Nikki Haley Shares Her Testimony: How a Fateful Knock on the Door of Her Indian-Sikh Family Changed Her Life

Will Maule : Jul 30, 2018
Faithwire.com

"Here [in America], we not only protect our inalienable right to know God's grace, we also know that true grace cannot be imposed by government. It must be embraced freely from within." -Nikki Haley

(Washington, DC)—[Faithwire.com] United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has delivered some powerful remarks to the Religious Freedom Summit. Revealing fascinating details of her Sikh family's emigration to the United States, Haley opened up about her own conversion to Christianity and the staggering privilege she's experienced growing up in a country that champions religious freedom. (Photo: UN Ambassador Nikki Haley/Wikipedia)

The three-day Ministerial for the Advancement of Religious Freedom was poignantly hosted at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, running from Tuesday thru Thursday this week.

"It says everything about our country that this first ministerial has been devoted to the importance of preserving, protecting and expanding religious freedom," Haley opened in her keynote address.

"America's respect for religious freedom informs our foreign policy. It is an overlooked weapon in our modern arsenal of democracy."

Ambassador Haley said that the expansion of religious freedom is "a means to protect peace and security."

Then, the former governor of South Carolina revealed that Religion freedom is also "personal" to her.

"I'm fortunate to benefit from religious tolerance. My parents immigrated to a small town in South Carolina from India in 1969 as members of the Sikh faith," Haley explained. "My Dad wore a turban and still does to this day. We were the first Indian-American family in our small town in South Carolina."

"We stood out," Haley quipped, to laughter from the crowd.

The Ambassador went on to explain how many of the locals in their town would arrive at the door in an attempt to evangelize the family.

"People would show up at our door asking us to convert to their religion. Some had tears in their eyes because they sincerely believed that eternal damnation awaited those who didn't share their faith," she said.

"My older sister was given a Bible once from these well-meaning visitors. When my mom saw it, she told my sister to read it cover to cover. 'There's truth in there,' she said," Haley recalled.

The politicians then remarked on her personal faith in Jesus...

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