Last week, secretary of State John Kerry surprised many by declaring that ISIS is leading a genocide of religious minorities in the Middle East, including Christians.

The news came as a surprise to many Americans, but not to Johnnie Moore, the pastor and activist who recently addressed members of the Lehighton 9/12 Project at Penn's Peak.Moore, who spoke here March 4, was spreading the message about the genocide in support of his book, Defying ISIS. Moore has traveled to Iraq and Syria to meet with Christians who are facing persecution from ISIS.During his speech Moore shared tales of Christians living in the Middle East and staying true to their faith despite the fact many have been displaced from their homes and had their churches destroyed.He pointed out that the state department resisted calls to declare the crisis a genocide, even though many of the candidates for the Republican and Democratic nomination for president have.In a speech on Friday, Kerry acknowledged the destruction of Armenian, Syrian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, and killing dozens of Christians for their faith."We know that Daesh has given some of its victims a choice between abandoning their faith or being killed, and that for many is a choice between one kind of death and another," Kerry said, using the derogatory term for ISIS, Daesh.Contacted on Friday, Moore said that Kerry had to stand up to significant opposition to make his declaration, but that there was still a long way to go."I commend John Kerry for standing up against his own advisers to make this decision and I also intend on keeping the pressure so on so that our politicians actually take the action they are now morally obligated to take by declaring this a genocide," Moore said.Moore said that doing something about the genocide is much more difficult than just declaring it. He said if the U.S. government really wants to protect Christians and religious minorities in the Middle East, they can do three things: prioritize religious minorities in refugee resettlement, establish safe havens in the region, and use humanitarian and military policy to help Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East."Declaring a genocide doesn't solve the problem, it's just another step on the path of real action," he said.