In response to President Trump’s executive order, calling on the Department of Justice to issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in federal law, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed all federal agencies to ensure the religious beliefs of people, businesses, churches and other organisations are accommodated and not burdened by federal government. The guidance comes as the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would give religious exemptions, from an Obamacare birth control mandate to religious organisations and companies,
that felt the mandate violated their religious beliefs on birth control and abortion-inducing drugs.
“The Free Exercise Clause protects not just the right to believe or the right to worship; it protects the right to perform, or abstain from performing, certain physical acts in accordance with one’s beliefs”, Sessions wrote. Additionally, the guidance instructs agencies not to ‘second-guess the reasonableness of a religious belief’. “Religious adherents will often be required to draw lines in the application of their religious beliefs, and government is not competent to assess the reasonableness of such lines drawn,” reads the guidance, adding that government may not force employers to be complicit in violating an organisation’s religious precepts.
Family Research Council President, Tony Perkins, said in a statement, “Under the Obama administration agencies lost the understanding that religious freedoms extend to the public square, not just one’s place of worship,” Perkins said. “President Trump and the Department of Justice are putting federal government agencies on notice: you will not only respect the freedom of every American to believe but live according to those beliefs. This is a freedom that has been a fundamental part of our society since the beginning of our nation.”
Source: Christian Post
Bible Study: 2 Kings 23:21-25
DECEMBER PRAISE God the US administration is tackling this and allowing Christians to live according to their consciences.
PRAY it will be effectively implemented.
