As the Globalist and American Left (cough Dem Anti-Christians) assault
the Liberty of Christians in the name of immoral Multiculturalist Humanism
trying to ram unbiblical immorality down the throats of Bible Believers, read
and comprehend the Originalist thinking of the Founding Fathers and America’s
modern supporters of the Founders.
JRH 1/21/20
Your generosity is always appreciated - various credit, check
& debit cards are accepted by my PayPal account:
OR just buy some FEEL GOOD coffee.
BLOG EDITOR: I’ve apparently
been placed in restricted Facebook Jail! The restriction was relegated after
criticizing Democrats for supporting abortion in one post and criticizing
Virginia Dems for gun-grabbing legislation and levying protestor restrictions. Rather
than capitulate to Facebook censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to
post and share until the Leftist censors ban me completely. Conservatives are a
huge portion of Facebook. If more or all Conservatives are
banned, it will affect the Facebook advertising revenue paradigm. SO FIGHT
CENSORSHIP BY SHARE – SHARE – SHARE!!! Facebook notified me in
pop-up on 1/20/20: “You're temporarily restricted from joining and posting to
groups that you do not manage until April 18 at 7:04 PM.”
****************************
Donald Trump and Religious Liberty
January 20, 2020
Many of America’s founders defended religious liberty,
believing it grounded on the duty men and women have to worship their Creator.
As late as the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans were able to work together to
protect that liberty, but unfortunately, the political left has begun to
abandon religious freedom.
Government and Liberty The featured image is a study for a mosaic in the
Wisconsin State Capital, “Government and Liberty” (c. 1912), by Kenyon Cox
(1856-1919), courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
As the 2020 presidential campaign heats up, conservatives
would do well to reflect on two important speeches made last fall that were
virtually ignored by the media. In September, President Trump gave an excellent
address at the United Nations where he made it clear that religious freedom is
not just an American constitutional right, it is a God-given right that should
be respected across the globe. A month later, Attorney General William Barr
made virtually the same argument in a speech at the University of Notre Dame.
As late as the 1990s, Democrats and Republicans were able to
work together to protect religious liberty. Most notably, the Religious Freedom
Restoration Act of 1993 passed in the House without a dissenting vote, was
approved 97 to 3 by the Senate, and was signed into law by President Bill
Clinton.
Unfortunately, the political left has begun to abandon
religious freedom. The Obama Administration showed little concern for religious
liberty when it required businesses to provide contraceptives and
abortifacients to employees, even when business owners had religious
convictions against doing so. It also offered a rare challenge to the doctrine
of ministerial exception, a legal protection which holds that religious groups
should be free to choose, in the words of Chief Justice John Roberts, “who will
preach their beliefs, teach their faith, and carry out their mission.”
Not to be outdone, then-presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke
announced in October that churches that hold disfavored views on same-sex
marriage should lose their tax-exempt status. He apparently views this
important religious liberty protection as a “reward” that can be withdrawn when
the government disagrees with the theology of a church, mosque, or synagogue.
In the academy, Professors Marci Hamilton, Brian Leiter,
Richard Schragger, John Corvino, Micah Schwartzman, and others have made
well-publicized arguments criticizing religious liberty. These scholars have
penned multiple works with titles such as Why Tolerate Religion? and
“What if Religion Is Not Special?”
In his United Nations speech advocating religious liberty,
President Trump made it clear that religion is, in fact, special. He observed:
The United States is founded on
the principle that our rights do not come from government; they come from God.
This immortal truth is proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence and
enshrined in the First Amendment to our Constitution’s Bill of Rights. Our
Founders understood that no right is more fundamental to a peaceful,
prosperous, and virtuous society than the right to follow one’s religious
convictions.
He is absolutely correct. As I argue in my recently
published book Did America Have a Christian Founding?,
Americans embraced a robust view of religious liberty precisely because they
believed that it was a God-given right. Colonial leaders such as Roger
Williams, William Penn, Elisha Williams, Samuel Davies, Isaac Backus, and John
Leland regularly made biblical and theological arguments to support this
freedom. So did the civic leaders who crafted our constitutional republic.
Many founders believed that religious liberty is grounded on
the duty men and women have to worship their Creator. A fine example of this is
George Mason’s 1776 draft of Article XVI of Virginia’s Declaration of Rights:
That as religion, or the duty
which we owe to our divine and omnipotent Creator, and the manner of
discharging it, can be governed only by reason and conviction, not by force or
violence; and therefore that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the
exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and
unrestrained by the magistrate [emphasis added].
Mason’s draft of Article XVI was reprinted throughout the
states and had an important impact on subsequent state constitutions and the
national Bill of Rights. But it was not the draft that became law. James
Madison, in his first significant public act, didn’t deny that individuals have
a duty to worship God, but he objected to the use of “toleration” because it
implies that religious liberty is a grant from the state that could be revoked.
The Virginia Convention agreed with Madison and amended Article
XVI to make it clear that “the free exercise of religion” is a right, not a
privilege given by the state. Like Virginia, the Massachusetts Constitution of
1780, which was largely drafted by John Adams, grounds religious freedom in the
“duty of all men in society, publicly and at stated seasons, to worship the
Supreme Being, the great Creator and Preserver of the universe.”
President Washington agreed with Madison that it was far too
late in the day to speak of religious “toleration.” In his wonderful 1790
letter to the “Hebrew Congregation” in Newport, Rhode Island, he noted that all
citizens
possess alike liberty and
conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is
spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another
enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the
Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to
persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection
should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their
effectual support.
Like Mason, Madison, Adams, and Washington, President Trump
and Attorney General Barr recognize that religious liberty is a God-given
freedom that must be robustly protected, both in America and throughout the
world. As we contemplate who we should vote for in November, we should remember
which political party is most committed to protecting what many founders called
“the sacred right of conscience.”
+++++++++++++++++
BLOG EDITOR: I’ve apparently
been placed in restricted Facebook Jail! The restriction was relegated after
criticizing Democrats for supporting abortion in one post and criticizing
Virginia Dems for gun-grabbing legislation and levying protestor restrictions. Rather
than capitulate to Facebook censorship by abandoning the platform, I choose to
post and share until the Leftist censors ban me completely. Conservatives are a
huge portion of Facebook. If more or all Conservatives are
banned, it will affect the Facebook advertising revenue paradigm. SO FIGHT
CENSORSHIP BY SHARE – SHARE – SHARE!!! Facebook notified me in
pop-up on 1/20/20: “You're temporarily restricted from joining and posting to
groups that you do not manage until April 18 at 7:04 PM.”
_____________________________
The
Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion
of culture and politics—we approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with
mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly
contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.
Mark David Hall is Herbert
Hoover Distinguished Professor of Politics at George Fox University and author
of Did America Have a Christian Founding? Separating Modern Myth
From Historical Truth.
The
Imaginative Conservative is sponsored by The Free Enterprise Institute (a U.S. 501(c)3 tax exempt organization). Your donation
to the Institute in support of The Imaginative Conservative is tax
deductible to the extent allowed by law. (Gifts may be made online or by check
mailed to the Institute at 9600 Long Point Rd., Suite 300, Houston, TX, 77055.)
Copyright © 2020 The
Imaginative Conservative | All Rights Reserved | The views expressed in
essays are those of their authors and do not necessarily represent the views of
The Imaginative Conservative or its publisher or its editor.
No comments:
Post a Comment