Pompeo Briefing On World Religious Freedom Given Exclusively To 'Faith-Based Media'

The State Department announced a Monday conference call with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo  that was restricted to “faith-based media” to discuss international religious freedom ahead of his trip this week to the Mideast.

The “faith-based” restriction was first reported on Twitter by CNN senior diplomatic correspondent Michelle Kosinski. Word got out when one unidentified member of the “regular” media was accidentally invited — then disinvited.

The New York Post reported that it was informed by the State Department: “This is not an open press event. We are sorry about any confusion.”

When HuffPost asked about the call, a State Department representative responded that such a situation is commonplace. The spokesperson would not confirm that the call actually took place, who may have attended and what was discussed.

“The Department regularly engages in a broad array of media activities. Some of those engagements .... are open to any interested domestic or international press,” the representative said in a statement to HuffPost. “Other engagements are more targeted or designed for topic, region, or audience-specific media.  This has always been the case.”

Briefings are often targeted to journalists who cover certain subjects, but insisting that reporters be from “faith-based” media is a different situation. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell — who was barred from the call — said she could not recall another instance of “religion being a test for journalists.”

All journalists covering the secretary of state would be interested in a conference call with Pompeo about religious freedom before he jets to the Mideast, noted Kosinski, who wondered: “Why limit it?”

A number of people responding to the information on Twitter challenged the constitutionality of such an arrangement. Others wondered if Fox News , Al Jazeera and the Church of Satan  would be on the call.

Pompeo is an evangelical Christian who believes in the “Rapture” — a time when righteous Christians will supposedly be taken into heaven in the apocalyptic end of times. He sees American battles in the Mideast as part of a greater war of good against evil.

“It is a never-ending struggle … until the Rapture,” Pompeo said in a 2015 speech at a Kansas megachurch . “Be part of it. Be in the fight.”