AFA: Help us urge Trump to protect First Amendment – OneNewsNow

A pro-family organization is encouraging conservative Christians to join its online effort to ask President Donald Trump to defend religious liberty.

A draft memo that outlined a proposed executive order leaked from the White House in early February, ending up in the hands not of religious organizations but homosexual rights groups.

The existence of the memo was first reported by left-wing news website The Nation.

If the content of the memo is true, says a spokesman for homosexual lobby group Human Rights Campaign, the Trump-led White House is poised to "wildly expand anti-LGBTQ discrimination across all facets of government."

"Discrimination" is common left-wing parlance, along with words such as "hate" and "bigotry," for holding traditional views about marriage and sexuality.

What this memo accomplishes, says American Family Association spokesman Walker Wildmon, is prevent the federal government from "encroaching on the First Amendment rights of Americans of faith, and really it would keep the government from coercing people of faith to violate their religious beliefs."

The fate of the memo in coming weeks is unknown, so Wildmon and AFA are asking Christian conservatives to sign their names to an online petition urging President Trump to sign the executive order. The petition has approximately 109,000 signatures.

Writing at The Daily Signal, researcher Ryan Anderson says the memo suggests protecting federal employees from punishment if they hold traditional views about marriage, citing the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Such an executive order would conflict with the pro-homosexual propaganda of the Obama administration, which pushed such "progressive" views within the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, and other agencies.

Beyond the federal government, Ryan writes, the memo suggestsprotecting the nonprofit status of religious organizations that express views about political issues, marriage and sexuality, and abortion.

In all, Ryan writes, there are 10 suggestions outlined in the memo, many of them rolling back Obama-era executive orders that were applauded at the time by homosexual activists and abortion rights groups.

"The executive order is good, lawful public policy," Ryan suggests in his commentary. "And it makes good on several promisesthen-candidate Trump made to his supporters."

Wildmon says the petition is one way tell President Trump that "amongst the people who elected him, voted him into office, this executive order and things like it are very popular."

American Family Association is the parent organization of American Family News, which includes news website OneNewsNow.

We moderate all reader comments, usually within 24 hours of posting (longer on weekends). Please limit your comment to 300 words or less and ensure it addresses the article - NOT another reader's comments. Comments that contain a link (URL), an inordinate number of words in ALL CAPS, rude remarks directed at other readers, or profanity/vulgarity will not be approved.

Read this article:
AFA: Help us urge Trump to protect First Amendment - OneNewsNow