President Trump chose Thursday — National Religious Freedom Day — to announce a flurry of guidance from nine Executive Branch agencies that not only confirms Americans’ freedom to worship under the First Amendment but rolls back incursions on that freedom that occurred under previous administrations.
The guidance empowered students who want to pray at school by reaffirming their right to do so, including reading religious materials or praying during non-class periods, organizing prayer groups, and expressing their religious beliefs in their school assignments. It warned state governments not to discriminate against religious organizations and affirmed that the granting of federal funds by Executive Branch agencies likewise will not discriminate against them.
The president said:
From its opening pages, the story of America has been rooted in the truth that all men and women are endowed with the right to follow their conscience, worship freely, and live in accordance with their convictions….
In public schools around the country authorities are stopping students and teachers from praying, sharing their faith or following their religious beliefs. It is totally unacceptable.
Tragically, there’s a growing totalitarian impulse on the far left that seeks to punish, restrict and even prohibit religious expression….
While I’m president … we will not let anyone push God from the public square. We will uphold religious liberty for all.
His Education Department’s secretary, Betsy DeVos, expanded on the guidance: “Our actions today will protect the constitutional rights of students, teachers and faith-based institutions. [My] department’s efforts will level the playing field between religious and nonreligious organizations competing for federal grants, as well as protect First Amendment freedoms on campus and the religious liberty of faith-based institutions.”
Kelly Shackelford, president of the legal nonprofit First Liberty Institute, applauded the guidance: “The religious freedom of America’s public school students and teachers does not stop at the schoolhouse gate. Today’s guidelines affirm that promise.” Shackelford added: “We are also grateful to the President for his actions today protecting the rights of Americans by ending religious discrimination by state and federal agencies.”
Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James celebrated the annoucement: “Today’s announcement is a welcome response to a serious national problem. For too long Americans have faced restrictions on their ability to live according to their religious beliefs. Government policies have infringed on the freedom of students, social service providers and other religious organizations to act according to their beliefs in the public square.”
In the guidance on prayer and religious expression in public schools, the relationship between religion and government was explained:
[That] relationship … is governed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, which the Supreme Court has held both prevents the government from establishing religion and protects privately initiated religious expression and activities from government interference and discrimination….
The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the First Amendment requires public school officials to show neither favoritism nor hostility against religious expression such as prayer.… As the Court has explained in several cases, “there is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the Establishment Clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the Free Speech and Free Exercise Clauses protect.”
An Obama-era intrusion was rolled back. The rule regarding the equal treatment of faith-based educational organizations ensures that they are now treated equally with non-religious groups, “removing unequal, burdensome regulatory requirements imposed by the Obama administration,” according to the department’s press release.
More at: https://www.thenewamerican.com/cultu...igious-freedom
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