1,300 Faith Leaders Denounce Trump's Bigoted Religious Liberty Executive Order

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1,300 faith leaders are denouncing Donald Trump’s rumored to be signed on Thursday executive order that would legalize discrimination against the LGBTQ community under the pretense of religious liberty.

It wasreported that Trump will sign an executive order Thursday that will allow anyone to legally discriminate against members of the LGBTQ community as long as they cite “religious objections.”

The faith leaders wrote in a national letter to Trump:

As clergy and faith leaders who serve diverse communities across the United States, we write to you to express our deep concern over the draft religious freedom executive order that some have urged you to sign. Although it purports to strengthen religious freedom, what this order would actually do is misuse this freedom, turning it into a weapon to discriminate against broad swaths of our nation, including LGBTQ people, women, and children in foster care. We urge you to turn away from all proposals that would abuse religious freedom, including any executive orders on this issue that are currently under consideration.

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Furthermore, freedom of religion guarantees us the right to hold any belief we choose and to act on our religious beliefs, but it does not allow us to harm others in the name of those beliefs. We are appalled by the widespread discrimination that this draft order would unleash across all areas of life–including in some cases with taxpayer dollars–on our congregants, our neighbors, our families, so many Americans we may never personally know, and indeed even many of us personally.

“Religious liberty” is nothing more than conservative code for legalized discrimination against gay people. Trump’s religious liberty executive order will end up in court, and probably ruled unconstitutional, but it is important to note that not all faith leaders support Trump’s actions.

There are thousands of faith leaders all across the country who are standing up against hatred and bigotry. Trump’s executive order is an assault on the values that this country was founded on.

The fastest way for Republicans to lose everything that they gained in 2016 will be for them to support the bigotry by executive order actions of Donald Trump.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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