USA TODAY International Edition
Trump signs executive order for religious liberty
Civil liberties groups say Trump executive order could permit bias against gays, women, other beliefs
Seeking to redefine the balance between church and state, President Trump signed an executive order that – depending on your point of view – either protects religious liberty, licenses religious groups to practice discrimination, or doesn't go far enough in any direction.
"We're a nation of believers," Trump told supporters during a signing ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House. "Faith is deeply embedded in the history of our country... No American should be forced to choose between the dictates of the American government and the tenets of their faith."
Trump's executive order, which he signed on Thursday to coincide with the National Day of Prayer, calls for easing of Internal Revenue Service enforcement of the so- called "Johnson Amendment," which prohibits churches from getting directly involved in political campaigns.
While only Congress can formally do away with the law, this will pave the way for churches and other religious leaders to speak about politics and endorse candidates without worrying about losing their tax- exempt status.
Trump, criticizing the Johnson amendment as a violation of free speech rights, views his actions as fulfillment of a campaign pledge. "I talked about it a lot" during last year's presidential campaign, and "promised to take action," he said. "I won."
The Executive Order on Promoting Free Speech and Religious Liberty also aims to make it easier for employers with religious objections not to include contraception coverage in workers' health care plans, although it would be up to federal agencies to determine how that would happen.
At the ceremony, Trump recognized members of the Little Sisters of the Poor, an order of nuns which runs home for the elderly. The group objected to the Obama administration’s policy that while religious organizations don’t have to directly provide birth control to employees, workers could still get it through a third party. "Your long ordeal will soon be over," he told them.
Vowing to fight what he called discrimination against religious people and institutions, Trump said, "We will not allow people of faith to be bullied, targeted, or silenced any more." The government, he added, has been used as "a weapon" against religion and people of faith.
According to a brief summary of the order provided by the White House, it also "declares that it is the policy of the administration to protect and vigorously promote religious liberty."
Civil rights and non- profit groups were already preparing to fight the order. A day before the signing, groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Campaign worried Trump's order may take action that would allow people to deny benefits or services to gays and women using birth control, and discriminate against others they oppose.
Religious conservatives have long pushed Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to protect religious liberty, which they say the Obama administration undermined by imposing national nondiscrimination policies and making it possible for employees to obtain birth control even if their employers did not offer it for religious reasons.
But some are already expressing their disappointment with what they considered the vague nature of Thursday's order.
Even as Trump promised that his executive order makes it "clear that the federal government will never ever penalize any person for their protected religious beliefs," religious organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom said the order did not adequately address the worries of people who fear government sanction if they refuse to provide services or benefits on religious or moral grounds.