The Trump administration’s taxpayer-funded “Religious Freedom Task Force” is “one-sided” and uses religion as a “sword” to deny vulnerable people basic human rights. Those aren’t the words of atheists but of religious groups in the U.S.
We first wrote about this issue earlier this week, when we pointed out that a secular country like ours shouldn’t promote any particular religion’s agenda, especially if taxpayers are footing the bill. The new Task Force announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions breaks both of these simple rules and will allow religion to be used to discriminate against anyone they disagree with.
But some of the most vocal opposition to the Task Force, following the lead of secular and LGBTQ groups, is coming from other religious organizations.
Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, said she agreed with some but not all of Sessions’ announcement speech.
Tyler took issue, however, with “the oversimplification of unsettled legal questions involving the free exercise of religion” and “near total omission of any concern for government promotion of religion” in the Sessions speech.
… Tyler agreed with Sessions “that we find ourselves in a perilous moment,” adding, “but I fear that what is most in jeopardy is widespread support for religious liberty for all.”
By establishing a “one-sided” task force, Tyler said the Trump administration is “only exacerbating the problem.”
“In aligning the government closely with a narrow viewpoint on religious freedom — which fails to balance concern for protection of the rights of others with the right to exercise one’s religion — the Trump administration is sowing division where there should be unity on our first freedom,” Tyler said.
This particular group has always been on the side of church/state separation, but it still feels good to say “The Baptists got this right!”
This is a one-sided Task Force. The people who crafted it don’t seem to have given any thought whatsoever to the separation of church and state. There is near-unanimous agreement on both sides that the Task Force will mostly focus on helping Christians discriminate against non-believers and LGBTQ people, making those divisions even greater.
No wonder a group called Muslim Advocates was also concerned. They pointed out that the Task Force may ultimately punish religious minorities, especially given the administration’s track record on the treatment of Muslims.
Read the full story at The Friendly Atheist
