As the Trump administration continues to overhaul every level of the federal government at breakneck speed, one expert says the new administration must not lose sight of foundational Christian principles in order to shape truly just and humane foreign policies that reach beyond American shores.

Last week, newly minted Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out what the Trump State Department’s priorities would be going forward, noting that they would be “centered on one thing … the advancement of our national interest.” As Family Research Council President Tony Perkins observed during Tuesday’s “Washington Watch,” “‘America first’ does not have to mean everyone else last. A pro-faith, pro-family, pro-freedom America benefits the entire world.”

Dr. A.J. Nolte, a professor and the director of the Institute for Israel Studies at Regent University, agrees. In a recent article, he laid out the top priorities that the Trump administration’s foreign policy should focus on grounded in biblical principles.

“I break it up into issues of religious freedom [which] focus on religious persecution and Christians’ support for Israel [as well as] some pro-family policies that the United States can also pursue. And then, of course, long-term Christian values of promoting humanitarian aid, which is so often delivered by faith-based organizations,” he explained on “Washington Watch.” “And so, in those four areas … we can try to advance our traditional, socially conservative Christian foreign policy priorities.”

Nolte went on to detail how the newly reinstated Mexico City Policy is an example of the U.S. once again grounding its foreign policy in the principle of human dignity.

“The Mexico City policy, very simply put, is a basic commitment from the United States government that U.S. taxpayer dollars will not be used to fund abortions abroad,” he noted. “It’s not prohibiting health care for vulnerable women who are pregnant. It’s prohibiting abortions. And so, the idea is that with this policy, the United States taxpayers, you and I with our dollars, will not be used to pay for abortions in other countries.”

Nolte continued, “Unfortunately, the U.S. doesn’t have the best history. Oftentimes in the ’60s and ’70s, there was an ideology of population control that said, ‘The problem with global development is that there’s too many people.’ And as Christians, we know every human being has human dignity, and we know that’s not right. … The Mexico City policy reverses that and says, ‘We’re not going to use our taxpayer dollars to get rid of unborn babies in other countries. And I would say, yes, it needs to be made permanent. It needs to be put into law in the same way the Hyde Amendment is domestically. And, you know, let’s dare the Democrats to say that it is in the national security interest of the United States to pay for abortions in foreign countries using taxpayer dollars.”

Nolte went on to observe that the population-control mentality that undergirded U.S. foreign policy in the past has proven to be catastrophic in light of new findings.

“There were two driving policy frames that have distorted foreign aid policy often in the past,” he pointed out. “One is this idea that there [are] too many people in the world and that … overpopulation causes underdevelopment. And now what we’re finding actually is, as economists like Julian Simon have known for decades, people are the ultimate resource. Population growth ultimately leads to economic growth and even better environmental conditions, as some demographers and economists have demonstrated. Also, population is declining globally, so instead of having an idea that more children are the problem, I think we need to think about more children as a solution to the problem and as a positive. And look at our ally Israel, which has been very successful in terms of their demographics.”

Nolte further underscored the critical difference between a humanist approach and a Christian approach to foreign policy. “From [a] utilitarian or humanist perspective, it’s a question of, ‘How many mouths we can feed,’ and worry[ing] about quality of life. We, from a Christian perspective, start from [the] sanctity of life. And we believe that if you start from a sanctity of life perspective, that promotes human flourishing and actually gets you quality of life. So it’s a fundamental worldview difference. It’s time to recalibrate the U.S. government’s view on that.”

Nolte concluded by emphasizing that a primary way that the U.S. government can promote human dignity and religious freedom on a global scale is by empowering faith-based organizations.

“[FRC’s] Arielle Del Turco and I did a report looking at promotion of religious freedom through international development. Again, U.S. foreign aid is actually pennies on the dollar in terms of increasing our influence. [W]e need to be smart about it, and the people that are the most efficient at providing global aid are faith-based organizations, and we have to absolutely mobilize them and give them a seat at the table in terms of foreign aid. [We] also [should] think about religious freedom as not just a human right, but also something that promotes security, stability, and human flourishing around the world.”