Hatch: Religious liberty is ‘under attack’

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) blasted U.S. judges for being “hostile” toward religious freedoms.

“This is an unsettled and unsettling time for religious liberty,” Hatch said Sunday at Brigham Young University. “Both at home and abroad, religious liberty is under attack.”

{mosads}Hatch said it’s important that laws be based on religious values. He said a lack of education on constitutional protections has lead to a court system that thinks it can control religion.

“Ignorance about American history, our political system, and the requirements of liberty has allowed a radical transformation in the courts,” Hatch said. “The personal values and preferences these activist judges have imposed have been uniformly hostile to religion and religious freedom.”

Hatch used case examples of courts deciding to exclude prayer in schools, such as Lee v. Weisman.

Hatch said “special protections” for religion have “crumbled” in recent years but that partnerships between government and religious universities could help repair the damage.

“By working to make government and religion partners once more rather than antagonists, we can revive the view that religion is a force for good rather than something to be swept under the rug,” Hatch said.