By Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies Editor’s Note: In the wake of an agreement between President Trump and bipartisan congressional leaders on a two-year budget framework, the…
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) has allowed courts to neutrally balance compelling government interests with religious beliefs ever since it was enacted in 1993 by a bipartisan Congress. Now, Democratic members of the House and Senate have reintroduced the Do No Harm Act, a bill that would disallow religious objections to key government actions, including LGBT inclusion and reproductive health. On June 25, 2019, the House Committee on Education and Labor held a hearing on the Do No Harm Act. Representative Joseph Kennedy, who introduced the Do No Harm Act in 2017 and has now reintroduced it, expressed his concern that RFRA “has morphed from a shield of protection to a sword of infringement.” Yet RFRA does not guarantee a victory for religious actors, only a fair weighing of their claims. To adequately protect religious freedom, RFRA should not be modified.
Founder and Senior Director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies spoke at the University of St. Thomas Law School’s symposium on “Religious Freedom and the Common Good” in March of 2018. His lecture transcript, along with those from fellow speakers at the symposium, has been published in the University of St. Thomas Law Journal.
The passage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act created the so-called “church parking tax,” a burdensome provision for nonprofits that has elicited strong protests from the sacred sector. The IRS has issued interpretive guidelines, and efforts in Congress are ongoing to eliminate the tax entirely, yet fixes are slow in coming. Given the Trump administration’s professions of support for religious freedom and the many congressional voices in favor of the work of charitable organizations, it is surprising that this provision was adopted in the first place and troubling that it has not yet been eliminated. Faith-based organizations need to be aware of this issue and understand how it affects them.
The House of Representatives passed the Equality Act on May 17, 2019, to add to federal civil rights law new prohibitions on discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as other protections. As Stanley Carlson-Thies points out, the Act is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate. This is good news because the Equality Act as drafted and passed would have multiple negative consequences for religious freedom. The article notes major religious freedom critiques, including denominational and other voices proposing a “fairness for all” alternative that would simultaneously protect LGBT and religious rights.
When the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 was put into law, it was with the intent of supporting American businesses and workers. Unfortunately,…
By Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies Editor’s Note: A more in-depth conversation about the implications of the passage of the Equality Act was featured on the Faith…
In the wake of the recent Dunn v. Ray decision, yet another non-Christian chaplain was denied access to a prisoner’s execution chamber. This time the Supreme Court granted a stay of the procedure. Collin Slowey, an intern with the Center for Public Justice, reflects on what this tells us about the current state of religious freedom in the U.S.
Dr. Stanley Carlson-Thies, a strong and outspoken champion for the rights and freedoms of faith-based organizations, is the 2019 recipient of the Religious Liberty Dinner National Award. Dr. Carlson-Thies, founder and senior director of the Institutional Religious Freedom Alliance (IRFA), has worked for almost two decades to help shape the public discourse in America around the contributions of faith communities to the well-being of society.
The Equality Act, which would add to federal civil rights laws new prohibitions of discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex, was introduced into the House of Representatives on March 13. Supporters of the Equality Act claim that it protects religious freedom, but in fact it would severely constrain many faith-based organizations and persons of faith who simply desire to live by their convictions about human sexuality and marriage without harming others. In this article, Stanley Carlson-Thies presents the Fairness for All framework as a new and better way to protect both LGBT people and religious freedom.