Excellent news! Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced last Friday federal guidance on a presidential executive order issued in May to protect religious liberty in America. (See memorandum here.)
AG Session's interpretation of President Trump's executive order provides immediate relief for faith-based groups who have been forced to choose between abandoning deeply held religious beliefs or risking a federal fine.
The executive branch under the Obama administration had issued unconstitutional orders violating the religious liberty and freedom of religious expression of Christians. For example, on January 16, 2016, OneNewNow.com reported that President Obama,
instructed his administration to rewrite executive regulations nine separate times to ensure these nuns (the Little Sisters of the Poor) be forced to either violate their conscience by helping distribute abortifacients, or be fined $70 million a year and out of existence. Their beliefs, their ministry, their cause, and even the incredible work that they do was secondary to President Barack Obama’s devotion to funding and expanding the destruction of infants with tax dollars.
The new federal guidelines will also protect business owners like the Vander Boon family who own West Michigan Beef Company. The company was threatened by the Obama administration's U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA told the Vander Boons it would not send meat inspectors to their business as long as they offered literature in their break room supporting biblical marriage as only between a man and a woman.
During the Obama administration, AFA resisted the loss of First Amendment rights to religious expression and life. AFA remains committed to recovering constitutional ground lost to the progressive movement over the decades, and thereby, to promoting a more moral and just society for generations to come.
