WASHINGTON – President Trump began the National Prayer Day on Thursday by hosting Evangelical and other religious leaders at the White House Rose Garden. The meeting which is symbolic in nature because of the promise of the Executive Order is also historic in that this is the first President to publicly proclaim their support for Religious freedoms and liberty.
Speaking from the Rose Garden the President said, “Freedom is not a gift from government. Freedom is a gift from God,” speaking in reference to the censorship and stifling of religious-speech by the government through the controversial Johnson Amendment.
President Trump on Thursday signed the Executive Order to restore religious freedoms and end the 60-year assault on religious liberty rooted in the Johnson Amendment proposed by Lyndon Johnson in 1954. He is the first President to publicly declare his support for religious liberty and freedoms. Credit: AP File Photo/Evan Vucci.
“We’re a nation of believers,” Trump said surrounded by clergy and Religious Leaders. “Faith is deeply embedded in the history of our country…No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the American government and the tenets of their faith.”
President Trump then signed the Executive Order on restoring religious liberty and protecting political free-speech of all religious groups. The Order calls for easing of IRS restrictions imposed by the Johnson Amendment which prohibits Churches from engaging in any form of political speech or activism “from the pulpit.” Doing so endangers the that Church of religious organization’s Tax-Exempt status.
President Trump celebrated National Day of Prayer by signing the Executive Order on Religious Liberty. Behind him are some clergy and religious leaders with Vice President Mike Pence (right). Credit: AP
“Today my administration is leading by example as we take historic steps to protect religious liberty in the United States of America,” said the President. “We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied or silenced anymore.”
He then reminded the nation of the Founding Fathers on free-speech, “It was Thomas Jefferson who said the God who gave us life gave us liberty” and then explained how the “Founding Fathers believed that Religious Liberty was so fundamental that they enshrined it in the very First Amendment of the Constitution.”
The controversial Johnson Amendment is a provision in the U.S. Federal Tax Code proposed by then Democrat Senator Lyndon Johnson in 1954. The Amendment authorizes IRS to target Churches for involvement in politics by revoking their Tax-Exempt status. For over 60 years, Churches have been systematically targeted and investigated for their political speeches or positions including opposing or directly supporting any political candidate because they were opposed to his views then.
President who is a strong advocate of religious liberty and freedoms says the government has no business policing speech from the pulpit. He believes there is an attack on religious speech and curtaining what Churches do or say on the pulpit should end.
President Trump celebrated National Day of Prayer by signing an Executive Order on Religious Liberty and Free-Speech at the White House Rose Garden on May 4 2017. Credit: AP File Photo/Evan Vucci
“Laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your pulpits,” said Trump, devoting most of his address to the restrictive measures of the Johnson Amendment.
“No one should be censoring sermons or targeting Pastors,” he said to thunderous applause from the small group of Religious Leaders gathered on the Rose Garden including Dr. Franklin Graham. “In America, we do not fear people speaking freely from the pulpit. We embrace it.”
With Dr. Martin Luther King’s niece standing behind him, President Trump spoke of the role of Black Churches in political discourse and how the country has a “rich tradition of social change beginning in our pulpits.”
“Perhaps there is no greater example than the historic role of the African-American church as the agent for social progress, spurring our nation to greater justice and equality,” he said. “We must never infringe on the noble tradition of change from the church, and progress from the pew.”
While not yet Law, the Directive is a giant step in the right direction in protecting the First Amendment rights of Christians and people of other religious-faiths. It vigorously promotes religious freedoms and eases Obamacare mandates on contraceptives by directing federal agencies to exempt religious and faith-based organizations from providing birth control to their employees due religious objections.
President Donald Trump invited Little Sister of the Poor before signing of the Executive Order on Religious Liberty during the National Day of Prayer Event in the White House Rose Garden on May 4, 2017. Credit: Olivier Douliery/ Abaca(Sipa via AP Images)
Commenting on the administrative removal of the Johnson Amendment by President Trump, Ralph Reed who is Chairman of Faith & Freedom Coalition said, the Executive Order “removes a sword of Damocles that has hung over the faith community for decades.”
In ending the disastrous Obamacare mandates that violate the religious faith of the Little Sisters of the Poor and other faith-based nonprofits, Reed said this “lifts a cloud of fear over people of faith and ensures they will no longer be subjected to litigation, harassment and persecution simply for expressing their religious beliefs.”
What this Order does not do is allow government or other entities to refuse service to the LGBT community as suggested by opponents and contrary to what LGBT groups and several Human Rights Advocates are saying.
President Trump’s position and strong support for religious liberties of all faiths and religions is a welcomed contrast from the Obama era which was seen as anti-Christian and pursuing an agenda for a secular state.
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