Arkansas ranks No. 1 in religious liberty; Sanders warns 'lack of community' poses major threat

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently spoke to The Christian Post about the importance of religious liberty. | MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose state was ranked first in the nation for religious freedom this year, said that increasing alienation and loss of community among Americans pose grave threats to religious liberty in the United States.

Sanders’ office announced Tuesday that Arkansas scored this year’s top spot for religious liberty in the First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy’s Religious Liberty in the States index, which evaluated 50 legal protections across 20 safeguards states can adopt to uphold religious freedom.

Earning a score of 89.2%, Arkansas joined Tennessee this year as the only two states to receive the index’s first-ever “excellent” rating.

During a Tuesday phone interview with The Christian Post, Sanders attributed Arkansas’ recent distinction to multiple legislative accomplishments, which she described as a “collective” agenda to promote religious liberty.

She highlighted last year’s enactment of Act 677, which prohibits state and local governments from penalizing anyone for operating according to their sincerely held beliefs about biological sex and marriage. She also pinpointed the Conscience Protection Act she signed in 2023, which expanded the protections of Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act by prohibiting the state government from discriminating against religious organizations because of their religious identity.

Sanders, who has served as governor of Arkansas since 2023, expressed pride that her state has been distinguished for “something that is very foundational to our country.”

“What makes America so special and unique is that we are the greatest country because we’re the freest country, and our first and most fundamental right to freedom is our religious freedom and religious liberty,” she said.

Sarah Sanders tells Christian Broadcasting Network: God wanted Trump to be president

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told Christian Broadcasting Network that she believes God "wanted Donald Trump to become president." (CBN News) 

By Michelle Boorstein 

 

Michelle Boorstein

Religion reporter

January 30 at 6:28 PM

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told a Christian television station Wednesday that God “wanted Donald Trump to become president” so he could support “a lot of the things that people of faith really care about.”

The early, abbreviated transcript provided by the conservative evangelical station CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, didn’t include specifics from Sanders. However, many in a devoted segment of Trump’s base have said they consider any drawbacks of his presidency worth it, considering the president regularly speaks about their priorities and picked two Supreme Court justices believed to oppose abortion. On Monday, Trump lauded proposed state-level legislation meant to bring more teaching of the Bible in public schools.

[Trump just tweeted support for Bible courses, but it's already legal to teach about the Bible in public schools]


“Does it kind of blow your mind that someone like Donald Trump, who is sitting in the Oval Office, I know you can list the accomplishments, but at the same time just from a spiritual perspective there are a lot of Christians who believe that for such a time as this --” said David Brody of CBN, trailing off, according to the transcript.

Sanders replied: “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times, and I think that he wanted Donald Trump to become president and that’s why he’s there. And I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of the things that people of faith really care about.”

The interview, which was to air later Wednesday, was on CBN’s show “Faith Nation.”

Much of CBN’s audience is composed of white evangelicals, Trump’s most fervent supporters. In a new Washington Post-ABC poll, Republicans and white evangelical Protestants were the only segments of the U.S. population in which a majority said they would “definitely” support the president in 2020. Fifty-six percent of all Americans said they would definitely not support Trump if he were the GOP nominee again, the poll found.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes the Bible

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes the Bible after Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she should leave climate change up to God

Eliza Relman 

Jan. 24, 2019, 1:04 PM

 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. ANDREW KELLY/Reuters 

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit back at the White House on Wednesday after the press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, dismissed her warning about the dire effects of climate change.
• Sanders argued that the fate of the planet should be left in "the hands of something and someone much more powerful than any of us." 
• Ocasio-Cortez quoted the Bible in her retort, adding, "You shouldn't need a Bible to tell you to protect our planet, but it does anyway."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quoted the Bible on Wednesday after the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, suggested the US government should leave environmental protection up to God. 

Sanders, a devout evangelical Christian, added that the Trump administration wouldn't be taking any pointers on policy from "the freshman congresswoman."

"I don't think we're going to listen to her on much of anything, particularly not on matters that we're going to leave in to the hands of a much, much higher authority," Sanders said on Sean Hannity's Fox News program on Tuesday night. She argued that the country should leave the fate of the planet in "the hands of something and someone much more powerful than any of us," presumably referring to God.

Ocasio-Cortez has been outspoken about the need to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change and is pushing an ambitious policy proposal called the Green New Deal to decarbonize the US economy and create jobs.


Read more: THE TRUTH ABOUT ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ: The inside story of how, in just one year, Sandy the bartender became a lawmaker who triggers both parties

The 29-year-old New York Democrat, who was raised Catholic, retweeted a story about Sanders' remarks and cited the Bible in her counterargument.

"'Genesis 1: God looked on the world & called it good not once, not twice, but seven times. Genesis 2: God commands all people to "serve and protect" creation. Leviticus: God mandates that not only the people, but the land that sustains them, shall be respected,'" Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

She went on: "You shouldn't need a Bible to tell you to protect our planet, but it does anyway."

A recent survey from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication found that 73% of Americans said they understood that global warming is occurring — an increase of 10 percentage points from three years ago. And 72% of those polled said climate change was important to them.

SEE ALSO: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was the only Democrat to vote 'no' on a bill to reopen the government because it would fund ICE

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