Getty Kasich calls for new federal agency to promote Judeo-Christian values

John Kasich would like to add a new federal agency if he becomes president: one to promote "Judeo-Christian Western values."

Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, the Ohio governor said the U.S. “must be more forceful in the battle of ideas.”


"U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting have lost their focus on the case for Western values and ideals and effectively countering our opponents' propaganda and disinformation,” Kasich said. “I will consolidate them into a new agency that has a clear mandate to promote the core, Judeo-Christian Western values that we and our friends and allies share: the values of human rights, the values of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of association."

He said the main areas of the world he would target would be Russia, China and the Middle East.

Later Tuesday in an interview with NBC he elaborated on what the job of the agency would be.

“Its job would be fundamentally to revive what we used to do when we beamed messages into the former Soviet Union. We need to beam messages around the world about what it means to have Western ethics … to be part of a Judeo-Christian society,” he said.

What about the Western values of Muslims, atheists and others in the U.S.? Kasich was asked.

“I also think that we have many moderate Muslims who share our views … there are many of them that stand up and speak out and they should be included in this and they’d be a very effective part of this,” he responded. “It’s essential that we do promote this message. It’s essential by the way that those in the West begin to embrace again our Jewish-Christian tradition rather than running from it, hiding from it.”