Tag Archive for: Religious Freedom

Experts Point Out Harris’s ‘Double Standard’ in Speeches and Actions

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Media interviews, press briefings, and Q&As are opportunities for public figures to share their values, goals, concerns, and personalities with the world. In the public square, it’s particularly beneficial for candidates and political figures to use their media presence to both connect with their voters and convince others to vote for them. With a presidential election around the corner, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, as well as his running mate Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), have made frequent public appearances to keep voters up to date on their beliefs. Vice President Kamala Harris, however, has been conspicuously absent.

Harris, who assumed the Democratic presidential nomination after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, appears to be dodging the media. As guest host Jody Hice pointed out on Thursday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” other than various campaign ads, scripted rallies, and some brief statements here and there, the vice president “has not offered herself for an extended interaction with the press since June 24th.” However, Hice added, “If Vice President Harris won’t provide answers to the press, if she won’t provide answers to you on where she stands on all the issues, then we will.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, joined Hice in the discussion of what kind of message Harris’s absence sends to the American people. “Well,” Kilgannon said, “it says to me that she’s not interested in asking for my vote.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that “she’s delivered remarks exclusively to audiences that are places … she’s comfortable with.” But as Kilgannon emphasized, “[S]he’s not offering herself in venues where” someone outside her normal demographic “might notice her.”

“That’s a great point,” Hice noted. Ultimately, the press recognition is all “about reaching out to the voters.” The questions and the interviews are “about letting the people know where she and her running mates stand on the various issues.” And “when they hide,” Hice speculated, “it raises all sorts of questions.” But when Harris does emerge from the shadows, Kilgannon emphasized that much of what she has said publicly is nothing short of dishonest.

For instance, Harris made a comment during her speech at the American Federation of Teachers (ATF) Convention regarding some of the issues that differ between Democrats and Republicans. “Just think about it,” the vice president chortled. “So we want to ban assault weapons, and they want to ban books.” But as Kilgannon clarified, with that statement, Harris “set up this false choice.”

She continued, “[O]f course we don’t want to ban books. We simply don’t want pornographic material to be presented to school children as educational.” And “this is not anything any reasonable person doesn’t understand.” But evidently, Harris “wants to gloss over all of this to” characterize it as some kind of “religious right [push] to ban books,” and “that’s not exactly honest.” Not to mention, as Hice highlighted, when Oklahoma put into effect the requirement of teaching the Bible in public schools, the Left, “surprise, surprise, wants to ban the Bible.” And many of them, Kilgannon added, also want to ban “prayer in school.”

At the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) convention, Harris stated the Democrats are in “a fight for the future, and ours,” she specified, “is a fight for freedom.” But as Hice said, her comment begs the question: what does “freedom” mean in this case? According to Kilgannon, one of the freedoms most attacked in the U.S. is religious liberty. However, Harris “does not mention that in her list of freedoms that she feels like are under attack.”

Rather, Kilgannon said, the “main theme is freedom on … Democratic Party terms.” In other words, “freedom, not of people to practice their faith and to live out their faith, but rather freedom to abort your babies.” Or the so-called freedom “to present sexualized material to children. Freedom … to castrate … [and] sterilize [children] in these ridiculous so-called gender-affirming care experiments.” Really, she urged, “Those are the kinds of things that [the Harris] administration has advocated for, and that’s the kind of freedom that she imagines for the country.”

At the end of the day, Hice explained how “it sounds good to talk about freedom. But life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, [and] all of those things are freedoms that [Harris] restricts in what she and the Democratic Party … are trying to advance.” All of this, Kilgannon argued, points to “why it’s important to consume alternative media, [and] to listen to other voices who can add some context and some facts to this word picture that they’re painting.” Because “Kamala Harris [encouraging] her audience to fight for our country” carries an entirely different meaning than if “former President Trump or any Republican [were] to say the same.”

And the same is true of how the Democrats talk about the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite. As evidenced by the White House briefing on Wednesday, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the new rule that allows biological men into private women’s spaces to help “everyone” feel safe, as well as “an important” step in ending sexual assault. And yet, Kilgannon urged, “[T]hat’s certainly not what the rule” does.

She elaborated, “[I]t does not protect women and girls. It does not protect every student. It prioritizes some students over other students,” which “is certainly not the original intent of Title IX, nor is it supported by any kind of common sense.” The theme Harris “hits in her stump speech over and over again [is] this idea that, somehow, the Right is going to roll back protections for people,” but “it really is confession by projection.”

Because, ultimately, “[T]hey are the ones who are putting people in jail for praying in front of abortion clinics. They are the ones who have sponsored the lawfare that has harassed President Trump for all of these many, many months and years,” which also affects “other people around him [due to] ridiculous and pointless lawsuits. … [T]hey are the ones who are weaponizing government … not us.”

Kilgannon concluded, it’s “a clear double standard, but we’re kind of used to that” by now.

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Conservatives React to ‘Radical’ Harris-Walz Ticket

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Conservative leaders and elected officials are warning that Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz (D-Minn.) represent the most far-left presidential ticket in American history. “This is the most Radical Left duo in American history. There has never been anything like it, and there never will be again. Crazy Kamabla is, indeed, CRAZY,” declared former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, in response to Harris selecting Walz as her running mate on Tuesday. Trump joked that the Harris-Walz ticket is so extreme that “THERE IS A BIG MOVEMENT TO ‘BRING BACK CROOKED JOE.’”

“I would say my reaction is I can’t believe it, I never thought he was going to be the one that was picked,” Trump told Fox News in a Wednesday morning interview. “He’s a very, very liberal man, and he’s a shocking pick. The former president added that he’s “thrilled” to be competing against such a stark contrast in November’s election, pledging to focus on Harris’s and Walz’s “radical” records. “He’s a smarter version of her,” Trump quipped, referring to the Democratic duo’s left-wing policies. He continued, “There’s never been a ticket like this. This is a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately, if not sooner. … He’s very heavy into transgender — anything transgender he thinks is great. And he’s not where the country is on anything.” He added, “This is a really bad decision for the country. Ultimately, I want the country to have good decisions because, ultimately, what we want is for the country to do well. The country can’t do well with these two people.”

Trump’s own running mate, Senator J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), took a similar approach, saying on Tuesday that Harris’s selection of Walz “just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is…” He continued, “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris.” He noted, “She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy. And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

A U.S. Marine Corps veteran himself, Vance also criticized Walz for lying about his military record at a campaign event on Wednesday. “As a Marine who served his country in uniform when the United States Marine Corps, when the United States of America asked me to go to Iraq to serve my country, I did it. I did what they asked me to do, and I did it honorably,” Vance said. He continued, “When Tim Walz was asked by his country to go to Iraq, you know what he did? He dropped out of the Army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he’s been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with.” The senator added, “I think it’s shameful to prepare your unit to go to Iraq, to make a promise that you’re going to follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go.”

Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis (R) also blasted the Harris-Walz ticket, quipping the pair’s campaign slogan might be “Make America Burn Again.” At a press event, DeSantis noted the involvement of both Harris and Walz in 2020’s Black Lives Matter riots, saying, “Those were riots that Harris egged on and raised money to bail out the rioters with Minnesota Bail Fund, and they’re riots that Tim Walz as governor sat back and let happen. He sat back and let the city of Minneapolis burn. That city has been gutted as a result of those riots.” He continued, “This is a ticket that really represents the spirit of those 2020 BLM riots. You have a very vapid San Francisco Democrat and then you’ve got an Ilhan Omar-style leftist, Tim Walz, who has the same policies as his fellow Minnesotan Ilhan Omar,” referring to pro-Hamas “Squad” member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The Florida governor added, “We do not need an America that represents the failed policies of San Francisco or the failed policies of Minneapolis. We do not need to see poop on the street and cities burning down. That is not a prescription for America to work its way back.”

DeSantis also observed that, in 2021, “Minnesotans were roughly five times more likely to move to Florida than vice versa. They were fleeing a state that, under Gov. Tim Walz, turned its back on law and order, increased taxes, and imposed unscientific coronavirus restrictions, harming children and destroying businesses.” He reiterated, “Walz is an unbridled leftist, an Ilhan Omar-style Democrat that puts ideology above all else.”

Republican Governor Greg Abbott of the Lone Star State branded Harris and Walz “the most radical and dangerous administration in modern history.” He stated, “Tim Walz will be a rubberstamp for Kamala Harris’ deadly open border policies, refusing to admit there is a border crisis, opposing border wall funding, and supporting sanctuary cities.”

“As Governor of Minnesota, Walz’s policies endangered the lives of those he was elected to protect — and we can only expect more of the same as Vice President,” Abbott continued. “Like Harris, Walz endorsed defunding the police, and under his watch, vehicle theft, aggravated assault, and even murder rates have gone up in Minnesota. And while Minneapolis was burning as riots overtook the city in 2020, Walz refused to call in the National Guard for three days.”

“Walz is also a climate radical who wants to destroy American energy independence and completely eliminate fossil fuels, killing hundreds of thousands of good-paying oil and gas jobs in Texas and across the country,” the Texas governor added. He concluded, “Tim Walz is in lockstep with Kamala Harris’ dangerous open border, anti-energy, soft-on-crime agenda that will hurt Americans and the future of our country.”

The Harris-Walz ticket shows that “the Democrat Party is all in on its far-left cultural agenda,” said Terry Schilling, president of the socially-conservative American Principles Project. “Walz is one of the few Democrats whose radical record rivals Harris’s own,” Schilling continued, citing the Minnesota governor’s left-wing track record. “There can be no doubt that a Harris-Walz administration would be a disaster for families. It’s critical that parents recognize the stakes. … Harris and Walz cannot be allowed to run or hide from this record, and we will make sure they are forced to confront it.”

Christian organizations have also sounded the alarm over Walz’s extremism. Robert Ketterling, founding pastor of the River Valley Church in Minnesota, and Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, issued a joint statement condemning the Harris-Walz pairing. “Walz has signed laws restricting free speech for pastors, made derogatory comments about conservatives, and embraced socialism — all of which make him an unappealing choice for those in the political center,” the pastors observed. They continued, “His lack of likability, often coming across as angry and on the edge of violence, only exacerbates his inability to connect with a broader electorate. … [Walz’s] liberal policies, ineffective crisis management, divisive rhetoric, and failure to appeal to independent and moderate voters make him a liability rather than an asset.”

The conservative Catholic League said in a statement that Walz’s “policies on religious liberty and sexual issues mirror” Harris’s. The Catholic League noted that, in addition to the Minnesota governor’s unabashed abortion and LGBT advocacy, he stripped religious liberty protections from Christians in 2023, barred Christian colleges and universities with statements of faith from participating in the state’s Postsecondary Enrollment Options program, and forced churches to remain closed during COVID-19 while he allowed retail stores, liquor shops, bars, casinos, and shopping malls to reopen. “Tim Walz is no friend of religious liberty, the rights of the unborn, and the welfare of young people. There will be no tension between him and Harris on any of these issues,” the Catholic League concluded.

Harris announced Walz as her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia on Tuesday. The vice president has faced criticism over her own far-left record, which includes abortion advocacy, LGBT activism, climate hysteria, an ongoing illegal immigration crisis, skyrocketing crime rates, rampant inflation, the aggressive prosecution of American Christians, and the cover-up of President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, among others.

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Who Is Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s VP Candidate?

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Vice President Kamala Harris selected Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (D) as her vice presidential running mate on Tuesday. The obscure governor and former congressman has signed bills that would remove children from their parents’ custody if the parents refused to carry out transgender procedures, allowed abortion until birth, and left churches meeting online while so-called “essential businesses” were permitted to open their doors more fully during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vice presidential nod had narrowed to Walz and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro (D), whose ardent support of Israel would have complicated Harris’s ability to win Michigan. The 60-year-old Walz — who is in his fifth year as governor of Minnesota and served 12 years in the U.S. House of Representatives — has sometimes drawn comparisons with Bernie Sanders by comparing socialism to “neighborliness.”

“It just highlights how radical Kamala Harris is,” because she “listened to the Hamas wing of her own party in selecting a nominee,” Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance told a press gaggle late Tuesday morning. Tim Walz “has proposed defunding the police just as Kamala Harris has,” said Vance. “Tim Walz allowed rioters to burn down Minneapolis in the summer of 2020, and then the few who got caught, Kamala Harris helped bail them out of jail. So, it is more instructive about what it says about Kamala Harris. She doesn’t care about the border. She doesn’t care about crime. She doesn’t care about energy. And most of all, she doesn’t care about Americans who have been made to suffer under those policies.”

Walz’s career could be split into two halves, said those who have clashed with him over the years: his time as a congressman in a swing district, where he had to modulate his own liberal views, and his tack to the left once he became governor. In Congress, “he focused on veterans issues, and kept his head down to some extent,” explained Moses Bratrud, director of strategy at the Minnesota Family Council, on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch.” But as governor, he has appealed more to the Ilhan Omar wing of the Democratic Party, said Bratrud. “It’s almost like there are two Tim Walzes.”

Walz served six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives (2007 to 2019) after defeating a Republican congressman in a rural district. His record sometimes tracked with his constituents’ more centrist views — for instance, his work on veterans affairs — although Walz’s social liberalism earned him a 0% rating from FRC Action in his next-to-last year in Congress.

As governor, he has signed abortion-expanding legislation, placed transgender ideology over parents’ rights, and limited religious liberty.

Abortion

In January 2023, Walz signed the Protection of Reproductive Options (PRO) Act, which allows unlimited abortion-on-demand until birth. He also increased the payments abortionists receive from the government when they carry out taxpayer-funded abortions, removed informed consent laws, curtailed funding for pro-life pregnancy resource centers, and removed a requirement that babies born alive during botched abortions receive life-saving emergency care.

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz make up the most pro-abortion presidential ticket America has ever seen. There is no daylight between them on this issue,” said SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser in a statement emailed to The Washington Stand.

Walz called his state an “island of decency” for allowing abortion in an area allegedly dominated by pro-life policies. Walz said among “the things we value most around freedom” include “reproductive freedom,” a euphemism for abortion. At times he has said the “golden rule” is: “Mind your own d–n business!” about who people “marry, their own health care decisions, what books they read.”

“Sadly, these aggressive attacks against vulnerable women and children have earned Walz a place as Harris’s running mate on the Democratic ticket,” said Jeanne Mancini, president of March for Life Action, in an email to TWS.

Transgender Policy

Walz has aggressively sided with the transgender industry and promoted extreme gender ideology in the state, including for minors against their parents’ will. Among his most controversial actions, Walz declared Minnesota a so-called sanctuary state for transgenderism. In April 2023, Walz signed a bill (House File 146) that would take minors into state emergency custody if the child has been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care” — that is, if parents objected to transitioning their minor child. Critics like Bratrud call it “the kidnapping bill,” because it will remove children from any state in the union from their parents’ care if those parents do not enact Walz’s view of transgender ideology.

Instead, Walz has barred parents from getting any alternative, banning so-called “conversion therapy.” He signed a bill that “threatens mental health practitioners who offer voluntary, compassionate care to young people who just want to live according to their faith in the area of gender and sexuality,” explained Bratrud.

Walz’s guidelines have seen schools put feminine hygiene products in boys’ restrooms. “That’s just crazy. That makes no sense whatsoever,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) told Newsmax on Tuesday morning.

“When it comes to transgenderism — the anti-science movement that promotes the right of males and females (including minors) to switch their sex — the Biden-Harris team is the most radical administration in American history,” said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, in an email sent to TWS.

“Freedom is on the march in Minnesota. Decency is on the march in Minnesota. Compassion is on the march in Minnesota,” said Walz after signing the “kidnapping bill,” compassionate therapy ban, and abortion expansion bills on the same day.

Walz has portrayed his socially liberal policies as a matter of personal “freedom,” the key word Kamala Harris has used to brand her presidential campaign. “Here in Minnesota, we believe in protecting personal freedoms. It’s why we established reproductive freedom and gender-affirming care as fundamental rights in Minnesota. And it’s why we banned the practice of ‘conversion therapy’ and ended book bans based on ideology,” Walz posted on X on July 26.

Yet religious denominations say they experienced little freedom during the 2020 COVID lockdowns, when Walz’s policies kept houses of worship closed while bars and casinos opened more fully. Walz issued an executive order that allowed so-called essential businesses to expand their capacity — but in-person church services remained limited to 10 people. The Becket Fund sued, and Roman Catholic and conservative Lutheran church leaders announced they would ignore his executive order and reopen on Pentecost Sunday. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), a Muslim, tenaciously defended Walz’s lockdown policies, contending that since houses of worship “are not buildings,” then “churches, synagogues, mosques, and temples have never been closed because Minnesotans have been doing the work of worship outside the buildings: serving the poor, sick, and needy, delivering meals, ministering online to the spiritual needs of their people.”

“[I]t is so disheartening that the Governor has subordinated our spiritual well-being to the economic well-being of the State,” said Rev. Dr. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

Socialism, Lawlessness, Immigration, and China

Walz has earned comparisons with Bernie Sanders for his embrace of the term socialism. “Don’t ever shy away from our progressive values. One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness. Just do the d–n work!” said Walz.

Walz was governor in May 2020, when George Floyd’s death in police custody touched off the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots. Rioters burned down the Minneapolis Police Department’s 3rd precinct en route to inflicting an estimated half-a-billion dollars of damage statewide. Walz faced steep criticism for waiting three days to call in the National Guard, due to strained relations with then-President Donald Trump.

Walz has favored amnesty for illegal immigration, as well as legal immigration expansion, earning an F- from NumbersUSA. Walz once vowed that, if the U.S. built a wall to stop the flow of illegal immigrants over the southern border, he would “invest in a … ladder factory” to help illegals climb the wall. Walz has also voiced his support for so-called “sanctuary cities,” which do not comply with federal law enforcement’s efforts to deport criminal aliens and others who entered the country unlawfully.

Walz summed up his views of the last four years in a social media post, stating, “Joe Biden is and has always been an American hero. History will look fondly on his legacy.”

Walz was born on April 6, 1964, in West Point, Nebraska, to James F. Walz and Darlene Rose Reiman Walz. He served 24 years in the Army National Guard and worked as a teacher, including a year on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Democratic vice presidential candidate has longstanding ties to America’s most potent foreign adversary, China. Walz spent a year teaching in the People’s Republic of China, instructing students at Guangdong province’s Foshan No. 1 High School in English and American history in 1989 — the year of the Tienanmen Square massacre. If it left unpleasant memories, they were soon forgotten, as Walz and his wife, Gwen (nee Whipple), took their honeymoon in China in 1994. They set up a company that carried out exchange visits to China, Educational Travel Adventures. Walz said he had visited China 30 times by 2016.

Walz belongs to the liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), which has paid for its employees’ abortions through its health care plan, ordained non-celibate homosexual clergy, and promoted transgenderism and “queerness” as “beauty.” He and his wife, Gwen, have two children, Hope and Gus, both conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a fact Walz has used as a political weapon in his campaign speeches. Walz got his first political job in 2004 as a organizer for the John Kerry presidential campaign.

AUTHOR

Ben Johnson

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Poll: GOP Voters Seek Strong Party Platform on Life, Family, Religious Freedom

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As Republicans converge upon Milwaukee, Wisconsin next week to work out their party platform as part of the lead-up to the GOP’s national convention, it’s clear that the big question for delegates will be the issues. In recent days, some party officials have hinted at “paring down” the GOP platform, causing many to wonder which issues will be left on the table.

A new poll released today shows that the issues of life, the family, and religious liberty are still at the forefront of GOP voters’ minds. The survey, conducted by WPA Opinion Research, showed continued concern about these issues, which have been core to the Republican platforms for decades.

WPA put this question to 1,000 likely voters: “Leading up to 2024 the Republican Party Platform has included strong positions on unborn human life, strengthening the family, and religious freedom. Would these issues impact your vote this fall a lot, just some, not too much, or not at all?”

The poll found 62% of Republican voters said that the party platform positions on these issues would impact their vote (37% said it would impact it “a lot,” and 25% said it would impact it “just some”).

On the issue of life, the survey showed that 66% of GOP voters think that Republicans should keep (32%) or strengthen (34%) the party’s current platform position on the protection of unborn life. The 2016 Republican Platform contains a substantial statement on the life issue, including calling for a constitutional amendment protecting unborn life, and both federal and state protections for the unborn.

Regarding the issue of families and religious freedom, GOP voters likewise were not backing down. Of the likely Republican voters, 74% said that the party should either keep the current positions (23%) or adopt a stronger position (51%).

The polling was commissioned by FRC Action, which earlier this week launched its Platform Integrity Project to influence the platform committee to keep or strengthen its conservative planks. FRC Action Chairman Tony Perkins, who will also be serving as a delegate from Louisiana to the Republican Platform Committee, made these comments about the polling:

“This survey demonstrates a bold, clearly articulated platform that continues to embrace life, promotes the family, and defends religious freedom matters to voters.

“The platform not only gives insight to voters, it gives direction to Republican elected officials. According to research by Dr. Lee Payne, the parties follow their platforms. Between 1980 and 2004, Republican lawmakers followed their platform 82 percent of the time.

“As Ronald Reagan noted, ‘There are cynics who say that a party platform is something that no one bothers to read, and it doesn’t very often amount to much.’ But he said ‘a banner of bold unmistakable colors with no pale pastels’ would reveal the difference between Republicans and the other party.

“America is in an unprecedented place of moral and cultural confusion and is in dire need of leadership and moral clarity. The Republican Party must once again communicate a clear and hopeful contrast between the parties by painting a message for voters on the foundational issues — life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness — not in pale pastels but in bright, bold colors.”

The Republican Platform Committee will begin meeting Monday, July 8 in Milwaukee.

AUTHOR

Jared Bridges

Jared Bridges is editor-in-chief of The Washington Stand.

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EDITOS NOTE: This The Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden Campaign Plans to Appear at 200+ Pride Events in June

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President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign plans to appear at more than 200 LGBTQ Pride events and launch a media blitz at LGBTQ voters during the month of June, campaign spokespersons told NBC News recently. This announcement comes months after the Biden campaign declared in January it would make the abortion issue “front and center.”

The campaign plans Pride appearances in 23 states, including all battleground states, featuring not only campaign surrogates but top figures as well. Vice President Kamala Harris greeted 150 LGBT activists in Los Angeles last weekend. First Lady Jill Biden made an unannounced stop at a Pride festival in Pittsburgh.

The Biden campaign will “culminate the so-called celebration of Pride with a huge fundraiser in New York City” on June 28, where President Biden “plans to be the keynote speaker,” narrated David Closson, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview, on “Washington Watch” Friday. “You’d better believe it will be the president himself waving that rainbow flag.”

Closson said he was “not at all surprised” at the Biden campaign’s decision, even though it was a “pretty significant” investment. “President Biden has really presided over the most aggressive pro-LGBTQ administration that we’ve ever seen,” he explained, championing the Equality Act, pushing the “so-called Respect for Marriage Act that codified gay marriage” over the finish line and rewriting Title IX, “the legislation that’s supposed to protect women and girls.”

Under the Biden administration’s leadership, the culture wars are “no longer just about the LGBT movement seeking affirmation,” Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice agreed. “Those in the movement are trying to force their supporters and even their opponents … to bow their knee, and they want to demonize anyone who refuses.”

The Biden campaign’s “plan to aggressively campaign at Pride events” comes as “Big Business has scaled back on its public support of all things LGBT,” observed Hice. “Many companies and businesses are not nearly as all-in [on Pride Month] as they have been in years past. No doubt this is due in large part to the backlash over Bud Light and Target.” But, as corporate America withdraws from this unpopular position, the Biden campaign “is really making an aggressive push” on LGBTQ Pride, Closson noted.

Hice also noticed “quite a difference, a contrast in how the Biden and the Trump campaigns are messaging on LGBT issues,” both in the priority they give to the issue and on the position they take. Whereas the Biden campaign is emphasizing Pride events, the Trump campaign is focusing on crime, the economy, and immigration, said Closson. “This is not an issue they’re really running heavily on.”

However, Closson continued, “when they’ve had opportunity,” the Trump campaign has “highlighted the importance of religious freedom, whereas the Biden campaign really is kind of all-in on this whole gamut of LGBT issues.” He added that “we don’t have to guess what the second Trump administration would look like because we have a four-year record [reflecting what the] Trump administration did on issues related to religious liberty.”

Closson highlighted the Trump State Department’s leadership on the international religious freedom ministerial, an executive order protecting religious freedom, the Department of Health and Human Services designating clergy as essential workers and protecting the conscience rights of doctors, and the Justice Department intervening to support religious liberty for everyone from private citizens like Jack Phillips to churches seeking the freedom to assemble together. “When it comes to religious liberty,” Closson concluded, “the contrast between the Biden administration and the first Trump administration is actually quite stark.”

This policy difference between the presumed nominees for America’s two major political parties is “why Christians really need to be paying attention” to the Biden campaign’s emphasis on Pride events, urged Hice. “This is not simply an issue of sexual preference or whatever. This goes far beyond that to impact your church, my church, our religious liberties, the doctors, where they work … [even] teachers at school.” Closson agreed. “Elections really do have consequences.”

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘Bully Organization’: FFRF Forces Florida Elementary School to Disband Christian Club

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Over the last several years, former President Donald Trump has voiced his disapproval of how people of faith have been treated in America. In late December, he posted a video on his social media platform, Truth Social, with the caption, “Stopping the Persecution of Christians!”

“Americans of faith are being persecuted like nothing this nation has ever seen before,” he said in the video. “Catholics in particular are being targeted, and evangelicals are surely on the watchlist as well.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), an atheist group founded in 1976, has had a history of targeting Christians. Some of FFRF’s past projects include suing a Tennessee elementary school on behalf of The Satanic Temple, suing New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way for forcing public office candidates to swear a religious oath, and ensuring that a Latin cross was taken down at Chino Valley Adult School in California.

While FFRF’s eyes are currently set on demanding that the Birmingham Police Department “end coercive staff prayer,” the group is celebrating another win in their book. An elementary school in rural Florida was forced to disband its Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) club after being accused of indoctrinating children into religion by FFRF. The FCA chapter included a small group of fifth grade students.

On March 29, FFRF legal fellow Samantha Lawrence wrote a letter to the District Superintendent Dorothy Lee Wetherington-Zamor “regarding a constitutional violation” at Hamilton County Elementary School. The sole elementary school in the small town of Jasper was accused of “alienating” and “excluding” non-religious families, as well as violating “students’ First Amendment rights by organizing, leading, and promoting a religious club.”

Lawrence defended FFRF’s stance by pointing out that the Equal Access Act allows students to form religious clubs in secondary schools, but not elementary schools. To further her point, she wrote, “Elementary students are too young to truly run a club entirely on their own initiative with no input from school staff or outside adults,” insinuating that “adults are the ones truly behind the club.”

“Hamilton Elementary should strive to be welcoming and inclusive of all students, not just those who subscribe to a particular brand of Christianity,” Lawrence continued. “The District must immediately investigate this matter and ensure that the FCA club at Hamilton Elementary is disbanded.”

Joseph Backholm, senior fellow at Family Research Council, responded to FFRF’s complaints in a comment to The Washington Stand.

“In general, the FFRF is a bully organization that leverages people’s ignorance of their freedoms against them,” he said. “This is far from the first time someone has tried to force a religious organization out of a school, but the First Amendment has, does, and hopefully always will be acknowledged as protecting those rights.”

After receiving the FFRF’s accusations, a local law firm representing the Hamilton County School District responded with a letter relaying their compliance.

“In an effort to avoid any perception that such a gathering on the campus of Hamilton Elementary is being organized, promoted or endorsed by the District or its employees, the club has been dispersed.” The letter also stated that the participating students would be starting sixth grade in a few months and would “be eligible to participate in FCA on the campus of Hamilton County High School.”

Ultimately, the elementary school caved to FFRF’s demands, a decision the First Liberty Institute — a nonprofit defending religious freedom — disagrees with.

“Banning students from having a religious club at a school while permitting other, secular clubs is a travesty that teaches children their faith is unwelcome and must be hidden,” First Liberty Institute Deputy General Counsel Justin Butterfield told The Christian Post.

While FFRF exists to lessen religious influence in America, organizations like First Liberty fight to preserve religious freedoms. Their mission heavily contrasts with FFRF’s, as they have set out to defend “religious liberty for all Americans.”

Meanwhile, FFRF has begun celebrating their victory in shutting down the FCA chapter at Hamilton Elementary.

“It is well settled that public schools may not show favoritism towards or coerce belief or participation in religion. It is inappropriate and unconstitutional for an elementary school to organize, lead, or encourage student participation in a religious club like the Fellowship of Christian Athletes,” the press release following the disbandment read. “Thankfully, the district was willing to listen to reason and obey the law.”

While some leaders raise the alarm and organizations fight against religious persecution occurring on American soil, Backholm assures Christians ought not to fear.

“The last thing Christians should ever be is afraid,” he said. “There have always been sectarian conflicts in the U.S., but fortunately they have been less serious than in most other parts of the world because respecting the conscience of others has long been an American value. Yes, it’s being threatened by a dogmatic and highly intolerant form of secularism, but relatively speaking we have much to be grateful for.”

Backholm also warned that Christians live “on a spiritual battlefield.” He encouraged those with a faith to stand firm, as “any public testimony to the gospel will illicit some kind of response,” but it is a “reality Christians needs to be comfortable with.”

AUTHOR

Abigail Olsson

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Federal Court Rules in Favor of Catholic School Upholding Biblical View of Marriage

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In a decision hailed by religious liberty advocates, a federal court is upholding a Catholic school’s right to require employees to conform to Catholic teachings when it fired a teacher for entering into a same-sex marriage.

The U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Wednesday that a North Carolina Catholic school was within its rights to dismiss Lonnie Billard, a drama teacher and substitute English teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School (CCHS), after he announced he would be marrying another man. The court’s ruling said that “because Billard played a vital role as a messenger of CCHS’s faith,” the school could dismiss him from his position for contradicting Catholic moral teaching.

Billard announced on social media in 2014 that he intended to marry another man, shortly after the state legalized same-sex marriage. In response, CCHS dismissed Billard from his position for violating the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte’s employee policy prohibiting actions contrary to Catholic moral teaching. Billard and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued CCHS, the diocese, and Mecklenburg Area Catholic Schools for alleged Title VII violations. A district court ruled in favor of Billard in 2021, but that decision was reversed by Wednesday’s ruling.

Fourth Circuit Court Judge Pamela Harris, an Obama appointee, wrote Wednesday’s majority opinion. She found, “Although CCHS offers separate secular and religious classes, religion infuses daily life at the school.” She noted that the school is expressly devoted to teaching and furthering Catholic principles, citing the school’s motto and mission statement, as well as the diocesan mission statement. “CCHS’s expectations of its teachers extend beyond the classroom,” Harris wrote. “It does not require all its employees to be Catholic. But, Catholic or not, it requires its employees to conform to Catholic teachings: CCHS prohibits employees from engaging in or advocating for conduct contrary to the moral tenets of the Catholic faith, including the Catholic Church’s rejection of same-sex marriage.”

Although Harris said that, as an English and drama teacher, Billard “did not have a responsibility to educate his students explicitly in the Catholic faith,” she did note, “CCHS’s commitment to integrating faith throughout its curriculum meant that Billard had to account for religion in his classes.” CCHS had previously made numerous and even novel legal arguments to defend its actions, but Harris ultimately found that the school’s dismissal of Billard was protected by the “ministerial exception” to Title VII. “Because we conclude that Billard’s role at CCHS was ‘ministerial’ for purposes of the ministerial exception, we resolve the case on that ground,” she wrote.

The ”ministerial exception” bars the application of certain anti-discrimination laws to religious institutions when dealing with the hiring of its “ministers.” Of note, Harris stated, “The ministerial exception does not protect the church alone; it also confines the state and its civil courts to their proper roles.” Noting that certain religion-oriented disputes are beyond the authority of the courts, she wrote, “The First Amendment’s Religion Clauses … ‘bar the government from interfering’ with ministerial employment decisions or involving itself in ecclesiastical matters.” She clarified, “That means civil courts like ours are ‘bound to stay out’ of employment disputes involving ministers — those ‘holding certain important positions with churches and other religious institutions.’” Relying on U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Harris wrote, “We conclude that the school entrusted Billard with ‘vital religious duties,’ making him a ‘messenger’ of its faith and placing him within the ministerial exception.”

In response to the court’s decision, Arielle Del Turco, director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, told The Washington Stand, “It’s encouraging to see this decision from the appellate court. No religious schools should be required to employ individuals whose actions and advocacy violate the school’s core religious beliefs.” She continued, “The main point of sending your child to a religious school is for them to be formed in their faith and taught their classes through the lens of their faith. As such, it’s important for such schools to hire teachers that share and affirm that faith, inside and outside the classroom.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, agreed. “This decision is important for many reasons, but especially for parents and families who are seeking an educational setting outside the home that reflects their faith and values. In our secular society, that is increasingly difficult to find, even in ostensibly Christian organizations,” she told TWS. “Decisions like this one that reaffirm the school’s right to expect and demand agreement with major doctrinal questions are much appreciated. And as a parent, I would hope that Catholic schools would strive to have faithful and practicing Catholic teachers in every class, not just religion class.”

Kilgannon added, “This situation also reminds us of the important relationship teachers have with their students/our children. Even in a substitute teacher setting, the influence of adults on children is profound.” In fact, the court also addressed that point. Harris wrote that a religious institution’s instruction that employees abide by particular religious moral codes does not automatically place all employees within the ministerial exception. But, she added, “teachers are different.” Quoting the Supreme Court, she explained, “’[E]ducating young people in their faith, inculcating its teachings, and training them to live their faith are responsibilities that lie at the very core of the mission of a private religious school’ like CCHS.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Elementary School Denies Request to Start Prayer Club, Approves ‘Pride Club’

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In 2015, religious freedom seemed compromised when a Washington high school football coach was fired for praying with his team after a game. Joe Kennedy waited roughly six years for the Supreme Court to hear the oral arguments for his case. He was represented by a Christian nonprofit legal organization, First Liberty Institute (FLI), which took the position that “no teacher or coach should lose their job for simply expressing their faith while in public.” This was a notable case in 2022, and recent events have caused the issue to resurface.

Earlier this year, Laura, an 11-year-old girl who attends Creekside Elementary in Washington State, requested to start an interfaith prayer club at her school. But her request was denied.

When Laura and her mom approached the principal about the matter in February, they were informed that the school’s budget for clubs had been finalized in October. And according to a spokesperson for Issaquah School District, “[C]lubs offered are student-interest driven and meet outside of the school day. At the elementary level, participation in a club also requires parent permission. Once the school year begins, the building budget is set, and additional clubs are usually not added until the following school year.” But the story doesn’t end here.

Laura’s group, which she hoped to start with her friend, was meant to include people of all different religious backgrounds. She shared with Fox News that she was feeling alone, and that she thought this would be a good idea to bring students together. “I think that this is something that I am very passionate about,” she added. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t really want to make this happen, if I didn’t think that it would be a great opportunity for everyone.” It was later discovered that an LGBT club was approved only a week prior to Laura’s club request being denied, which has caused spectators to raise their eyebrows.

As a result of this alleged hypocrisy, Laura filed a lawsuit on the grounds of religious discrimination with the help of FLI. Attorneys pointed out in a letter to the school, “The First Amendment ‘doubly protects religious speech.’ These First Amendment protections extend to elementary school students expressing their sincere religious beliefs through voluntary clubs. Yet the school district flouted its First Amendment obligations when they refused to allow a student-led interfaith prayer club. Its unlawful action violates both the Free Exercise Clause and the Free Speech Clause.”

Kayla Toney, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute, explained, “Denying the formation of a religious student club while allowing other clubs violates the Constitution,” drawing attention to the fact that the similar case with Coach Kennedy occurred “just a short drive away” from Laura’s elementary school. And in comments to The Washington Stand, Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, said, “The fact that Creekside Elementary denied a religious club the same month that it approved a Pride club reveals a lot about American culture right now.”

She continued, “Sadly, the promotion of LGBT identities is held sacred while religion is sidelined and marginalized. It’s heartbreaking that Laura, a fifth-grade student, felt alone at school as a religious believer and that she knew other students who felt the same way. She reacted in exactly the right way by making an effort to build community with religious students.”

Del Turco went on to emphasize that, “Oftentimes, when people seek to prevent religious expression in government venues, they will use the excuse that they don’t want to imply that the government favors one religion over another.” However, when it comes to Laura’s case, she pointed out that “the school doesn’t even have that flimsy excuse because the students were seeking to start a … club that would be open to students of different faiths.”

Ultimately, “Any school that allows other clubs while specifically denying religious clubs is acting in a discriminatory manner and violating the First Amendment, which protects freedom of expression and the free exercise of religion.” Del Turco concluded, “Christian fifth graders shouldn’t face viewpoint discrimination from their school leadership. It shouldn’t have had to come to this, but I fully expect this injustice to be rectified in the courts.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

PERKINS: State of Faith, Family, and Freedom Address

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TRANSCRIPT

I am Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., with this year’s State of Faith, Family, and Freedom in America.

The apostle Peter wrote to believers who had been scattered because of the persecution of the early church, instructing them to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 Peter 3:15 ESV].

Notice where that hope was to reside. Not in the halls of power, the media headlines of the day, and certainly not on the stages of entertainment. Rather, that hope is to be found within us.

As followers of Christ, we have the very presence of God within us, which is our hope and confidence. And in a moment, I want to share with you the tangible results that have come from that hope, results which the godless Left and their lemmings in the legacy media work day and night to keep from you.

So, from that foundation, we look at the state of faith, family, and freedom in America.

The assault on biblical faith continues to accelerate under the Biden administration’s policies, both at home and abroad.

Religious freedom, the top foreign policy objective of the former Trump administration, has been replaced with prioritizing attacks on the unborn, promoting LGBTQ ideology, and the climate, the unholy trinity of the Left.

The Biden administration has found the ideal partner to advance this unholy trinity with the World Health Organization (WHO), which is working feverishly to advance an unprecedented global power grab through a pandemic treaty — or pandemic accord as it is deceptively called to avoid the need for ratification by the U.S. Senate.

This accord grants the compromised WHO the ability to regulate nearly every aspect of life for citizens of every nation when the WHO believes there is a health emergency. The treaty calls for censoring information that would challenge their declaration, which would include silencing dissenting voices. We saw this type of totalitarianism play out here in the United States during COVID-19; we don’t want to see a global sequel.

The consequences of the Biden administration’s misplaced priorities have rapidly manifested in global chaos and instability, along with historic levels of persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.

A case in point is the country of Nigeria, the most populous African nation. As chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during the Trump administration, I led the commission in recommending that Nigeria be designated as a country of particular concern. This designation, which the Trump administration adopted for the government of Nigeria, allowed for economic sanctions upon the country and its leaders for allowing the egregious, ongoing, and systematic persecution of people of faith.

But, without adequate explanation, that designation was immediately removed by the Biden administration when they came into office. The result has been a dramatic rise in the death toll. According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, more than 8,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year alone.

This indifference to religious freedom abroad is rivaled only by the hostility toward religious freedom here at home, as a congressional investigation revealed the FBI tracked and worked to infiltrate churches in part because of leftist propaganda from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The role of faith, the Christian faith, has been routinely undermined by President Biden’s policies. Faith-based entities focused on proclaiming truth through charitable service have been assaulted.

At the end of last year, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services put forth a new rule that would shut down Christian foster care services and exclude Christian foster families unless they surrender biblical teaching on human sexuality and gender identity. And this comes at a time when more, not fewer, stable families are needed for children in need of a family.

These policies, which are hostile to biblical truth, have fomented and tacitly approved outright acts of hostility toward churches in America.

Over the last year, there have been 436 identified acts of hostility on churches in the United States, ranging from vandalism to firebombing to shootings. Family Research Council’s recently released Hostility Against Churches Report shows an astounding 800% increase in acts of vandalism and violence towards churches since 2018.

The family has not evaded the hostility of this administration either, as radical gender policies are pushed from the Department of Education onto local schools, demanding parents be kept in the dark as their children are transitioned. Ask Jennifer and Dan Mead, whose autistic daughter was being secretly transitioned at school without her parents’ knowledge or consent. Behind their backs, teachers agreed to call her by a masculine name and male pronouns. The Meads stumbled on the truth when an education plan that detailed their daughter’s life as a boy at school was accidentally sent home. Furious, they pulled her out of classes, started homeschooling, and sued. Now, her mom says, “She’s safe. She knows her real identity.” But who knows how many other parents are living this same nightmare? Or worse, oblivious to what’s happening right under their noses.

The hostility of the Left begins at the moment of conception.

“Think about [it],” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are persons. “Individuals, couples, who want to start a family are now being deprived of access to what can help them start a family,” she said, referring to the potential impacts on In Vitro Fertilization. “So, on the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn’t have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family.”

This faux outrage is the height of hypocrisy. The Alabama ruling did nothing to outlaw IVF, but on the contrary, ensured that parents struggling with infertility don’t experience even more heartbreak because of the carelessness of IVF clinics that treat embryos as if they are merely pieces of property. This feign of counterfeit compassion over infertility comes at the same time the Biden administration is working to overturn every state’s pro-life laws by allowing dangerous mail-order abortions without medical oversight — which is a violation of federal law. And once again, they are peddling the lie that protecting unborn children puts women’s lives at risk. Not a single pro-life law prohibits saving a mother’s life. Instead, these laws protect unborn children from being brutally torn apart.

Innocent human life must be protected, as must the mothers, many of whom think they have no alternative. That’s why Republicans are working to stop the Biden administration in its new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program from excluding pregnancy resource centers from receiving federal funding for the myriad of services they provide.

More and more families are looking to religious nonprofits for assistance in many areas as families struggle under the present tight economy, where prices have climbed 18% since President Biden took office.

Prices aren’t the only thing increasing under this administration; so has violent crime.

While the Democratic Party wants you to believe that crime has declined over the past year, the reality is that homicides, theft, carjackings, and property damage are astronomically higher than they were in 2019. Violent crimes against young people have actually doubled in the last year. Motor vehicle thefts are up 105% since the pandemic — as even members of Congress have fallen prey to carjackings. The murder rate is up as much as 30% in places like the nation’s capital and about 18% overall.

A contributing factor to violent crime is the skyrocketing illegal immigration on our southern border, made tragically evident again when 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was found murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia. The alleged murderer, Jose Ibarra, illegally entered the country in 2022 from Venezuela, was detained, and then let loose or “paroled” into the United States. This is a man who was arrested three times but never detained. And by the way, Athens, Georgia, where the campus is located, is a sanctuary city. A sanctuary for criminals and murderers, not nursing students and law-abiding citizens.

An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the United States since President Biden took office in January of 2021.

Deadly drugs like fentanyl are also streaming across the border, becoming the number one killer of Americans aged 18-45.

It is not just drugs and criminals that are streaming across the border; so are terrorists. At least 342 individuals who are on the terrorist watchlist have been detained at the border; there is no telling how many terrorists have evaded authorities and are now in the United States establishing terrorist cells.

We don’t have to look back far into history to see the savagery of a terrorist border invasion. We simply look at October 7 in Israel when Hamas terrorists invaded peaceful Israeli communities and brutally tortured, maimed, raped, and killed 1,400 innocent people and took 240 hostages. And now, five months later, as Israel seeks to secure its borders and eliminate future threats from Hamas, the Biden administration is breaking with one of America’s most politically reliable and spiritually significant allies. The Biden administration has repeatedly called for pauses or ceasefires, which allows Hamas to regroup and resupply, even as American hostages have not been freed.

Most recently, the Biden administration reversed the policy of the Trump administration that recognized Israel had a right to build in the biblical areas of Samaria and Judea, misleadingly called the West Bank. President Biden has gone so far as to sanction Israelis living in these areas while giving billions of dollars to organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has been directly linked to Hamas and the October 7 terrorist attack.

Friends, I believe America’s support for and stand with Israel has resulted in God extending grace to America despite our accelerating departure from His truth over the last half-century. America’s future is inextricably intertwined with Israel’s.

When we look at and consider these challenges, we don’t do so as people who have no hope of overcoming — to the contrary. Jesus, in the parable about the unjust judge, which is an appropriate analogy as we consider our relationship to our government, said men should always pray and not lose heart or hope.

Jesus was not laying out a prescription to simply feel good. This call to prayer was a prescription for change.

Let me give you just a few facts about the change God has brought forth in our nation because Christians didn’t give up hope but instead continued to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.

On June 24, 2022, after 49 years of prayerful, disciplined, and often ridiculed political engagement, Roe v. Wade was overturned, putting the ability to protect women and children into the hands of their elected representatives rather than unelected judges.

Here is something I am sure you’ve yet to hear from the legacy media. We have more Bible-believing Christians in Congress, in state legislatures, on city councils, and serving on school boards than at any time in modern history. Look at the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Christian, a conservative, a Republican. I know Speaker Johnson; he and I have been friends for over 25 years.

Look at the transformation of state legislatures across the country. In 1990, there were six GOP-controlled legislatures. Twenty-four years later, there are 28. And one result has been state pro-life laws have doubled since the Republican election wave of 2010.

We know that we will overcome. That is why we must continue to pray for our nation, that we will return to God and His truth. We need to vote. We need to both raise up and vote for leaders who have the qualities that Jethro laid out to Moses in Exodus 18, leaders who: 1) are able, they know what to do; 2) fear God; 3) are men of truth; and 4) are not looking to get rich; rather, they are seeking to serve.

Finally, we need to stand for truth, no matter who else is standing or not standing. And do so filled with the joy of the Lord. In John 15, as Jesus was warning His disciples of the challenges they would face for following Him, He said this: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” [John 15:11].

And we do all of this in love. Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 16, to “watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” [NKJV].

The state of faith, family, and freedom in America is being tested and tried to a degree that is almost unrivaled in our history. But our confidence and hope in the future has never been more solid because we’ve seen the budding fruit of decades of prayer, of biblically guided participation in our republican form of government.

We must let it be known that we will not be intimidated into silence by a weaponized government, nor will we allow Marxist tactics that seek to marginalize the Christian faith to cause us to shrink back into the shadows of society. Why? Because of the hope that is within us and the victory that is before us, it leaves us more resolved than ever to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.

AUTHOR

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Poll: 69% of Americans Believe Free Speech Is ‘Heading in the Wrong Direction’

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Over the years, research centers have routinely polled American citizens on the topic of free speech. And with each passing year, the country seems more convinced that while freedom of speech is important, how one practices that right can be problematic.

For example, Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) and the Polarization Research Lab (PRL) at Dartmouth College recently released a poll that revealed 69% of the 1,000 Americans they surveyed believe free speech is “heading in the wrong direction.” However, it’s noteworthy that their concerns stem from the growing inability for people “to freely express their views.” And “alarmingly,” the researchers wrote, roughly one-third of the Americans polled believe the First Amendment “goes too far in the rights it guarantees.”

The poll experimented with a variety of controversial statements, asking respondents to choose which ones they found most offensive. Out of the most surprising results, 52% felt their community “should not allow a public speech that espouses the belief they selected as the most offensive.” Additionally, “A supermajority, 69%, said their local college should not allow a professor who espoused that belief to teach classes.”

Reason magazine summarized, “These results indicate that though the average American is concerned about protecting free speech rights, a significant portion of the population seem poised to welcome increasing censorship.”

FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens said the “results were disappointing, but not exactly surprising.” He continued, “Here at FIRE, we’ve long observed that many people who say they’re concerned about free speech waver when it comes to beliefs they personally find offensive.” But Stevens, as well as Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm, believe the best way to protect free speech is, in fact, to protect the right to be potentially offensive or controversial.

Backholm, who serves as a senior fellow for Biblical Worldview and Strategic Engagement at FRC, commented to The Washington Stand, “It isn’t just that the First Amendment also protects offensive speech, it primarily exists to protect offensive speech.” He explained that there’s “no need to recognize the right to say, ‘I like tacos,’ because” most people wouldn’t see a reason to silence that. The entire reason for the constitutional guarantee to the freedom of speech,” he added, “is because the Founders understood the government’s instinct to stop people from saying things the government disliked.”

Especially with the rise of cancel culture, Backholm emphasized, “A lot of people today believe there is a constitutional right not to be offended.” Additionally, they also often “believe the right not to be offended is of greater importance than the freedom of speech,” which he noted is commonly the reason why “pronoun laws and campus safe spaces” are created. “Yes, there are limits to free speech, but those limits are not triggered by the emotional stress associated with discovering there are people in the world who disagree with you,” he said.

As for the Americans in the poll who are more worried about offensive beliefs being freely expressed, Backholm said, “The problem with restricting ‘offensive’ speech is that different things are offensive to different people. The pro-life position is offensive to some while the pro-abortion position is offensive to others.” Ultimately, it begs the question: Should all conversations about the issue be banned? To which he answered, “Obviously not.”

Stevens emphasized the importance of teaching this generation about the value and meaning of the First Amendment. “These findings should be a wake-up call for the nation to recommit to a vibrant free speech culture before it’s too late.” Because, as Backholm concluded, “If we want to be free, and most of us do, we must accept the fact that being exposed to ideas and behaviors we dislike is the cost of being able to do and say things other people don’t like.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

PERKINS: Hostility to Churches Fueled by Biden’s Anti-Faith Climate

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“It’s an emotional moment,” Pastor Robin Lutjohann said quietly, surveying the rubble of his church. “It’s been a place of worship for a number of communities for over a century,” he told reporters after a six-alarm fire raged through the building Easter Sunday, destroying the Massachusetts landmark. “It fills me with sadness and dread about the work that is ahead of us,” Lutjohann admitted, wondering why anyone would have such malice toward Faith Lutheran. “If and when a person is found who has done this then we will pray for the power to forgive,” he insisted.

Unfortunately, his congregation isn’t alone in that prayer. An astonishing 436 churches in America were victims of criminal attacks in 2023, according to a new report from Family Research Council — more than double the number in 2022. From shattering stained glass and spray-painting relics to lighting five-gallon drums of gasoline on fire and riddling altars with bullet holes, houses of worship have become an increasingly dangerous target.

“You just feel the hate,” Rev. Jerome Jones shook his head, still shocked at the sight of his trashed Maryland sanctuary. Bibles, ripped into shreds that “looked like snow” on the pews, slashed upholstery, the big wooden cross — where congregants lifted their hands during the offering — torn down and tossed on the $100,000 of damage. From now on, Jones had to tell worshippers, “the cross is in your hearts.”

His Fowler United Methodist Church is just a few miles from the Maryland State House, a fact that didn’t shield Jones from the violence that too many U.S. congregations are experiencing. If anything, experts say, our country’s deepening political divides may be what’s fanning the all-too-real flames. The growing anti-faith rhetoric of the Left, led by the Biden administration’s own bigotry toward Christians, has made it open season on houses of worship. After just 55 acts of hostility in 2020 under Donald Trump, the aggression has skyrocketed from 96 (2021) to 195 (2022) to a staggering 436 acts last year.

None of this happened in a vacuum. Under the Biden administration, there’s one common denominator between the growing religious persecution abroad and the rapidly increasing hostility toward churches here at home: our government’s policies.

Frankly, Congressman Nathanial Moran (R-Texas) insisted on Tuesday’s “Washington Watch,” the biggest reason for this spike is probably because “this is the behavior that’s being modeled by the federal government.” When we see “the Department of Justice weaponizing its political views against everyday Americans and religious institutions and faith-based organizations, more of [these attacks] are going to happen.”

Under Joe Biden, men and women at the highest levels of government have not only condoned religious intimidation, they’ve encouraged it — refusing to investigate, hold culprits accountable, or worse, targeting Christians themselves. From the FBI to IRS, the Biden administration has spent the last three years criminalizing Americans with biblical views, only to turn around and complain about threats to democracy. What bigger threat is there than a government weaponized against its own people?

And sadly, this 800% spike in church attacks hasn’t just triggered terror here at home, it’s also had deadly consequences abroad. During my time as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), I witnessed firsthand that when American leaders turn their backs on religious hostility, it sends a message that the world’s persecuted are on their own.

As my friend and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo understood: “If we got it right here in America, good things would happen all across the world.” If we get it wrong, we’re no longer just hurting ourselves, but millions of innocents who depend on the United States to fight against oppression around the world.

We see evidence of that failure in the freshly dug graves in Nigeria, in the Christians hiding deep within Afghanistan, even in the global calls for Israel’s ceasefire. Biden’s weakness on the international stage has escalated the threat for the world’s religious populations to a degree we’ve not seen in modern history. And the situation grows more dire every day.

When America ignores the indiscriminate slaughter of 8,222 Nigerian Christians in a single year — even going so far as to remove the nation as a Country of Particular Concern from America’s watch list— it gives permission for other world leaders to look the other way. Worse, it sends a green light to terrorists everywhere to continue their killings, abductions, land-grabs, and torture. But if Joe Biden can’t be bothered to condemn thugs and vandals at home, how could he possibly take on jihadists?

At its core, this is cultural terrorism, and it’s designed to silence us. The spiritual enemy of our soul has a goal to intimidate Christians everywhere into backing away from speaking biblical truth. So here’s what we’ve got to do: not yield.

Obviously, we need to take the appropriate precautions, so our people can come to church free of fear with the sole focus of worshiping the Lord. But then, we do something just as important: vote for men and women who respect and understand our vibrant First Amendment freedom, which is the ability — not only to worship God — but to live your life according to your faith. That means teaching your children. That means carrying your beliefs into the workplace.

So we need to be bold. We need to be courageous and live out our faith for the Lord in such a way as it brings honor and glory to him. Yes, we need to take the practical steps to make sure our churches are safe, but we cannot give in to those who would make us shrink back into the shadows of society. We need to continue to hold forth the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ — without apology.

AUTHOR

Tony Perkins

Tony Perkins is president of Family Research Council and executive editor of The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Report Catalogues Dozens of New Incidents of Persecution against Christians in the West

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Religious persecution against Christians in the Western world is rising at an alarming rate, according to a new report from Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty.

In the 2024 edition of “Free to Believe? The Intensifying Intolerance Toward Christians in The West,” the Center for Religious Liberty identified 168 incidents of anti-Christian hatred or discrimination from January 2020 to the end of 2023, including 33 incidents last year alone. Although 2020 (61) and 2021 (49) saw the most incidents of persecution against Christians, the majority were related to COVID-19 lockdown violations, but the report notes an increase in intolerance toward public and even private expression of biblical worldviews in the West.

The report states, “As the mainstream culture moves further and further away from a Christian worldview, Christian beliefs that contradict progressive secular values are increasingly denounced by the culture and wrongly portrayed as being hateful or bigoted.” It adds, “The past three years each having fewer incidents than 2020 does not necessarily indicate an overall decline in intolerance toward Christians. … Although FRC identified fewer incidents related to COVID-19 after 2020, incidents that we identified of Christians facing discrimination for their biblically informed beliefs increased.”

“This report is a warning call,” wrote FRC President Tony Perkins in a letter attached to the report. “It is shocking to see Western countries — the same ones we think of as free and open societies — take authoritarian measures against Christians simply trying to live out their faith. Hostility toward Bible-believing Christians is clearly and steadily rising in the West.” Perkins, former commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, added, “Religious freedom is the foundation for the human rights that Western democracies seek to promote abroad. Yet, the ability to promote this fundamental human right will be lost if we do not protect it within our borders.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Center for Religious Liberty Director Arielle Del Turco said, “We remain clear-eyed about religious freedom conditions in Western democracies. It’s easy to take our rights for granted, but we are seeing governments across the West target Christians to be silenced, restricted, or fined for living out their faith or expressing their religious beliefs.” She continued, “Often, the pressure point revolves around Christians’ ability to speak about doctrine that contradicts mainstream secular orthodoxy on issues such as abortion, transgenderism, or same-sex marriage.”

Although the report is “far from exhaustive,” some of the 2023 incidents in the U.S. include:

  • An Ohio pastor being fined for allowing homeless to sleep in his church;
  • A Texas church being charged excessive fees by a county utility company and seeing those fees doubled after the church noted its tax-exempt status;
  • The Oklahoma attorney general suing a virtual school board for approving a publicly-funded Catholic charter school;
  • An Oregon couple being denied a foster care license due to their biblical views on sex and gender;
  • A California library cancelling a Moms for Liberty event when a speaker expressed biblical views on gender and biology;
  • A Georgia church being threatened with fines for hosting a car show as a form of community outreach;
  • A Christian school in Colorado being denied a religious exemption from a pro-LGBT state discrimination law;
  • An Oregon church being threatened with fines for providing free meals to the homeless;
  • A school counselor in Indiana being fired for speaking out against her school district’s preferred pronoun policy;
  • A Vermont Christian school being barred from a state tuition program for upholding biblical values on sex and gender;
  • A Christian high school coach (also in Vermont) being fired for saying that there’s a biological difference between men and women;
  • An Arizona elementary school district ending a teaching partnership with Arizona Christian University;
  • A California teacher being fired for refusing to comply with a policy hiding students’ gender transitions from parents; and
  • A Colorado cake shop owner being sued for refusing to make cakes celebrating gender transitions, Satanism, or marijuana use.

In the United Kingdom, two town councilors were penalized (one was even arrested) for speaking out against a local Pride parade, a school chaplain was fired for telling students they don’t “have to accept the ideas of LGBT activists,” and at least six people were arrested or fined for praying outside abortion facilities or holding pro-life signs.

In Canada, a pastor was arrested twice for praying outside a library drag queen story hour, a church was fined for hosting in-person services in 2020, and a teen at a Catholic school was arrested for organizing a protest against biological men using women’s bathrooms. A Christian hybrid school was shut down in Germany, a Maltese health care worker was charged with a crime for sharing in an interview how he left the homosexual lifestyle, a Norwegian city denied Christian organizations community grant funding due to their biblical views on sex and gender, a woman was arrested in Spain for praying the rosary, and a Swedish bakery was investigated for refusing to bake a same-sex wedding cake.

Perkins noted, “This report is merely a sampling of the rise of actions by Western governmental officials that target Christians’ ability to practice and express their faith, especially in the public square.” He explained that the report “is a call to individuals to vigorously exercise their religious freedom while at the same time calling upon government officials to recognize and prioritize the protection of this fundamental human right so that religious freedom can continue to be promoted around the world.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

‘Bah Humbug’: Pa. School Districts Warns Bus Drivers against Christmas Decorations

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A Keystone State school board is banning school bus drivers from putting up Christmas decorations. On Friday, just over a week before Christmas, the Wallingford-Swarthmore school district in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, issued a memo to school bus drivers saying, “If you have decorated your bus with anything specific to the Christmas Holiday or any other decorations relating to a specific religion, please remove them immediately.”

The memo concludes, “In addition, employees are instructed not to wear clothing related to Christmas or any other religious holiday.” According to the memo, school district leadership “has been receiving complaints from parents concerning District employees displaying ‘Christmas’ themed decorations and/or wearing clothing of the same nature.” A note adds that the policy is not specific to school bus drivers but “APPLIES TO ALL DISTRICT EMPLOYEES.”

According to reporter Chris O’Connell of Fox 29 Philadelphia, who shared the memo on social media, school bus drivers have responded to the memo with variations of “Bah humbug.”

In comments to The Washington Stand, Meg Kilgannon, senior fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council, asked, “Are there drivers with Pride flags? BLM flags? Culturally sensitive flags of other nations? Just what kinds of personal expressions are okay in the school district?” She further noted, “When even the commercialized and virtually-religion-free Christmas observance is disallowed, we have lost all sense of identity as Americans and certainly Western civilization. Woe to the bus driver who tries to create an atmosphere of joy, peace, and love for the children on his or her bus.”

Joseph Backholm, FRC’s senior fellow for Biblical Worldview, told TWS that the ban on Christmas decorations is “an issue of people in leadership who always follow rather than lead.” He said, “The school district apparently received a complaint from someone that a bus driver was spreading too much Christmas cheer, and instead of telling that parent they encourage every bus driver to be as festive as possible, they decided it was their job to protect the emotionally fragile.” Although “Christmas” is named explicitly in the memo, Backholm noted that the inclusion of “any other religious holiday” was “certainly done on the advice of their lawyers, because it would be illegal to just ban Christmas displays and clothing.”

“There’s nothing illegal about employees who wear holiday clothing at work, which is why we see it all the time. But in this case the school district decided to side with the complaints of the few against the joy and celebrations of the many,” Backholm explained. “We now live in a world where some people are looking for reasons to be offended and they often find reason to be offended in the joy of others. The public square will once again be open once we stop pretending people have a right not to be offended by things.”

According to Fox 29 Philadelphia, the school district clarified Friday night that their intent was “not clear” and reversed the ban on holiday decorations and clothing, emphasizing instead a need for bus drivers to create “an inclusive environment.”

“The parents who want to remove the decorations should spend a week on the bus to see what kind of environment their children and the bus drivers experience daily,” Kilgannon said. “Parents know that in many school districts bus discipline is nonexistent and enforcing any behavioral norm is often punished — by just this kind of complaint. Taxpayers on the other hand who have no kids in school have no idea that this kind of situation is funded by their generosity.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy 

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Army Tries to Bring Back Soldiers Booted for Refusing the COVID Vaccine

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In August of 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made the COVID vaccination shot a requirement for all U.S. servicemembers. President Joe Biden released a statement revealing his strong support before it went into effect. As a result, Politico reported that over “8,400 troops were kicked out of the military for refusing the vaccine.” About a year later, Biden signed a defense bill that repealed the vaccine mandate.

This month, news broke that the Army has sent letters to many of the troops who were ousted, which explains that soldiers can correct their records and reenter the service. The reversal has been met with tremendous backlash.

Retired Army Major Chase Spears wrote about the mistreatment servicemembers faced while the vaccine mandate was in effect. He shared, “The Army requires several immunizations and checkups throughout the year to maintain one’s medical readiness. Not one of those came with the coercive force of the COVID mandate. … It became the primary marker of human worth.” For Spears, the Army officials who heavily enforced the mandate seem to have no remorse for their actions. He added, “Hearkening back to biblical language, you were clean or unclean based on your shot status.”

Spears described the policy reversal as “a step toward sanity,” but concluded “it is far from enough.” “The question is whether those who made such un-American policy decisions can be trusted going forward.” He believes they cannot. Those affected by the military’s course of action have insisted this is a matter of trust and warn the military is about to get a wake-up call from the soldiers who no longer have confidence in the current leadership.

Many of the soldiers affected by the vaccine mandate were deprived of pay and benefits. According to Breitbart, retired attorney Dale Saran and attorneys Andy Meyer and Brandon Johnson are representing former troops who were kicked out “in three separate lawsuits they plan to turn into a class action lawsuit.” Saran estimated roughly “80,000 to 100,000 service members — both active-duty and reservists — who were impacted by the mandate.”

Mike Berry, vice president of External Affairs, director of Military Affairs, and senior counsel for First Liberty Institute, commented to The Washington Stand, “The only way an all-volunteer military works is with trust. But these past few years, the Pentagon has done nothing but shatter the trust of our servicemembers and veterans with lies, broken promises, and incompetence.” He explained that when First Liberty first “sued the Navy over its COVID vaccine mandate,” they warned them that the “unlawful manner in which the DOD was enforcing the mandate would result in a recruiting crisis.”

On Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch,” Berry unpacked the mandate’s rollback more. As far as he’s concerned, the problem with the letter is that it “doesn’t say anything about accountability.” He added, “It’s not about accomplishing the mission. And in this case, it’s not about protecting religious freedom, which is one of the things that our military exists to do.” He concluded, “They know what this is all about. This is all about just trying to save face, trying to make sure that on paper, our military is meeting its recruiting and retention numbers.”

Travis Weber, vice president for Policy and Government Affairs at Family Research Council and a Navy veteran, also commented to TWS, “The military never should have coerced its servicemembers to get the vaccine to begin with.” For Weber and all those witnessing the unfolding of the military’s actions, we “are dealing with the fallout as they try to woo back the thousands that they kicked out for refusing to violate their consciences and get the vaccine.”

Weber shared that it’s not surprising that servicemembers would be hesitant to return “to an institution that so easily thrust them aside in the face of public pressure” during COVID, which “the military bowed to along with much of the rest of society.” He concluded, “May this sad episode never be repeated, and may our nation’s military and civilian leadership be on guard to ensure they actually lead and not simply follow the blowing winds of public sentiment.”

AUTHOR

Sarah Holliday

Sarah Holliday is a reporter at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Court Rejects Satanic Temple’s Abortion Petition

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A federal court is rejecting the Satanic Temple’s petition to protect abortion as a religious ritual. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas threw out a complaint earlier this week filed by the Satanic Temple back in 2021 and amended last year after Roe v. Wade was overturned. The complaint argued that pro-life laws in Texas infringed on the religious liberty of practicing Satanists, as abortions (especially first-trimester abortions) are a religious ritual in the Satanic Temple. The court determined that the Satanic Temple doesn’t have standing to file the complaint.

The Satanic Temple filed the initial complaint in 2021 in the wake of Texas’s heartbeat bill, citing a violation of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the Satanic Temple amended its complaint, explicating Texas’ pro-life trigger laws prevent Satanists from practicing abortion “rituals.” Lawyers for the Satanic Temple cited the Temple’s “tenets,” one of which proclaims, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone,” a variation of the common, “My body, my choice” slogan often used by pro-abortion activists.

“The Satanic Temple considers it a victory when they can undermine sincerely held religious beliefs by pretending their legal complaints based on ‘religious freedom’ are legitimate and deserve the same consideration given to religions like Christianity,” Arielle Del Turco, director at Family Research Council’s Center for Religious Liberty, told The Washington Stand. “It’s good to see that the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas rejected The Satanic Temple’s lawsuit. People know this is a stunt, and we shouldn’t get caught up in their game.”

The Satanic Temple has long been an advocate of abortion and also filed suits against pro-life laws in Missouri, Idaho, and Indiana. After Roe was overturned, the Temple announced it would open an abortion facility selling abortifacient drugs and named “Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic Abortion Clinic,” mockingly named after the Catholic Supreme Court Justice who wrote the opinion overturning Roe. On its website, the Satanic Temple states, “Consistent with our tenets that call for bodily autonomy and acting in accordance with best scientific evidence, The Satanic Temple religiously objects to many of the restrictions that states have enacted that interfere with abortion access.”

In 2020, a Satanic Temple spokesperson explained, “We’re objecting to the regulations that are not actually necessary for the abortion and do not offer better outcomes. [It] would be unconstitutional to require a waiting period before receiving Holy Communion. … So we expect the same rights as any other religious organization.” Perhaps somewhat ironically, the Catholic Church itself requires a sort of waiting period before receiving Holy Communion, demanding that Catholic confess their sins and receive absolution before presenting themselves to receive Communion.

Del Turco summarized the situation by noting, “[P]rogressive ideologues self-identifying as Satanists are literally going to court to defend abortion not on a scientific basis, but by claiming abortion is one of their religious ‘rituals.’ And while this is gross and shocking enough to make headlines, it just confirms what Christians have always known — that the religious fervor demonstrated by pro-abortion activists is not just political, it’s spiritual.”

No court judgment has yet been issued addressing the Satanic Temple’s lawsuits in Missouri, Idaho, and Indiana. The dismissal in Texas does not take into account the merits of the case, only the lack of standing of the plaintiff identified as “Jane Doe.”

AUTHOR

S.A. McCarthy

S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.