Impassioned and Misleading Rhetoric against Religious Liberty – Part 1
by Rick Plasterer, Juicy Ecumenism:
The Trump Administration has brought encouraging changes to America in the direction of restoring the religious liberty Americans have historically known. But the situation in today’s world can change quickly, as the coronavirus pandemic shows. This was made clear by a hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform concerning the Administration’s regulations to protect religious liberty on February 27.
These regulations are aimed at undoing the Obama Administration’s effort through regulations to make sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) antidiscrimination categories apply to government contractors, and the infamous “dear collegue” letter to school administrators to open school rest rooms to both sexes (by recognizing “transgender” students as belonging to the opposite sex). In general the Obama Administration sought to expand the SOGI antidiscrimination regime in federal law. The title of the hearing “The Administration’s Religious Liberty Assault on LGTBQ Rights” was a direct condemnation of religious liberty, but at least recognizes that it is religious liberty that is being attacked, rather than a false concept of it, as is commonly done by leftists and the news media.
In the background, as well, is the proposed Equality Act, a national SOGI law which, like state and local SOGI laws, would surely be interpreted to prohibit discrimination against homosexual and transgender behavior, as well as against LGBT persons, but unlike state and local laws, has no religious exemptions, and indeed, amends to Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) to remove any conscience protection it would afford against SOGI claims. A related proposed Do No Harm Act likewise prohibits conscience objections to abortion, and also effectively condemns the religious conscience against abortion as harmful.
A Democratic President and Congress would quickly rescind Trump’s advances to protect religious freedom, and enact the Equality and Do No Harm legislation, likely as their first priority. How likely such a political outcome is we cannot know at this point, but it is something Christians must consider with a firm will to obey God at all times and places.
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