RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RETURNS TO AMERICA

      After decades of official and de facto discrimination against Christians, the US Department of Justice announced today that the same legal protections afforded religious minorities will now protect everyone universally. 

       The DOJ included a 20-point Memorandum on Religious Freedom in the official guidelines issued to all US Attorneys. Last year, President Trump ordered this inclusion, and the Memorandum was completed on October 6th. Here are the highlights:

       "2. The free exercise of religion includes the right to act or abstain from action in accordance with one's religious beliefs." This clause, which is based on legal precedent, forbids the State to impose upon individuals obligations forcing them to violate their religious principles. This essentially nullifies---for example---public schools forcing students to accept homosexuality via so-called Sensitivity Training. And that's only one example. And it gets better:

         "3. The freedom of religion extends to persons and organizations." This is really significant. The term 'organizations' is defined explicitly as  "churches and other religious organizations, schools, private associations, and businesses." 

           That's pretty self-explanatory and clear. It reverses decades of covert Deep-State persecution of Christians: like forcing Christian schools to teach shams like 'gender-neutrality'; or forcing Christian charities to offer abortions, etc. It also is going to stop Christian-hating State Attorneys-General---like Washington State's Bob Ferguson---from singling out Christian businesses for persecution under bogus 'discrimination' pretexts. 

            "5. Government may not restrict acts or abstentions because of the beliefs they display." No more forcing the removal of religious iconography from public view, in other words. 

              So far, we've touched on three points of this astounding document and all of them are things we've waited, hoped, and prayed for for years. This document does not prohibit States per se of engaging in this kind of harassment; but it does that they will no longer have the support of the US Government in so doing. In fact, the Federal level legal system is going to oppose them.

               Here are some other groundbreaking points:

            "19. Religious employers are entitled to employ only persons whose beliefs and conduct are consistent with the employer's religious precepts."

              Wow. Did we imagine even a year ago that we would see this in America again? The document explains that "entities which are organized for religious purposes and engage in activities consistent with, or in furtherance of such purposes have an express exemption from Title VII prohibitions against religious discrimination in employment." So now legal freebooters are going to be unable to file frivolous lawsuits by planting activists in religious organizations then suing them afterwards for 'discrimination'. 

              "20. As a general matter, the Federal Government may not condition receipt of a federal grant or contract upon the effective relinquishment of a religious organization's hiring exemptions or attributes of its religious character."

              This is also self-explanatory: the pernicious practice of barring Christian groups from serving the government through conditions that these organizations couldn't possibly accept---is gone. 

             Nothing like good news to lift spirits going into the weekend. This Memorandum has effectively smashed the Cultural Marxists' attempts---at every turn---to dismantle American Christianity. From now on, Christians will no longer feel alienated from our Government. As Jeff Sessions always says, "We have your back."