When Conscience Dies
Below is a transcript of the full speech given by Rev. Demian Dunkley at the 2026 International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC on February 4, 2026.
"I’ve been to the killing fields. In Cambodia. Where you can still hear the echoes of the cries of those who fell at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.
The religious. The intellectuals. The mind of the nation destroyed. Millions butchered.
Why? Because one leader decided they did not believe the right way.
In the middle of the killing fields stands a special tree. A tree where unimaginable things were done to babies in front of their mothers, before both mothers and children were thrown onto a heaping mound inside a ditch.
This tree was used in the ending of children's lives.
All while loud music blasted from speakers in the treetops so neighboring villages would not hear the howling cries of human slaughter.
There are signboards with depictions of the buildings that once stood there. The image that disturbed me the most was a single-story guard house on wooden stilts, where soldiers would rest while others took their turn killing.
At the base of the steps was a hammock.
Guard House (Executioners Office)
I tried to imagine what kind of human being could lie back in a hammock to rest, while his fellow countrymen were being mutilated just a stone’s throw away.
No matter what form it takes, we must acknowledge that evil exists.
We must acknowledge that there is a central driving spirit with intent to bring ruin to humanity, especially by taking the freedoms of those who work for peace.
It was Dr. Hak Ja Han who sent me there, to Cambodia, so that I could learn and see with my own eyes.
She had already visited herself, to pray for the liberation of those tormented souls, just as she has done in Africa to pray for the victims of the slave trade, and in Europe to pray over the lives lost at the hands of the Nazis.
These are merely drops in the ocean of a lifetime’s work.
Dr. Hak Ja Han, loved by millions as Holy Mother Han, the Mother of Peace
Dr. Hak Ja Han, loved by millions around the world as Holy Mother Han, the Mother of Peace, has lived eight decades of her life dreaming of peace, living for peace, and sacrificing for the sake of humanity without regard for personal benefit.
And now, she sits in a cement box the size of a Mini Cooper.
Why? Because someone decided she doesn’t believe the right way.
Though they hold her passport, she was considered a flight risk.
So now an 83-year-old great-grandmother, a world religious figure, barely able to see, barely able to walk, having already fallen down several times, has resorted to crawling on her hands and knees in near total isolation.
And yet she is asking about you. And how you are doing.
Still, she is praying. Still, she is dreaming of a world of peace.
On July 18 of last year, 1000 agents and police officers in riot gear descended upon her sanctuary and her home in Gapyeong, Korea.
Within weeks of opening an international temple of peace and prayer for all humankind, where even members of our own faith had not yet entered, hundreds of police boots trampled ignorantly across this threshold of heaven.
Prosecutors were seen taking great pleasure as they entered her bedroom, ripping out drawers and throwing all of her belongings onto the floor.
This wasn’t a search. It was humiliation.
Again we ask, how do people become this numb?
Presumption of guilt without evidence. Militarized raids. Failure to respect age and health concerns. Orchestrated exposure to mass media from prosecutors’ offices. Failure to protect her from media mobs and chaotic crowds. Inadequate medical support. Psychological deprivation through isolation. Erasure of her humanitarian, interfaith, and peace-building record.
The list goes on and on.
And then, after months in detention, when it appeared the prosecutors could find no evidence, the head of state personally entered the arena and began to speak openly of dissolving our church by replicating the proceedings now unfolding in Japan.
I tell you plainly. We are an inconvenient faith. Because, like all of you here, our passion for goodness cannot be controlled.
And this is happening to Christian organizations across South Korea today. How does a democratic nation become like this?
Each of us is here with a story of oppression, suppression, or abuse.
But the root of all of this is evil. And it has been rightly described as a global war on God.
I would like to leave you with a simple concept, a fundamental framework through which all of this can be understood.
In the pamphlet, it says:
“The freedom to believe and worship, is one of the most fundamental human rights.”
This is true. And yet I would go further.
It is not simply one of the most fundamental human rights, it is the central, most essential human right given to us by God, our Creator.
So what is the proper relationship between church and state?
The religious sphere acts as the conscience of a nation. The government serves the body.
We all know the way an individual becomes evil is by stepping on one’s conscience.
And the way a state becomes evil is by stepping on the religious sphere which represents the conscience of the nation.
Anytime a person tramples on their conscience, or a leader tramples on the conscience of a nation, the ability to discern goodness becomes numb, and the window to evil is opened wide.
However, we cannot push back against evil forces simply by demanding rights from our governments.
We must strike at the root of evil by standing in our dignified roles as God’s sons and daughters, knowing that our rights come from our Creator.
Because there is no democracy without freedom.
And there is no freedom without God.
Dinner. Clockwise from center top: Amb. Richard Swett, Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, Rev. Demian Dunkley, Yumiko Dunkley, Amb. Randy Evans, Dr. Michael Jenkins, Min. Reiko Jenkins, Jonathan Caine, Pastor Paula White, Amb. Sam Brownback