Jeff Sessions announces new 'Religious Liberty Task Force' at Department of Justice

All of a sudden religious liberty is a bad thing, even though it is a human right.

How anyone can support the idiocy of this administration is beyond me. Realize, that things like this “Religious Liberty Task Force” exist a lot longer than the people who come up with them.

Which means that while you Christians can celebrate being able to legally discriminate against people for the moment, eventually it’ll be used against you too, and everyone else.

The Trump admin might not be coherent enough to implement this on a scale that overwhelmingly denies people their rights, but the administration that is will come along. Probably sooner than later. And it’ll be the fault of Trump and the people who blindly backed him for allowing this type of framework for discrimination to be built.

Because that’s what this really is. The first constructions of a new age authoritarian state.

lol

suck it science forum...

this is mind boggling and possibly needed

originally posted by: Words
All of a sudden religious liberty is a bad thing, even though it is a human right.

Yep, religious liberty to keep those homos out of your place of business because your religion says it's an abomination against God.

And Mormons still don't believe black people are fully human.

My personal religion deems that people who wear brown shoes are commiting an unpardonable sin and need to be sterilized to keep the gene pool clean and free from corruption!! We will wait for euthanasia of anyone over 55 for another thread; It's the way I interpret the Holy word.

Is that what you want?

Not thrilled with the idea, yet at the same time the courts just ruled that a 100 yr old memorial to dead soldiers of ww1 must be torn down.

After 100 yrs it's something more I think, but that humanist group doesn't care... Religious icon in public must go.

People might want to read what this is really about, instead of believing the spins.

Attorney General Sessions Delivers Remarks at the Department of Justice’s Religious Liberty Summit

Freedom of religious is indeed our “first freedom”—being the first listed right of our First Amendment.

This has been a core American principle from the beginning.

It is one of the reasons that this country was settled in the first place.

The promise of freedom of conscience brought the Pilgrims to Plymouth, the Catholics to Maryland, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, the Scot-Presbyterians to the middle colonies, and Roger Williams to Rhode Island.

Each one of these groups and others knew what it was like to be hated, persecuted, outnumbered, and discriminated against.

Each one knew what it was like to have a majority try to force them to deny their natural right to practice the faith they held dear.

Our Founders gave religious expression a double protection in the First Amendment. Not only do we possess freedom to exercise our beliefs but we also enjoy the freedom of speech.

Our Founders’ understanding of and commitment to religious freedom was truly brilliant as well as historic.
...
Of course, this is entirely consistent with another of my favorite Jefferson quotes that you will find at his memorial just across the mall from where we are today:

"For I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." This is what our Founders believed.

They clearly recognized that an individual’s relationship to God is a natural right and precedes the existence of the state, and is not subject to state control.

These concepts were placed into our Constitution and laws and formed a national consensus that has greatly militated against religious hostility and violence—and has helped us to this day to be one of the world’s most diverse religious people.

I am thankful to see the war on religion come to an end in this country.
Our Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion. Not freedom FROM religion. There is a growing hostility against the faithful in this country that MUST end.

But in recent years, the cultural climate in this country—and in the West more generally—has become less hospitable to people of faith. Many Americans have felt that their freedom to practice their faith has been under attack.

And it’s easy to see why. We’ve seen nuns ordered to buy contraceptives.

We’ve seen U.S. Senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma—even though the Constitution explicitly forbids a religious test for public office. We’ve all seen the ordeal faced so bravely by Jack Phillips.

Americans from a wide variety of backgrounds are concerned about what this changing cultural climate means for the future of religious liberty in this country.

The whole speech is inspiring.

This administration is animated by that same American view that has led us for 242 years: that every American has a right to believe, worship, and exercise their faith in the public square.

This approach has served this country well. We are perhaps the most religiously developed nation in the world and can take pride in respecting all people as they fully exercise their faiths.

a reply to: BlueAjah
the nuns weren't ordered to buy contraceptives..
maybe, they were required to provide insurance that included contraceptives....
so they went to court...
and the court decided that no, all they would have to do is provide the gov't a signed statement stating their belief and that would alert the gov't that they would have to provide and alternative method....
and they refused to do that...
where it's at now, I am not sure...
do you believe for one minute that if a business owned by jahova witnesses were to not include blood transfusions in the health insurance policies because of "religious beliefs" that they would have had their belief protected in like manner??
and pray tell... if a parent has the same believe as these nuns do, decides that they don't want to provide insurance to their daughter that includes birth control but their employer provides it, what is their options?

and we just won't go into hobby lobby's case, where they just can't provide birth control for their employees while they order a ton of crap from chinese companies that play a vital role in enforces china's forced abortion one child policy!!

a reply to: BlueAjah

Inspiring? What a generic, lip service speech.

Why, after 242 years do we need a new government agency to enforce religious liberty? A term so vague it can be applied by anyone in any way imaginable.

Our Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion. Not freedom FROM religion. There is a growing hostility against the faithful in this country that MUST end.

What an ironic statement. I guess if the constitution doesn’t guarantee freedom from religion it doesn’t guarantee you’ll be free from hostility to yours, huh?

All is fine and dandy, until it is another faith, that is going to get denied, and then sue and win in court and the policies will have to change.

I say praise God that we are on the righteous path to make Christianity the true faith in America.

Brother Session's ....thank you for the Dept. of Justice task force. Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war....

a reply to: olaru12

It is apparent that you totally miss the point of Religious Freedom.

a reply to: underwerks

We need this because there is a growing hostility towards religion in this country.
There is a push to make America free FROM religion instead of freedom OF religion.
That needs to end.

There are many other examples in the speech of this hostility against religion and why we need to stop it.

originally posted by: Metallicus
I can see why it would freak you out that people have their rights protected. I realize these folks aren’t gay or some sort of transgendered, but believe it or not every American deserves to have their personal liberty preserved.

Should Pentecostals be able to allow their children to handle Rattle Snakes? Should Mormons be allowed to marry their 12 year old daughters off to older men who already have a few wives? Should Christian Scientists be allowed to deny their children life saving medical care?

Now that Sessions Religious Freedom task force is on the job, can New Agers start harvesting Magic Mushroom and Peyote for sacrificial consumption? Can Tarot Card Readers start selling magic spells on EBay again?

originally posted by: BlueAjah
a reply to: olaru12

It is apparent that you totally miss the point of Religious Freedom.

Isn't that where you can choose any religion you'd like including abstaining from all of them?

originally posted by: BlueAjah
a reply to: olaru12

It is apparent that you totally miss the point of Religious Freedom.

Honestly, I think it is you that misses the point.

When you said that we do not have a freedom from religion, you show you do not understand our rights.

Not only do we have the right to believe what we want to believe (freedom OF religion), we also have the right to not have to pay the costs of anyone else's religious beliefs (freedom FROM religion).

For example, if your religion states that only men and women can marry, you cannot force others to adhere to that belief. We have a freedom FROM religion, as much as a freedom OF it.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Yes, it is.

But it does not mean that those who choose to abstain can try to push their country to force everyone to abstain.
It does not mean that government can hold a person's faith against them when running for political office, or question them on their faith during court or Congressional hearings.
Government can not require people to have no religion, or else face persecution.

originally posted by: BlueAjah
There is a push to make America free FROM religion instead of freedom OF religion.

Let's just say this were true, no one can stop you from believing in Allah or attending your local mosque.

a reply to: Sookiechacha

can New Agers start harvesting Magic Mushroom and Peyote for sacrificial consumption

It's God's plant isn't it he told me to do it in a dream

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

Of course Muslims are included in religion freedom.

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: BlueAjah
There is a push to make America free FROM religion instead of freedom OF religion.

Let's just say this were true, no one can stop you from believing in Allah or attending your local mosque.

Correct. Not only can no one stop us from believing what we want to believe, no one can force us to believe something we do not want to either.

We have both the freedom of religion and the freedom from it.