Thread: Trump expected to sign executive order on religious liberty on Thursday

Trump expected to sign executive order on religious liberty on Thursday
Published May 02, 2017
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...-thursday.html

President Trump is expected to sign an executive order on religious liberty this Thursday--- which is the National Day of Prayer, senior White House sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News....



...The new draft of the executive order is being tightly held, Politico reported. A person identified as an "influential conservative" by Politico who saw the text said it hasn't been dialed back much since the leak. "The language is very, very strong," the source told Politico.

Progressive critics have argued the executive order would allow discrimination against the LGBT community at the federal level.

Vice President Pence has been a proponent of the plan, and his office has been reportedly pushing for it for months.

While governor of Indiana, Pence signed a similar state law on religious liberty that stirred up controversy...

Trump Expected to Sign Religious Liberty Executive Order Thursday
By THE STREAM Published on May 2, 2017
https://stream.org/trump-expected-to...rder-thursday/



...What Might Be in It

What does it say? One of Politico‘s sources says it differs little from the leaked version published in February. “The language is very, very strong,” says the source.

That version upset liberals, who called it “government-licensed discrimination,” says Politico. The LGBT lobby quickly protested. The order protected anyone who acted on the belief that only a man and a woman can be married. It also protected the beliefs that male and female are biological facts.

The abortion lobby also reacted. The executive order’s idea of religious freedom included the belief that human life must be protected from conception on.

An organization that acted on these beliefs would not lose its tax exempt status. Even businesses could act on such beliefs without loss.

Some inside the White House wanted to shelve the order. The White House publicly distanced itself from the draft. Religious conservatives wondered if it would ever appear.

Pence and the ACLU

However, Vice President Mike Pence has been urging Trump to act. He’s been crafting the final wording.

Predictably, the ACLU threatens to sue....

Originally Posted by GodismyJudge

Trump Expected to Sign Religious Liberty Executive Order Thursday
By THE STREAM Published on May 2, 2017
https://stream.org/trump-expected-to...rder-thursday/



...What Might Be in It

What does it say? One of Politico‘s sources says it differs little from the leaked version published in February. “The language is very, very strong,” says the source.

That version upset liberals, who called it “government-licensed discrimination,” says Politico. The LGBT lobby quickly protested. The order protected anyone who acted on the belief that only a man and a woman can be married. It also protected the beliefs that male and female are biological facts.

The abortion lobby also reacted. The executive order’s idea of religious freedom included the belief that human life must be protected from conception on.

An organization that acted on these beliefs would not lose its tax exempt status. Even businesses could act on such beliefs without loss.

Some inside the White House wanted to shelve the order. The White House publicly distanced itself from the draft. Religious conservatives wondered if it would ever appear.

Pence and the ACLU

However, Vice President Mike Pence has been urging Trump to act. He’s been crafting the final wording.

Predictably, the ACLU threatens to sue....

What the LGBT and Abortion industry claims is "discrimination" is nothing more than their attempt to shut down freedom of religion and free speech and a right for people and businesses to follow their conscience. These two elements of satanic confusion want to force their views and use government tyranny to force compliance. While most pastors were willing to go to jail before they submitted to this socialistic tyranny and many Christian businesses preferred to lose their business before betraying Christ and conscience, at least now many of us don't feel like we have to brace ourselves for the gestapo to come to arrest, torture and imprison us.

Trump to Sign Executive Order on Religious Freedom
Executive Order on Free Speech and Religious Freedom will be signed during tomorrow's National Day of Prayer
By FRED LUCAS Published on May 3, 2017
https://stream.org/trump-sign-execut...gious-freedom/


...What the Order Would Do

According to an Anderson commentary in The Daily Signal, if the executive order Thursday follows the leaked version from February, it would:

• Require all federal departments and agencies to respect statutes and Supreme Court decisions that make clear the free exercise of religion applies to all people, of all faiths, in all places, and at all times—and that it is not merely the freedom to worship.

• That religious organizations include all organizations operated by religious principles, not just houses of worship or charities.

• Instructs agencies, "to the greatest extent practicable and permitted by law," to reasonably accommodate the religion of federal employees, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

• Instructs the secretaries of health and human services, labor, and treasury to finally grant relief to the Little Sisters of the Poor and others not exempted from Obamacare mandates on contraception and abortion-inducing drugs.

• Ensure that consumers buying health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges have the option to buy plans that don't cover abortion or subsidize plans that do.

• Prohibits the federal government from discriminating against child welfare providers, such as foster care and adoption services, based on the organization's religious beliefs.

• Adopts the Russell Amendment, instructing agencies to allow religious organizations to hire in accordance with their faith principles.

• Effectively rolls back the Johnson Amendment by instructing the Treasury Department to ensure that it doesn't revoke nonprofit tax status because a religious group speaks on politics.

• Instructs agencies to refuse to recognize any decision by a federally recognized accrediting body that revokes or denies accreditation to an organization because of religious beliefs.

• Instructs agencies not to take adverse action against federal employees, contractors, or grantees who express their belief on marriage outside of their employment, contract or grant; and that agencies should reasonably accommodate such beliefs inside of employment, contract, or grant.

The order Trump is signing Thursday will reportedly be scaled back, but it's unclear how much.


A Message of Freedom

The order will send a message that Trump is willing to use the bully pulpit of his office to promote religious freedom, said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, a religious liberty legal group.

"Candidate Trump promised to be a champion of religious freedom, and this executive order has been long anticipated," Staver told The Daily Signal in a phone interview.

Staver said he doesn't anticipate the action will be limited to the Johnson Amendment.

Liberal groups Wednesday strongly criticized the plans for an executive order, before seeing it, though referring to the contents of the leaked order from February.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment Wednesday, saying, "we don't get ahead of executive orders until they are announced."...