Trump bats .500 on faith EOs
Task force will have bigger impact than faith office
President Donald Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast at the time he issued two Executive Orders on faith issues. The White House/YouTube
For four years, the Biden administration dished up consistent moments where the perception of going after people of faith became reality, especially for Catholics, Protestants, and Jews.
Now that we have a new president, Americans are witnessing an equal and opposite reaction to faith issues. That’s what compelled President Donald Trump to draft two executive orders focused on faith: establishing the White House Faith Office, led by Paula White-Cain; and establishing an anti-Christian bias task force to be led by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The faith office may have value over time. However, the details of the Feb. 7 Executive Order (EO) reveals symbolism over substance. It restructures the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives of former President George W. Bush, which put religious groups on equal footing with community groups to tap federal grants.
Taxpayer money comes with strings. Leaders of Christian organizations must ask: “At what point do we violate our mission and principles by taking taxpayer dollars?”
For example, if Samaritan’s Purse taps some disaster relief money for a disaster, they are remaining consistent to their mission and principles. However, if another Christian organization is required to do family planning in Africa, do those programs violate their Christian values or mission?
Some Christian organizations have engaged in the latter scenario. This is why a faith office EO looks good on paper, but in practicality, it can be more show than substance when it leads to compromised ministries..
Additionally, the faith office will identify experts outside the federal government to advise domestic policy. These leaders will be identified based on their expertise on, including:
Protecting women and children;
Strengthening marriage and family;
Lifting up individuals through work and self-sufficiency;
Defending religious liberty;
Combating anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and additional forms of anti-religious bias;
Promoting foster care and adoption programs in partnership with faith-based entities;
Providing wholesome and effective education;
Preventing and reducing crime and facilitating prisoner reentry;
Promoting recovery from substance use disorder; and
Fostering flourishing minds.
That order came one day after Trump signed another EO establishing an anti-Christian bias task force led by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Pam Bondi’s Senate confirmation hearing for the position of Attorney General was in January. J. Scott Applewhite/AP via NBCNews.com
Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith & Freedom Coalition responded by saying, “In the aftermath of the Biden Justice Department targeting parents attending school board meetings for possible prosecution and the FBI targeting faithful Catholics as a possible domestic threat, it has never been more important to eradicate all forms of targeting, bias, and discrimination based on faith at the federal level.”
This kind of intimidation based on wrong thinking is unAmerican.
The drama started at 6:45 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2022 in East Greenville, Pa., about 1 hour north of Philadelphia. About 20 FBI agents descended on Mark Houck’s home, and he was arrested in front of his wife and seven children. It stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia abortion clinic months before that. Houck was acquitted in February 2023.
That did not stop the Biden administration from attempting to use the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances, or FACE Act, against believers who sang or prayed at abortion clinics. The FACE Act prohibits “violent, threatening, damaging, and obstructive conduct intended to injure, intimidate, or interfere with the right to seek, obtain, or provide reproductive health services.”
The Biden Justice Department prosecuted and imprisoned nearly two dozen pro-life activists before Trump pardoned them in late January.
In June 2022, the Dobbs decision overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling generated intense pressure on crisis pregnancy centers and churches. After more than 100 attacks of violence, theft, and arson, the U.S. House of Representatives pushed the Biden Justice Department to enforce the law, even as attacks continued. The DOJ prosecuted two cases.
Then the FBI’s Richmond field office generated a memorandum stating that Catholics doing the Latin Mass were threats for domestic terrorism.
Other incidents included:
Biden’s Department of Education sought to repeal religious-liberty protections for faith-based organizations on college campuses.
Biden’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sought to force Christians to affirm transgender ideology against their faith.
Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services sought to drive Christians who do not conform to certain beliefs on sexual orientation and gender identity out of the foster-care system.
Biden declared March 31, 2024 — Easter Sunday — as “Transgender Day of Visibility.”
Also, the Biden administration failed to pressure colleges nationwide that had anti-semitism and violence against Jews on their campuses following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.
Every American should demand answers for this kind of anti-religious behavior.
Persecution in America isn’t the same as it is overseas, although, sadly, it is getting a bit too familiar.
In January, Global Christian Relief, an organization focused on Christian persecution worldwide, produced its first annual Red List. It concentrated on nations where Christians are killed, buildings are attacked, or people are arrested, abducted or assaulted, or displaced. In America, Christians have been arrested over speech and buildings have been attacked. In other nations, persecution comes because Christians exist.
Americans must be reacquainted with the timeless truth of religious freedom: What it looks like; why it’s important; and why this freedom is a foundation to American ideals.
That is why the most worthwhile of the two executive orders is the one Bondi will oversee.
