Why we need a religious freedom move from Trump – and soon

Washington D.C., Feb 15, 2017 / 06:00 am

President Donald Trump must sign an executive order with broad protections for religious freedom, or global consequences could soon follow, Catholic leaders insist.

To sign an executive order establishing broad religious freedom protections is "one of the most important things President Trump could do early in his administration," said Dr. Jay Richards, a professor at the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America.

"This isn't just a Christian issue," he told CNA, but rather a "Constitutional issue." Current threats to religious freedom could be "solidified" if no such executive order is signed soon.

President Trump recently announced that he would uphold a 2014 executive order from President Obama, barring federal contractors from engaging in practices deemed to be discriminatory against LGBT employees, with no religious exemptions attached for organizations that have religious objections to gay marriage or adoption.

Thus, religious groups might not be able to contract with the federal government if they publicly uphold traditional marriage, or if they refuse to hire someone who is openly in a same-sex relationship and does not abide by their code of conduct.

A coalition of religious leaders, including the then-president of Catholic Charities USA Fr. Larry Snyder, wrote President Obama in 2014, asking him for an exemption for religious organizations.

The order essentially elevated LGBT persons to a "protected class," thus threatening employers who are religiously opposed to this lifestyle by withholding federal contracts or funding because of so-called "discrimination," Richards explained.

Recently, a draft of another order which would establish broad conscience protections was leaked to the press, but that order has not been issued or signed. This draft was "just perfect," Dr. Richards thought, because "it would undo a lot of the damage" wrought against religious freedom from the Obama administration.

That order wouldn't just affect federal contractors, he explained, "but any entity that receives federal funding or is eligible for student loans."

"So if something like this doesn't happen, it would not be very long – in fact I would predict it would be probably within the year – that Christian and Catholic colleges would start being essentially coerced into accepting this kind of officially-mandated view on these transgender questions," he said.

Obama-era regulations and rules would be enforced by government agencies. Schools and colleges could be "threatened with the revocation of student loan eligibility" if they religiously object to federal government mandates on marriage and sexuality.

Now, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is trying to gather signatures asking the president to sign a religious freedom executive order. They cite "unprecedented" threats to religious freedom to insist on the order's importance.

"Religious freedom in America has suffered years of unprecedented erosion. President Trump can correct some of this within the executive branch," a USCCB action alert stated.

Along with a religious exemption to the LGBT executive order for federal contractors, the petition asks for "relief" from the HHS contraception mandate for the Little Sisters of the Poor and for other employers that are suing the government over the mandate and its "accommodation."

An order should also include protections for religious schools to publicly affirm their beliefs on marriage and keep their accreditation, the continuance of the tax-exempt status for religious organizations that support traditional marriage, and conscience protections for doctors and hospitals refusing to perform abortions, they said.

"Any Executive Order should make it clear that religious freedom entails more than the freedom to worship but also includes the ability to act on one's beliefs. It should also protect individuals and families who run closely-held businesses in accordance with their faith to the greatest extent possible," the bishops' conference stated.

Regarding the freedom of Catholic charities to minister to undocumented immigrants without being threatened by federal authorities, Richards said "the language is not there explicitly" in the proposed order.

For grants to Catholic social services who serve refugees and immigrants, "it would shield Catholic entities doing that on religious grounds" and "would at least mean that Catholic ministries couldn't be threatened with the revocation of their non-profit status or government grants, simply because they're exercising their religious freedom."

There are various threats to religious freedom today, Dr. Richards said, from mandates that public school students must have access to locker rooms and bathrooms of their self-identified gender identity to private business owners who face lawsuits and fines for declining to serve same-sex weddings out of conscience.

President Obama's executive order "essentially federalized all these" threats to religious freedom, Richards said.

If nothing is done to protect religious freedom, any entity that receives federal funding could be cut off from it for failing to abide by certain government mandates. "I would expect these things to continue to happen," he added.