And the pressure to clarify what exactly is happening to Christians and other minorities in the Middle East is certain to intensify in the New Year.

Being out of the mainstream is entirely consistent with the way Donald Trump is approaching his presidency.

The First Amendment to the Constitution says government can't establish a religion, but neither can it limit the exercise of religion. And that's the issue here. What does it mean to be free to exercise your religion? It's not about what you can believe. It's whether you can act on those beliefs.

The country has already become multicultural. Given immigration trends, it will only grow more diverse, and these new Americans want to share in their country's identity.

One of Donald Trump's criticisms of President Barack Obama and of Hillary Clinton was that they seemed reluctant to use the words radical Islam. It was not just semantics. Trump said it's important to name the enemy idea and then attack it. Consider the Cold War. The U.S. and its allies waged a kind of propaganda war against the communist idea using radio broadcasts and other tools. Trump has said he'd do the same against Islamic extremism.

Hispanics are the fastest-growing evangelical group in the country right now, an important constituency. But Trump's views, especially his views on immigration, did not exactly go over well with this faith constituency. Rev. Rodriguez told me that Trump's invitation created something of a stir in his world.

When ISIS last year called for the destruction of the Yazidi people, President Obama said that would constitute genocide and he ordered U.S. forces to keep it from happening. Human rights advocates say Christians now face a similar threat Nina Shea directs the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute.