White House considers order on religious freedom that critics warn could lead to discrimination

President Donald Trump is considering how to allow Americans to opt out of complying with federal policies and regulations on the grounds of religion, White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Thursday, a move that critics said could open the door to discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.

“There’s clearly a lot of evidence in the last couple of years of the government coming in with regulations and policies that have, frankly, denied people the ability to live according to their faith,” Spicer said during his daily briefing. “People should be able to practice their religion, express their religion, express areas of their faith without reprisal. And I think that pendulum sometimes swings the other way, in the name of political correctness.”

Spicer’s comments, which came on the same day Trump told the audience at the National Prayer Breakfast that his administration “will do everything possible to defend and protect religious liberty in our land,” could signal a sea change in how the federal government balances protections for gay, transgender and reproductive rights against individuals’ religious objections.

Trump made his intentions perfectly clear, saying, “I will get rid of and totally destroy the Johnson Amendment.”

The amendment is named for Texas Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson, who introduced it in the Senate in 1954, nine years before he became president. It bans all tax-exempt nonprofits — which includes churches and other houses of worship, as well as charities — from “directly or indirectly” participating in any political candidate’s campaign.

Administration officials are considering a proposed executive order, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, that would provide individuals and organizations wide latitude in denying services, employment and other benefits on the basis of their religious beliefs, though Spicer emphasized that Trump had no immediate plans to issue a directive on the issue.

Critics abound

In the event that the order is actually issued, multiple groups are already preparing to challenge it on the grounds that it effectively sanctions discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans, women and minorities.

“We tread a dangerous line when we allow pulpits to become political platforms,” said Bishop Mike Lowry of the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church/Fort Worth Episcopal Area.

“It reads like a wishlist from some of the most radical anti-equality activists,” Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement.

Bishop Michael Olson of the Diocese of Fort Worth offered a similar sentiment.

“Religious liberty should not be defined narrowly as a personal preference for a particular form of worship,” Olson said in a statement. “Religious leaders should guide the formation of the consciences of their congregants according to moral principles of faith and not partisan positions of politics.”

The measure prohibits the Treasury Department from penalizing or denying tax benefits to any person or organization who believes, acts or declines to act “in accordance with the belief that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, sexual relations are properly reserved for such a marriage, male and female and their equivalents refer to an individual’s immutable biological sex and as objectively determined by anatomy, physiology, or genetics at or before birth, and that human life begins at conception.”

Conservative views

But the draft language drew praise from some conservatives, who said the reaction on the part of rights groups was exaggerated and that the order language is not only lawful but essential for Trump to make good on his promises to protect Americans’ right to practice their religion.

“These protections take nothing away from anyone — they simply ensure that the public square remains open to all religious voices, even when those voices diverge from the government’s view on contested questions,” Ryan T. Anderson, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, wrote in a blog post Thursday. “They protect diversity and pluralism and tolerance.”

Expanding religious liberties has been a central issue for social conservatives since 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples not only have the right to wed but that their unions are equal under the law to heterosexual marriages.

Staff writer Jeff Caplan contributed to this report.

This story was originally published February 2, 2017 at 5:59 PM with the headline "White House considers order on religious freedom that critics warn could lead to discrimination."