In offering an amendment to protect religious liberty, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is asking his colleagues for what should be one of the easiest votes of their tenures in office.
Frankly, a vote against Lee’s amendment would be an abomination, making legislators unworthy of service in the Senate. Period.
THE NEEDLESS ACT TO ‘PROTECT’ MARRIAGE
Lee’s proposed amendment pertains to the so-called Respect for Marriage Act, which is meant to provide federal recognition for same-sex and interethnic unions. Set aside, for now, all questions of whether the underlying bill is a good idea in all its other particulars, including its explicit allowance of a “private right of action” for those who allegedly violate the bill’s provisions. Either way, Lee’s amendment would fix a glaring omission in the bill, which makes absolutely no exception for conscientious, faith-based objections.
The amendment would prohibit any entity of the federal government from negating the tax-exempt status of faith-based nonprofit organizations or the deductibility of donations made to them — or from withholding benefits or grants for which they otherwise would qualify. As Lee wrote in a letter to his fellow senators, “No Americans should face legal harassment or retaliation from the federal government for holding sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions.”
This should just be basic stuff. Many religions or denominations thereof have held since time immemorial that marriage by definition means a commitment between one man and one woman. A person can agree or disagree with those doctrines while still acknowledging the undeniable fact that the doctrines are well established and, to some, essential. The First Amendment’s “free exercise” provision explicitly protects the right of people and institutions to practice the elements of their faiths, no matter how often the Left tries to use courts to erode that protection.
Still, Congress should not leave it up to the courts, with their notoriously convoluted appeals procedures, nor to bureaucrats who all too often are ignorant of constitutional text, to make sure that faith-based rights are well guarded. Especially in the context of contentious cultural battles such as ones concerning marriage, Congress has every responsibility to shield faith from mistreatment by government.
All 100 senators ought to accept Lee’s amendment. If the amendment fails, no senator should vote for the bill.
