For almost 40 years Evangelical Christians, under the guise of the Religious Right, courted political power specifically through the Republican Party. As a political group, they have accomplished little of what they desired.
This week, both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have chosen relatively centrist running mates who are not well known outside of their states. Both Trump and Clinton, who have been battling high disapproval ratings and facing a close election in November, have made “safe picks.” But how do the vice presidential candidates compare when it comes to religious liberty?
Contrary to Trump’s representation, the voices of individual church members, or even church employees, have not “been taken away.” Instead, they may independently advocate for or against any candidates of their choosing, but they cannot use their houses of worship as vehicles for doing so.
Whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will do more to defend the Free Exercise Clause is an important factor in deciding which candidate to support.
Yesterday, in a typical, stream-of-consciousness, rant about his self-perceived greatness, Donald Trump told an assembly of over 900 evangelical leaders in New York that he supports them.
Donald Trump evades questions about whether employers should have right to discriminate on basis of religion and the tax-exempt status of religious organizations.
This morning President Obama threw a straight pitch directly into the strike zone when he nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the United States Supreme Court to fill the vacancy left by Justice Antonin Scalia. Garland, currently the chief judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, was confirmed to that court in 1997 with bipartisan Congressional support and has been well regarded by both Democrats and Republicans.
Political careers are made by identifying, or in some cases creating, amorphous bogeymen who have nothing in mind but the destruction of “The Constitution” and the “American way of life.” The call to get rid of the bogeyman and “all will be well” is a pernicious promise.
Have you ever wondered what legal mechanism existed that permitted the legalization of slavery in the United States after the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791? How it was that men, women, and children were held in bondage after Francis Scott Key wrote the famous words, “land of the free, and the home of the brave” in 1812? How segregation persisted in law until the late 1960s?
On February 20, 2015, Rabbi David Saperstein was sworn in as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom. Saperstein is the fourth person to hold the post since it was created as part of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.