Bush names well known Christians to International Religious Freedom Commission

Washington D.C., May 14, 2007 / 09:43 am

President George W. Bush intends to appoint three new members to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom. The new members — two of whom are well known Christians — include Michael Lewis Cromartie of Virginia, Talil Eid of Massachusetts, and Leonard Leo of Virginia.

Leo received his law degree from Cornell Law School in 1989. He is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court, D.C. Circuit, Federal Circuit, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey Bars.

Leo serves as the Executive Vice President of The Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy Studies, an organization dedicated to traditional legal principles and interested in the current state of the legal order. He manages the projects, programs and publications of a nationwide network of about 35,000 lawyers and directs its ABA WATCH project, which monitors the activities of the American Bar Association.

Since May of 2002, Leo has been a member of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, a Catholic organization that emphasizes the provision of services to ill and disabled members of the community. He also serves on the board of directors of the Youth Leadership Foundation, the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast, and the Catholic Action Network. He resides in Arlington with his wife Sally and their four children — Margaret, Anthony, Elizabeth, and Thaddeus.

Michael Cromartie is Vice President at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and he directs both the Evangelicals in Civic Life and Religion & the Media programs. He is a senior advisor to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and a senior fellow with The Trinity Forum.

He is the host of Radio America's weekly show "Faith and Life"; an adjunct professor at the Reformed Theological Seminary; and an advisory editor of Christianity Today. He is also on the board of directors of Mars Hill Audio, and served as an advisor to the PBS documentary series With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Christian Right in America.

Cromartie has contributed book reviews and articles to First Things, Books and Culture, Crisis, the Washington Times, The Reformed Journal, Insight, Christianity Today, Stewardship Journal, World, and The Presbyterian Journal. He is the co-editor, with Richard John Neuhaus, of Piety and Politics: Evangelicals and Fundamentalists Confront the World (1987; now in its fifth printing).

In 2004, Cromartie was appointed to a two-year term on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. In 2005, he was elected chairman of the commission.