Isn't that cozy.

From the Charlotte Observer. Nepotism anyone?

WASHINGTON - At 4:15 p.m., Uzbekistan ambassador to the United States was escorted into a long-tabled room at the U.S. State Department.

He'd come to discuss, ambassador-to-ambassador, the department's decision to add the former Soviet republic to its annual list of countries guilty of "severe violations of religious freedom." It's a designation that can bring economic sanctions.

Sitting across from the Uzbek ambassador as the meeting began: former Charlottean John Hanford III, who compiled the list.

As President Bush's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, Hanford, 52, is America's chief monitor of religious persecution around the globe. It's also his job to try to work with countries to end the mistreatment of worshippers -- in Uzbekistan's case, the victims tend to be Protestant Christians and observant Muslims.

"The right position for the United States is to encourage other nations to follow what we have worked out here over the years," says Hanford, a Salisbury native and the nephew of Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C. "It's important for me to be humble and say to other governments, `Our record is not perfect. There have been times in our history ...' But almost since the beginning, this (respect for freedom to worship) has been a strength of our government."

An evangelical Christian himself, Hanford likes to quote George Washington and other Founding Fathers about the blessings of religious liberty.

Does anyone find it funny that the Evangelicals are in charge of our out-reach effort for religious freedom? This is the same movement that feels the Pope is a devil, that Catholicism is a pagan religion, that Jews will burn in hell, that Muslims will burn in hell, and that a vote for John Kerry was a vote for immorality.

THESE are the people in charge of religious freedom?

I would love to give you his qualifications, but I can't seem to find any.