WASHINGTON– Sen. James Lankford received an award on Thursday from the International Freedom Summit for his continuous congressional leadership in religious freedom.

“I try to explain to people if your faith is something that you can take on and off, that’s not a faith, that’s a hobby,” he said.

Senators from opposite sides of the aisle came together to discuss religious persecution at the Summit.

“To actually encourage that right for people to be able to have a faith, change of faith, live their faith, or have no faith at all,” Lankford said.

Before taking the political stage, the Oklahoma senator spent 20 years as a minister and played his past up on the Summit Stage Thursday.

“Faith is something that dominates every relationship that i have, how i see other people, how i treat other people, how i engage in areas of disagreement is all deeply rooted in my own personal faith.”

In 2020, Lankford ranked as the second most conservative senator in Washington according to the American Conservative Union.

As he stares down re-election in 2022, Lankford continues to talk out about his faith, a priority at the top of the list for Republicans. The question is if Oklahomans will back him despite opposing the former presidents unfounded claims that the election was stolen.

“You have to recognize the right of people to be able to have a faith and to be able to live their faith,” he said.

Campaign finance reports released Thursday showed that he had out-raised his Republican opponent, Jackson Lahmeyer, by a three to one margin.

Lahmeyer, who has been endorsed by Oklahoma’s GOP party chairman John Bennett, raised $785,000 to Lahmeyer’s $211,000.  Lankford is facing a vote of censure on Saturday by the state GOP for not supporting fellow Republican senators who were seeking to block President Joe Biden being certified as the winner of the 2021 presidential election.