Op-ed views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.
President Trump has once again brought our founding fathers’ Christian beliefs back into our modern-day American lives. Hallelujah!
A newly proposed rule at the Department of Health and Human Services HHS will allow faith-based care and adoption services to receive federal funding. President Donald Trump has made addressing the concerns of evangelical voters a priority of his presidency. Another win for the Religious Right movement. Another rollback to our freedoms that were covertly lost during Obama’s tenure in the White House.
Called the Religious Right movement, it is a grass-roots reaction to the loss of our right to choose and practice our religion…our spiritual conscience. Oxford Britannica defines it as “appeal[ing] broadly to conservative cultural sensibilities of Americans, the movement most capably mobilized white evangelical and fundamentalist Christians.”
Interestingly the congregant of Pastor Jeremiah Wright, just before he left the presidency, enacted a number of executive orders that were direct attacks on the Christian community. His was a last-minute regulation that immediately prompted a grass-roots reaction, a surge of resistance, which he didn’t have to endure. A nicely wrapped gift of social manure, a real bomb, for the incoming president to diffuse. There would be many more, even boxed sets, to come.
The proposed rule by the HHS would allow foster care and adoption agencies to reject LGBTQ families on religious grounds. The change would also affect other programs receiving federal grants, including those that help with HIV prevention or homelessness.
The new rule requires faith-based groups to comply with three federal laws on equality: the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. All of them protect citizens against religious discrimination but none of them mention sexual orientation.
Many Americans believe that newly-named advisor to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative in the Office of Public Liaison (wonder what acronym that becomes), Pastor Paula White is partly responsible. As the liaison, she oversees and reaches out to groups and coalitions of the Christian community, organizing key parts of the president’s base.
Pastor Paula was senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, a non-denominational, multicultural megachurch. She hosts a television show, “Paula White Today” and has authored many books on Christian living. White and Trump have known each other since 2008. She chaired Trump’s evangelical advisory board and delivered the invocation at his inauguration. Orlando Magazine listed her as “50 Most Powerful 2017: Philanthropy & Community Voices.
Trump’s HHS ruling is, of course, a sticking point for most liberals and the announcement has created an excrement explosion from Dems and the LGBT community.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), a loud critic of President Trump and who is known for his openly gay views, says the administration is “implement[ing] cruel and discriminatory policies, and wasting taxpayer dollars in its obsessive pursuit.”
The ACLU will undoubtedly enter the fray. Their views are clear on their website:
“In 1971, the Supreme Court decided Lemon v. Kurtzman which created three tests for determining whether a particular government act or policy unconstitutionally promotes religion. The Lemon test says that in order to be constitutional, a policy must: 1. Have a non-religious purpose; 2. Not end up promoting or favoring any set of religious beliefs; and 3. Not overly involve the government with religion.”
Boy, what a crock. All signers of our U. S. Constitution were Protestant Christians except one, a Roman Catholic.
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