McCain pledges to champion religious freedoms

Reuters reports In Rochester, Michigan, the Arizona senator used a wide-ranging speech on human dignity to promise support for religious freedom in countries that imprison or persecute "tens-of-thousands of people whose only crime is to worship God in their own way."

AFP reports According to McCain, no society "that denies religious freedom can ever rightly claim to be good in some other way. And no person can ever be true to any faith that believes in the dignity of all human life if they do not act out of concern for those whose dignity is assailed because of their faith."

In the speech, McCain also excoriated human trafficking -- "slavery by another name" -- which he said exists "in places like Thailand, Kuwait and Venezuela" as well as the United States.