Switzerland, where, as you know, my wife, Callista, is serving as ambassador.
When Callista was the ambassador to the Vatican, religious liberty was one of the most important topics that she worked on. And we both have a deep commitment to religious liberty.
It’s particularly important this year because we’re celebrating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, in which Thomas Jefferson wrote that our rights come from our Creator. Remember, it says we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.
To me, that’s central to the crisis that we’re seeing grow in both Japan and South Korea, a crisis in which politicians are asserting that they have the right to come between God and the citizens. They have the right to determine whether or not a citizen is allowed to worship as they believe.
This is a terrible problem because it goes to the very heart of our system. We believe that rights come from God, not from bureaucrats, not from lawyers, not from politicians, but from God.
And if politicians think that they have the power to come between God and the people, then you’ve just undermined the entire process.
That’s why your summit is so important, because this is a crucial moment. I’m very encouraged that Prime Minister Takaichi is taking a new look at the way in which the Church has been mishandled in Japan. She’s taking a new look at this whole issue of whether or not people can be forced to go to God only as the state allows it.
And I encourage her to continue to show that courage and to continue to raise that issue.
But I’m even more concerned about what I see happening in South Korea, a country which I feel very close to because my father fought there in 1953 and served again later in the 60s. And we’ve had a long family tie to watching the growth, the prosperity, the freedom, and the safety of South Korea.
And it’s very painful to me to imagine that you could have a governor of South Korea that would have an 83-year-old woman, Dr. Hak Ja Han, going blind, with really difficult problems with her leg. So she’s literally crawling and sleeping on the floor.
This is such a violent abuse of power to do this to somebody who has spent her entire life fighting Communism, encouraging religion, and working worldwide in well over 150 countries for freedom and peace.
So I would encourage the government of South Korea to take a serious look at releasing her and recognizing that putting an 83-year-old woman in those kinds of circumstances is very inhumane and goes against everything those of us who believe in religious liberty stand for.
I’m delighted you’re meeting. It’s a very important topic. It’s at the heart of our entire system.
For this reason, if our rights don’t come from God, then they’re not rights. They’re just temporary grants by somebody who’s powerful.
But if, in fact, our rights come from God, then we can stand firm knowing that we are free, that we have the right to approach God the way we believe, that we can seek salvation, and that no government can come between us and religious liberty.
The work you’re doing is very, very important, and I thank you for allowing me to share this with you.
Featured image above: Newt Gingrich delivering his speech via video on 2nd Feb. 2026 in Washington DC. Photo: Screenshot from video by FFWPU