SOME PERSONAL MISGIVINGS ABOUT RELIGIOUS FREEDOM EXECUTIVE ORDER

I don’t know how to react and respond to the following development.

President Trump has signed an executive order “promoting free speech and religious liberty”. The final version of the order addresses two issues.

First, it instructs the Internal Revenue Service to “not take any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization” that endorse or oppose candidates from the pulpit, which is currently outlawed by a provision typically referred to as the Johnson Amendment. “We are giving churches their voices back,” the President said during a ceremony in the Rose Garden.

Second, it instructs the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services to consider amending regulations in the Affordable Care Act that require most employers to cover contraception in employee insurance plans. A number of religious non-profit organizations have been litigating their objections to this requirement.

I confess that I have some reservations about what one would think would be immediately lauded and applauded by a Preacher of the Gospel.

The problem I am having is not with the Executive Order which certainly seems to be a fair and equitable reading and application of the First Amendment. 

Rather, my concern is how this will be received by politically active churches and clergymen across the country.

I believe it is the responsibility of the preacher to proclaim his or her church’s teaching regarding the Scriptures in a way which allows the faithful to understand the implications of the Biblical wisdom and apply that insight to the political choices which are their duty to make. 

I believe it is the duty of the Church to inform the consciences of the faithful not to prescribe what political choices they must or must not make in fulfilling their obligations as loyal and law-abiding citizens.

Certainly, for decades, there has been a disparity in the way the Johnson Amendment was applied by administrations which were Democrat.  African-American churches, the meat and potatoes of the Democratic Party, engaged in all sorts of political endorsements of Democratic candidates and policies with impunity. 

Meanwhile, white Conservative (mostly Republican) Christian churches were consistently monitored and threatened whenever the Democratic Party felt they were straying into matters of political content.

The Executive Order which President Trump signed will effectively eliminate this disparity.

Yet, I still feel uneasy with the thought of believers, especially my Catholic sisters and brothers, attending Church services only to hear the Priest or minister engage in a harangue against this or that politician or policy.  Dear Lord, spare us the self-appointed prophets of the town square!

I think this is what really happened with regard to churches and politics in recent years.  The Democratic Party has become so amoral and immoral in the policies it advances that any Biblical response to that immorality seems to be more political than religious.

How the Executive Order will affect the preaching from our pulpits is a question for the future.

For the moment, I find myself caught in the middle between applauding President Trump for his courage and integrity in keeping one of his bedrock campaign promises and a bit concerned that some preachers and Pastors will abuse the privilege of the protection which the Executive Order affords them.

What thinkest you?