Calls for ‘religious liberty’ really attempts to impose personal faith

Kelly Shackelford’s Jan. 21 op-ed, “6 ways Trump can advance religious freedom in his first 100 days,” is full of misinformation. Shackelford’s vision of “religious freedom” is the ability to promote his personal religious beliefs using our government. 

He gives the game away in his first suggestion, saying that “ministries and churches need immediate relief” from the Department of Health and Human Services’ “abortion-pill mandate.” But any “faith-based nonprofit” that wants an exemption from the HHS mandate gets one; all it has to do is fill out a form with five blanks. That’s it. Secondly, Shackelford advocates rescinding Executive Order 13762, which he says “discriminates against faith-based contractors.” It doesn’t. In fact, the order ensures that federal contractors cannot discriminate against LGBT employees.

{mosads}Shackelford’s third suggestion is identical, except that the misnamed First Amendment Defense Act, which he advocates passing, will expand the religious exemption to discrimination that essentially violates all federal civil rights laws. In suggestion four, if Shackelford was really concerned about religious freedom in the military, he would be advocating for equal accommodations for the nonreligious.

His fifth suggestion, like the second and third, advocates for discrimination, this time against transgender children in public schools. Shackelford’s final, and perhaps his most alarming, suggestion is for President Trump to nominate  Supreme Court justices who will concur with Shackelford’s vision. Denying an LGBT citizen a job, a place in a public school or the protections of civil rights laws is a harm that religion cannot justify in a society governed by a secular and entirely godless Constitution. Shackelford and his First Liberty Institute are not leading the charge to protect religious liberty, they are seeking to redefine it.

From Andrew Seidel, Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney, Madison, Wis.

We can’t ignore potential nuclear conflict between India, Pakistan

United States foreign policy currently focuses on preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. For those who have forgotten, India and Pakistan possess substantial inventories of nuclear warheads and delivery systems. This last milieu is the most disturbing potential for global disaster.

A nuclear confrontation between these nations would thrust the world’s economy into depression. Currency values would plummet. Seven million to 12 million people would die during the exchange. Every medical facility in the region would be overwhelmed with the injured and dead. The long-term secondary effect from such a conflagration would be immeasurable. North America would be affected by the inevitable consequence of “nuclear winter.”

The sun would be blocked; crop growing seasons would be adversely affected. Food shortages would arise as riots would ensue. North America would suffer social de-evolution for years.  

Granted, Iran’s nuclear program and its behavior throughout the Middle East is indeed a strategic issue for the United States. However, Washington must now urgently resurrect its efforts to pressure both India and Pakistan to “stand-down” their nuclear forces.  And to do so with such a sense of exigent emergency given the fact that an Indian-Pakistani nuclear event will unequivocally send the world plunging over the precipice into an abyss of nuclear insanity.

From Earl Beal, Terre Haute, Ind.