Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Monday that the Department of Justice is creating a “religious liberty task force.”
The task force will be co-chaired by Associate Attorney General Jesse Panuccio and assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Policy Beth Williams. It aims to “protect” religious groups from “persecution” by prioritizing the rights of religious people in the DOJ’s policies and legal battles. And by religious people, Sessions really means Christians who don’t like gay people.
There is a “dangerous movement” challenging religious freedom, Sessions said during the DOJ’s Religious Liberty Summit in Washington, referring to how a Colorado baker had to fight for his “right” to refuse making a wedding cake for a gay couple and how “U.S. senators ask judicial and executive branch nominees about dogma.”
“We have not only the freedom to worship, but the right to exercise our faith,” Sessions continued. “The Constitution’s protections don’t end at the parish parking lot nor can our freedoms be confined to our basements.”
We do indeed have the freedom to worship and practice our religious beliefs. The only problem here is that Sessions’ fight for religious freedom is very much one-sided and paves the way for discrimination against everyone else.
This isn’t even about protecting religious liberties anymore. It’s about taking away the rights of anyone whom Sessions may disagree with, whether it be LGBTQ people or women (some of whom may, lest we forget, actually be Christians themselves!!!)
This is not the first time the Trump administration attempted to selectively uphold religious liberties. In May, President Trump signed an executive order to ensure faith-based groups have “strong advocates in the White House.” And in January, the Department of Health and Human Services created the “Conscience and Religious Freedom Division.”