Newsletter - December 2021

Amendment 1   - The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof: or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As we read the Bill of Rights it is striking that freedom of religion is the very first freedom listed.  The United States is unusual in this regard since there are so many countries in the world where only one religion is allowed.  There are others where some religions are just tolerated.  Apparently, the Founders placed great importance on the ability of each person to follow their own religious beliefs or in fact lack of.  If you have been paying attention, you will have noticed that the right to religious freedom has been under constant attack throughout history.  That is because when a government wants total control, religious freedom gets in the way of that control. 

The current administration is working hard to change many facets of American life in order to maintain control over Americans.  It is good to remember that Donald Trump was very committed to maintaining the freedom of conscience for all Americans in so many aspects of daily life.  In keeping with that belief President Trump enacted many rules and regulations that were meant to maintain the religious freedom for all Americans.

A memo that was leaked from the Department of Health and Human Services revealed plans by the Biden administration to change our First Amendment rights and other religious liberty protections. 

In early November the Department of Health and Human Services rescinded President Trump’s rule protecting religious foster care and adoption agencies.  Mr. Biden wants to cut off federal funding to any agencies that do not conform to his LGBTQ agenda. 

The Health and Human Services memo describes plans to “sign delegation of authority on the Religious Freedom Restoration  Act (RFRA) and religious clause of the First Amendment” to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra has dismissed President Trump’s rule protecting religious foster care and adoption agencies  as “a blanket use of religious exemptions against any person or blank checks to allow discrimination against any persons, importantly including LGBTQ+ persons in taxpayer-funded programs.”

According to various sources, Becerra is also trying to wipe out the religious freedom of health-care providers.  That means that health-care providers would have to comply with abortion and gender-transition agendas. 

In a recent legal filing, Health and Human Services acknowledged the existence of a “health-care task force of activist groups coordinated by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights that includes Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Southern  Poverty Law Center, Center for American Progress and the Human Rights Campaign.  These are some of the major groups.

In their discussions with these groups HHS was discussing how to change the rule for Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act.  This section prohibits discrimination based on sex.  This change would dramatically alter how religious hospitals would operate.  There would be a mandate to perform transgender surgeries and abortions.  Doug Wilson, CEO of the Catholic Benefits Association stated that “the rule change would effectively remove all religious considerations from issues around life, family, marriage, the very nature of men and women.”

The memo from the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights states the following. “Religious exemptions have serious and harmful implications.  They were thought of as a way to preserve religious freedom and independence.  However, they often come as a societal cost that can impact other community members.  Impacts of a religious exemption cannot be siloed from other areas of society.”

This is very interesting and revealing.  In order to fulfill abortion rights and the LGBTQ agenda the religious freedom of other groups must be suppressed. The late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago noted that secularists, far from respecting the separation of church and state, sought to control the religious. In fact, one goal of many on the left is to secularize Catholic hospitals. 

Let us return to the Constitution. If people in office can start changing regulations because they do not conform to a particular belief of officialdom then the 1st Amendment does not matter.  There is no separation of church and state if government can make rules affecting the practice of a person’s religion.

What we are faced with today in the United States is a concerted attack on our basic freedoms and rights which are expressed so well in the Constitution.  Many people in our country wish to reorder the country so that certain statements in the Constitution become irrelevant and the country will be managed by the “woke” people. 

Unless we want the basic freedoms of our country annihilated each American must be prepared to fight at the local and state level.  Pay attention to what is going on in your community.  Pay attention to who is running for office.  Work for candidates who are committed to preserving our great country and its noble traditions.  Take back our schools so that we are educating our children with true history and an appreciation of the greatness of America. 

Freedom is not free. It must be fought for.