Many Americans celebrate President Trump as the most significant champion for religious freedom in a lifetime. His actions gave Christians a sense of security, but now secularists, humanists, and others feel empowered to begin unraveling Trump-era protections.
“It all goes back to the May 2017 executive order by President Trump,” Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, tells CBN News.
That day in the Rose Garden, the president used his executive pen to ensure Christians and other people of faith don’t have to check their beliefs when entering the halls of government and prevented the federal government from going after pastors who speak about political issues from a moral perspective.
“We will not allow people of faith to be targeted, bullied, or silenced anymore,” the President said that day.
Now that order tops a long list of Trump administration actions that Secular Democrats of America want President-elect Joe Biden to erase.
Represented by the Congressional Freethought Caucus, the group paints Christians as extremists and urges the incoming administration to marginalize people of faith – relegating them to the back pew of the public square.
Part of their to-do list?
- Ensure Humanist and Nontheist chaplains serve in each branch of the military.
- Refrain from using the national motto “In God We Trust.”
- And reframe patriotism by avoiding phrases like “God and country.”
These attempts to marginalize believers come as the media and even elected officials increasingly push the narrative that people of faith are unfit.
“Unfortunately we see that senators are increasingly treating religious beliefs with great suspicion and even hostility,” Kao said.