The Biden administration has quietly accelerated its assault on religious freedom.
Just before we all sat down to express our national gratitude toward God and the freedoms and blessings we enjoy, President Joe Biden’s Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra was on a seek-and-destroy mission to eliminate religious freedom protections.
First, in a draft memo leaked just before the Thanksgiving holiday, HHS recommended reversing the Trump-era policy of centralizing responsibility for the department’s compliance with the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment’s protection of religious liberty within the Office of Civil Rights.
HHS then announced it would force faith-based adoption agencies to violate their beliefs regarding human sexuality or risk not receiving federal funds. This comes despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that expressly prohibits the government from discriminating against faith-based child placement agencies because of their religious characteristics.
Both actions exhibit the hostility Becerra was known for as attorney general of California. They further evince the Biden administration’s overall disdain for our first freedom.
No one in this country should be forced to abandon their deepest held convictions to do their job, least of all those whose faith compels them to heal the sick. Yet today, healthcare workers from across a wide spectrum of religious traditions find themselves at odds with cultural orthodoxy. This includes treatments related to the beginning and end of life, birth control, gender dysphoria, and vaccinations. The OCR within HHS should be a trusted resource and ally in protecting these citizens’ ability to live according to their faith.
But Biden is dismantling safeguards within the federal government for people of faith.
During his confirmation hearing, Becerra assured senators of his commitment to protecting religious liberty. If eye rolls were audible, this claim would have elicited a roar. As attorney general of California, Becerra reveled in suing Catholic nuns to force them to provide birth control and abortifacients under Obamacare regulations on health insurance.
There is an old adage in politics that “personnel is policy.”
Time and again, this administration has nominated individuals to the highest levels of government who exhibit disdain for those they are charged to serve. Becerra displays not just an unwillingness to protect the rights of conscience but an overt antagonism toward people of faith.
Unless and until the federal government is scaled back to reflect the Constitution’s limited and enumerated powers, “We the People” must pay the price of freedom, eternal vigilance, to hold accountable those in power. Failure to do so could result in the loss of our most cherished freedoms.
Lathan Watts is director of public affairs for First Liberty Institute, a nonprofit law firm and think tank exclusively dedicated to defending religious liberty.
