As a voice for women who embrace biblical principles, Concerned Women for America (CWA) promotes public policy that strengthens women and the family. Founded in 1979, CWA is the nation's largest public policy women's organization, with well over 500,000 members nationwide.
Much of Concerned Women for America's success lies in its dedication to educating members on issues, legislation and policy debates. Armed with facts and information, CWA members present a powerful voice in their communities-and in the nation's capital.
Sandy Rios, the current president of CWA, leads the organization with a bold resolve to challenge the corruption of the American culture with a call to morality and truth. A pro-life advocate, she speaks with authority after raising her severely handicapped daughter, Sasha.
For eight years Rios hosted a cutting-edge, drive-time news and talk program, The Sandy Rios Show, on WYLL-FM in Chicago, the nation's third largest market. Described as a passionate conservative, Rios has been called upon to speak at conferences for Americans United for Life, Youth for Christ, African American Family Association, and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
While living in divided Berlin, Germany, Rios traveled frequently through Checkpoint Charlie, witnessing firsthand the drama of communist oppression. Her subsequent travels have taken her to nearly every Communist country on the globe. Before the breakup of the Soviet Union, she hosted the first radio program ever to be broadcast live from Radio Moscow by Americans, with the help of the KGB, during the time of Boris Yeltsin's campaign for president.
She has seen firsthand Christian persecution by Hindu extremists in India, China's one-child policy, abuses of religious liberty in Vietnam and China, and the plight of refugees in Thailand who had fled religious persecution in Myanmar. As an official guest of the state, Sandy was observing the public schools and political system of North Korea on the day of the attack on the World Trade Center towers.
I spoke with Rios earlier this year at the CWA office in downtown Washington, just after she came on board. Following is the transcript of our discussion.
Crosswalk.com: What are your goals as president of CWA?
Rios: I have inherited an organization that is in wonderful shape. And so, what I intend to do is just make what is really good better. CWA is positioned right now to take a strong leadership role in the family movement here in Washington. We've had some hard financial times, but we have remained strong and are very grateful to God. Because of that, we want to take our leadership role seriously. We have so many departments that are doing such incredible things on behalf of the family movement. I want to expedite that and give them the resources and the support that they need to continue and do it even better.
Crosswalk.com: Can you describe some of the strengths of CWA to someone who may not be familiar with your organization?
Rios: Because we represent nearly 600,000 members, we have a voice on Capitol Hill that others might not have. Numbers speak in politics. Politicians listen when you represent constituents. So there are other voices, but our voice represents hundreds of thousands of people. That gives us a leg up.
Secondly, in-house, we have in the last year implemented some very important strategic improvements - one of them is The Culture and Family Institute. Headed by Bob Knight, formerly of Family Research Council, The Culture and Family Institute is the leading expert and authority on the radical gay rights movement in the United States. I have to say that hardly any other voices are being heard on this issue and we are very concerned about that. We are glad to be a voice, but where are the other voices? This is probably going to be the definitive social issue of our time, even more divisive and dangerous and potentially hazardous than the pro-life issue.
Crosswalk.com: Going back to your life before you got here, I see you've done quite a bit of work in religious freedom and persecution. Can you tell me about your trip to North Korea? How did you end up there?
Rios: I went with The Bible League, which is an organization that prints Bibles in many, many languages. They work through the locals, the indigenous peoples, to get those Bibles distributed. And they do this not only in countries where there isn't all this tension, but they do it in countries where it's illegal to have Bibles.
For the last several years, they have taken broadcasters into these countries. We go in and interview the people from the underground church movement and get their stories to tell them on radio back in America. The goal is to raise people's awareness of what's happening and also to get Bibles in there, so that's why I was with the Bible League.
Crosswalk.com: What did you witness in North Korea? How are conditions for Christians?
Rios: I was in North Korea in September; in fact I was there on Sept. 11. When the bombing took place, we didn't know about it for 24 hours, until we came back into Northern Manchuria. We were in a Chinese restaurant and had just sat down. The owner of the restaurant came in and said, "I have some news I think you'd want to know; you're Americans, right?" And we said, "Yes." He proceeded to tell us, and I looked at the translator and I said, "Do you know this man? Is this man an honest man? Is this man crazy?" It was so incredible - we could not believe him. One of my fellow travelers was a talk show host in New York City and we had an international phone, so we called his wife and she confirmed everything. And we just all lost our appetites.
About North Korea, first of all, let me say that I lived in Berlin, Germany in 1972 and 1973. I traveled regularly through Checkpoint Charlie, which means I had been into East Berlin on several occasions and experienced the oppression there. I was in Russia before the break-up of the Soviet Union. I've been to North Vietnam and I've been to China three times, so I've had some experience with what it is like behind what used to be called the Iron Curtain. I have been in an oppressed country, but I had never seen anything like the oppression in North Korea. People are so hungry there, they are actually cannibalizing each other in the winter time.
Do you remember the old days when Russia and China used to teach their children to hate Americans? How they controlled their minds? That is what's happening now in North Korea. They teach them that if they are hungry, it is because the Americans have sunk the ships carrying rice. Otherwise there would be food. The kids are brainwashed beyond measure.
We met in Northern Manchuria some of the North Koreans who have escaped, who have swum across the river or have come across the ice at night. When they get to Northern Manchuria, they don't have a home. The Northern Chinese Christians are taking them in and hiding them. If the Chinese are caught, they are severely punished. If the North Koreans are caught, they are sent back to be killed. Right now, if you are caught with a Bible, three generations of your family are killed. So it's a horrible situation.
Continue reading: Part Two: Sandy Rios Runs the Race with Passion
