House Subcommittee Holds Hearing on State of Religious Liberty in the U.S.

Jun 11, 2014 | Blog |


Written by Don Byrd

Yesterday, a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the “State of Religious Liberty in the United States.” At the website of the hearing, you can read the prepared remarks of the panelists and watch video of the hearing. But you don’t really have time for that now do you? And even if you did, what use would I be?

So here are snapshot quotes from each of the 4 speakers to give you an idea of the hearing’s focal points.

Mat Staver -Dean, Liberty University School of Law

The threat to religious freedom has reached unprecedented levels. These threats are more significant and severe than at any time in recent history. My testimony will focus on two areas where this threat has reached a critical point. These involve conflicts between religious freedom and (1) the sanctity of human life, and (2) human sexuality and natural marriage.

Kim Colby -Senior Counsel, Christian Legal Society

A leading religious liberty scholar, Professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Virginia, recently warned: “For the first time in nearly 300 years, important forces in American society are questioning the free exercise of religion in principle–suggesting that free exercise of religion may be a bad idea, or at least, a right to be minimized.” Other respected scholars share the assessment that the future of religious liberty in America is endangered.

Rev. Barry Lynn – Executive Director, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State

The good news is that the United States is one of the most religiously diverse countries in the world and our constitution grants us some of the strongest religious liberty protections in the world. Nonetheless, we still face threats to religious liberty in our country every day.

The largest threats as I see them today can be placed into two broad categories: threats to religious minorities and non-­believers, and efforts to radically redefine religious liberty. Threats to the Christian majority are few, far between, and sometimes, frankly, untrue.

Mr. Gregory Baylor – Senior Counsel from the Alliance Defending Freedom

[T]he current Administration has all too often taken what can only be characterized as extreme positions designed to dramatically decrease religious freedom. My testimony will focus on three examples: (1) the promulgation and legal defense of the HHS contraceptive mandate; (2) the unsuccessful attempt to eliminate the Religion Clauses’ ministerial exception; and (3) the NLRB’s ongoing effort to intrude into the internal affairs of our nation’s religious colleges and universities.

So there you have it. Three votes for the Affordable Care Act’s contraception mandate and one vote for the threats to religious minorities and non-believers as being the biggest current threats to religious liberty today. Guess which one of the four had his own personal religious beliefs challenged by the Chairman of the committee?


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