Part 3: Religious Freedoms and Rights of Conscience

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Originally published September 21, 2024

Looking at the Presidential candidates in light of biblical teachings

By Sandy Szwarc, BSN, RN, retired emeritus
© Szwarc 2024

“Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil,
but living as servants of God.” – 1 Peter 2:16

“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good,
for those who are called according to his purpose.” – Romans 8:28

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean
from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” – Hebrews 10:22

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm
and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” − Galatians 5:1

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom.” – 2 Corinthians 3:17

My journey into election discernment started with the crucial issue for Christians: freedom of religion. It didn’t take many examples to realize that Ms. Harris’ removal of protections for religious beliefs from her commitments to Americans appeared quite intentional.

As Senator, Ms. Harris had sponsored the Do No Harm Act in 2019, to decimate the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) law that protects religious consciousness clauses for churches, doctors and Christians. Her “tendentious reading” of the First Amendment free exercise of religion means nothing more than you are free to pray in your home and the church door isn’t locked, explained moral theologian and attorney, Kenneth Craycraft. Ms. Harris believes the government can force you to do things that go against your religious beliefs and put severe restrictions on religious exercise.

The Biden-Harris administration rewrote, redefined and essentially removed religious freedom protections that had become national and foreign policy under President Trump when he had established the International Religious Freedom Foreign Policy in 2020.

This Trump policy reaffirmed religious freedom as America’s first freedom and a moral and national security imperative – as in our U.S. Constitution. It specifically condemned discrimination on the basis of religious identity or belief, and applied that protection to all agencies, departments and governmental policies. It directed the U.S. government to adopt the “countries of particular concern” (CPC), countries on the Special Watch List, and any other countries that have engaged in or tolerated violations of religious freedoms, as identified in the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) report, and to develop comprehensive action plans and support international religious freedom efforts.

The USCIRF is an independent federal agency that researches religious freedom conditions around the world and has made policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State and Congress for more than a quarter century. The USCIRF reported that after taking office in January 2021, the Biden-Harris administration had removed religious freedom as a foreign policy priority. Instead, they’d merged it with human rights, using the UN Human Rights Council as an observer.

The UN Human Rights Council has a long sordid history. The Council of Foreign Relations reviewed its history and reported that, like the Commission on Human Rights that came before its reorganization, it has earned a failing grade from a broad range of groups, including human rights advocates, international legal experts and democracy activists. Its anti-Israel stance is another chief criticism. President Trump had made the decision to quit the UN Human Rights Council in 2008 and the Biden-Harris administration rejoined it in 2o21.

Speaking for the Biden-Harris White house in a March 2021 press statement, Secretary Antony Blinken repudiated the Trump administration’s commitment to religious freedom (and the First Amendment) as “unbalanced views” saying that other human rights were just as important. The new administration adopted “universal rights” instead and mandated equal protections for people no matter “whom they love or any other characteristic.” His speech focused on Islamophobia and violence against Muslims, discrimination against LGBTQ persons and racial and ethnic minorities; and cyberattacks, harassing dissidence or spreading “disinformation.”

Finally, the Biden-Harris administration added access to “reproductive health care” (abortion) as a fundamental right. It also resumed support for the eugenics population-control program, UN Population Fund, under the guise of supporting “women’s health and equity.” [See The Forgotten Value of Life.]

Nowhere in the administration’s announcement was there a single mention of churches, Christianity or any religion.

After taking office, Ms. Harris and Mr. Biden failed to select an ambassador or fill key positions dedicated to religious freedom at the State Department and National Security Council, prompting the USCIRF to call out the Administration.

The State Dept. says that under Biden-Harris, U.S. policies on human rights now follow the UN’s Universal Declarations of Human Rights and other international agreements, and defends against racial and gender justice and LBGTQ rights. U.S. policy under Biden-Harris also renewed its commitments to invest in world democracies and online anti-discrimination protections. Under Freedom of Religion, the State Dept. linked to its International Religious Freedom Report which carefully redirected freedom of religion to legal limitations against intolerance or discrimination that constitute and affront to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations. Under the IRFR report, freedom of religion should “contribute to the attainment of the goals of world peace, social justice and friendship among peoples and the elimination of ideologies or practices of colonialism and racial discrimination.” The UN’s definition of “colonialism” isn’t geographic, but social and ideological. It’s directed against free nations, notably the U.S., and encompasses gender and economic equity, racism, greenhouse gas emissions and use of fossil fuel.

The week before Secretary Antony Blinken was schedule to meet Nigerian heads of state to sign a $2.17 billion development agreement (in addition to the $5.5 billion given the African nation in 2019), according to the State Department, the Biden-Harris White House removed Nigeria from the list of countries identified by the USCIRF as a CPC. The Commission’s February 2021 Fact Sheet on Nigeria had emphasized the seriousness of the religious persecution in the very first sentences:

“Violent Islamist groups based in northern Nigeria remain some of the deadliest and most formidable jihadist groups operating in the world today. Estimates suggest that conflict with these groups has killed more than 37,500 people since 2011.”

An analysis by Grace Melton, Heritage Foundation’s senior associate for social issues at the UN, reported that the new policies under the guise of human rights will threaten religious freedom at home and abroad and that Ms. Harris and Biden’s policies illustrate prejudice against faith and tradition. And, in fact, their policies did result in escalating violations of religious freedoms across the U.S. and world.

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The USCIRF report found violent Islamist groups have made a resurgence in recent years with organized violence across the region. The USCIRF issued a statement disappointed that the State Dept. hadn’t adopted its recommendations in designating countries that are the worse violators of religious freedom. It was especially displeased with the State Dept.’s removal of Nigeria from its CPC designation. The latest State Dept. Religious Freedom Designations still does not include Nigeria.

The annual USCIRF reports have continued to list China among the top of their list of CPC countries − which currently includes Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudia Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, India, Nigeria and Vietnam − for the worst violations of religious freedom in the world.

Its 2019 report, which had led President Trump to establish the International Religious Freedom Foreign Policy, for example, stated religious freedom conditions in China had continued to deteriorate, noting the Communist government had created a high-tech surveillance state, utilizing facial recognition and artificial intelligence to monitor religious minorities. They reported:

an estimated 900,000 to 1.8 million Muslims have been detained in more than 1300 concentration camps in Xinjiang,
Chinese authorities had raided or closed down hundreds of Christian churches, arresting congregations and imprisoning pastors,
Bishops were harassed and detained for refusing to join the state-affiliated church association; local governments were paying informants for information on underground churches,
Buddhist monks and nuns were imprisoned and tortured, and
thousands of Buddhist residents had their homes demolished.

The latest 2024 USCIRF report found religious freedom conditions in China have deteriorated even further, writing:

“The [Communist Chinese] government intensified the implementation of its multifaceted “sinicization of religion” policy, demanding that all major religious groups obey the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its ideology and policies. Sinicization requires groups to follow the CCP’s Marxist interpretation of religion, including by altering religious scriptures and doctrines to conform to that interpretation. Authorities demolished and forcibly modified Christian churches and Muslim mosques forced assimilation of local populations that threatened their religious and cultural identities…implemented its new Measures for the Management of Religious Activity Venues, further restricting religious freedom.”

The report went on to document unimaginable conditions and abuses including imprisonment, forced labor, arrests, forcibly taking children from their parents, torture, and countless deaths. This administration’s backing away from advocacy for religious freedom around the world has been called out by policy and human rights advocates as the massacres, humanitarian crises and the targeting of Christians around the world continue to escalate.

Attacks against churches here in the U.S. have increased 800% since 2018, according to a disturbing Family Research Council report issued in February. From 2018-2023, there were over 700 vandalism attacks, 135 arson-related attacks, 32 bomb threats, 22 gun-related incidents, and a myriad of other attacks, assaults, and threats — all against churches. Last year saw the most hostility against churches than any of the previous five years.

Since that FRC report, Ms. Harris has made no public statement in response. Violence has continued to escalate. Even pastors, their families and homes have been targeted by assassination attempts over recent weeks and months, pastors shot in the head or their homes riddled with bullets.

The Committee for Religious Liberty reported that there have been at least 346 incidences of arson, vandalism and other destruction of Catholic Churches in the U.S. since May 2020.

Yet last year, she and Biden ignored their own U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which had specifically warned the Administration of a “heightened threat environment” resulting from the divisive climate of “racial and ethnic minorities,” LGBTQIA events and the caustic nature of government facilities and personnel. According to the reports on record, the DHS said, this Administration has fostered the violence against churches, demonizing Christians and harsh treatment of pro-life advocates, while recommending pro-abortion activists who identify as transgender get no jail time for violent attacks on churches and church employees.

A Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing on Faith under Fire: An Examination of Global Religious Persecution on October 25, 2023, found the Biden-Harris administration has been largely silent on religious persecution around the world and a number of their policies had emboldened hostile anti-religion groups. They found religious persecution is actually a major and growing problem, with about 360 million Christians globally enduring high levels of persecution and discrimination for their beliefs. The most vulnerable have been placed in the worst conditions, yet, they found, the administration has been funding and aiding the very regimes that are practicing some of the most draconian violence against people because of their religious beliefs.

The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of

the Federal Government has been investigating the FBI after it had issued a memo categorizing traditional Catholics as “radical domestic terrorists” based on their religious beliefs, under the guise of tackling the threat of domestic terrorism. The FBI memo authorized the surveillance of faithful Catholics, choir directors, priests and churches and subjected them to actionable FBI investigations, intimidation and searches.

There are countless examples of the weaponization of the Department of Justice and Federal agencies against pro-life advocates under the Biden-Harris administration. Armed Federal swat teams have burst into homes to arrest pro-life pastors who’d prayed on the sidewalk outside an abortion clinic, such as Mark Houck, who was removed from his home in chains and threatened with eleven years in prison and $350,000 in fines before finally being acquitted of all charges the following year after a five day trial.

As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said at the2022 Notre Dame Religious Liberty Summit, religious liberty protects domestic tranquility and has often fueled social reform. “Religious liberty is under attack in many places because it is dangerous to those who want to hold complete power,” he said. “If religious liberty is protected, religious leaders and other men and women of faith will be able to speak out on social issues,” he said. “People with deep religious convictions may be less likely to succumb to dominating ideologies or trends, and more likely to act in accordance with what they see as true and right. Civil society can count on them as engines of reform.”

Mr. Trump had consistently shown himself to be a strong supporter of religious freedom. “America is a nation of believers, and together we are strengthened by the power of prayer,” he stated.

While in office, President Trump signed an executive order in support of faith-based and community programs, ensure religious liberty protections under the law. In 2017, he signed his executive order “Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty” and also created a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division at HHS to protect rights of conscience and moral convictions in healthcare services. The rights of healthcare workers to not be required to do things that violate their consciences, such as euthanize an elderly or disabled patient or perform an abortion, is a fundamental aspect of the ethical practice of medicine. As acting HHS Secretary Hargan said, “President Trump promised the American people that his administration would vigorously uphold the rights of conscience and religious freedom. That promise is being kept today. The Founding Fathers knew that a nation that respects conscience rights is more diverse and more free, and OCR’s new division will help make that vision a reality.”

President Trump repeatedly marked the importance of prayer at public events, and has continued to throughout this campaign. He was the first President to address the March for Life rally. He reversed the Obama administration policy to allow churches to receive crucial disaster aid in times of crisis. And, he supported religious freedom in the courts, backing the rights of a baker to follow his religious convictions.

Trump supported Louisiana’s new law that the Ten Commandments be hung in every public school classroom.

In response to the 2019 USCIRF recommendations, President Trump had not only established the International Religious Freedom Foreign Policy, he also enacted key U.S. Policy The State Department added a special section on Xinjiang and convened the second Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom of world and religious leaders, where President Trump met with victims from China. That October, he imposed restrictions on Chinese implicated in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims and violent abuses that had been deemed “crimes against humanity.” Throughout 2019, under President Trump U.S. governmental agencies provided funding to organizations pr0moting religious freedom in China.

In contrast to Mr. Trump, I wasn’t able to find an example of Ms. Harris promoting freedom of religion and speech while in office. Her Bible citations were typically associated with progressive ideologies and social justice, and at odds with conservative traditional beliefs, noted Premier Christianity.

Religious freedom really is America’s first freedom. It’s the moral and fundamental imperative of our U.S. Constitution. On this issue, the words and deeds of the candidates reveal very different worldviews. Only one candidate has exhibited the truth.

In Part Four, the next important Christian issue to test, as the bible tells us to do, examines the candidates’ adherence to Biblical teachings concerning LGBTQ+ rights.