"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” President Trump has sworn that twice, or more accurately he has said that twice. Why would he say it? Because the Constitution requires the President to swear to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution before becoming president.
When asked on Meet the Press last weekend, “Don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States, as president?” President Trump answered, “I don’t know,” followed up with (I’m summarizing) I’d have to check with my lawyers. He then said his lawyers (not him) would definitely obey the Supreme Court which I guess you can always say when you usually have the Court on your side.
The Supreme Court last week appeared to be on his side, or on the side of his evangelical base, in the oral arguments on whether there can be religious charter schools. The majority has been ruling in almost every case that if the government gives money to anyone else for some purpose, it has to give it to religious groups too. In this case to charter schools. Because Justice Barrett recused herself, Chief Justice Roberts will likely be the deciding vote. We will find out in a month or two what the decision is and how wide reaching it is. You can read here about the case and the amicus brief filed by American Atheists which SCA joined.
Back to things the President isn’t sure about. Add separation of church and state. At a White House ceremony he was introducing guests and he got to Paula White who leads the White House Faith Office. You can find out how to send her money through Paula White Ministries here. The President was riffing so some context is required now; Mrs. White’s office is in the West Wing of the White House which is extremely valuable real estate. Lots of competition for it. There has been some version of the White House Faith Office under each president back to George Bush, (including Trump I) but this year is the first time the office isn’t in a building across the street with a lot of other White House offices.
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So about the office space he says, “People of faith have never been allowed in the White House. No other president allowed that. They say ‘separation between church and state,’ they told me. I said, ‘All right, let’s forget about that for one time.’ They said, ‘Separation.’ Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I’m not sure. But whether there’s separation or not, you guys are in the White House where you should be.” So again, the President’s just not sure about something. I’m not sure I could keep a job if I was unsure about things this important this often.
The White House ceremony was the occasion for the President to sign an order creating a Commission on Religious Liberty. You can read about its extremely problematic agenda here but one item is “producing a comprehensive report on the foundations of religious liberty in America.” Next year is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This commission, along with numerous other people and organizations, will use the occasion to try to convince Americans that America was founded as a Chistian nation and should be more of one now. The Secular Coalition is going to be ready with the evidence that this is not true. We will get in touch with the Commission on Religious Liberty about that.
The Commission was established on top of the Task Force to Eradicate Anti-Christian Bias where they root out this kind of "bias" at all the federal agencies. Never mind that the FBI says there were four to five times more bias crimes against Jews than Christians last year. Emails have gone out at some agencies suggesting that employees snitch on their colleagues about religious bias. At the Veterans Administration the way to do that is with this email address: [email protected] in case you have anything to say.
If you didn’t use our Action Alert yet to oppose a tax credit for school vouchers that will benefit religious schools yet, Congress is about to decide on that. We opposed the Educational Choice for Children Act, or ECCA at our March Lobby Day.
In a lighter note than all this, SCA, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and the American Humanist Association held the Second Annual Congressional Reason Reception where Congressmen Huffman and Raskin gave out some awards and "awards" and former House member Susan Wild spoke. We had at least 100 people and several other House members in the room.You can watch here.
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Your advocate,
Scott MacConomy
Director of Policy and Government Affairs
Secular Coalition for America |
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The Secular Coalition for America works every day to defend the separation of religion and government and to fight anti-democratic ideologies like Christian nationalism. Your support for this work is vital.
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