U.S. Lawmakers Look Into Religious Hostility Reports
by Allie Martin
October 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - Liberty Legal Institute, a Texas-based litigation and policy organization that defends religious freedom and First Amendment rights, has filed a document in the U.S. Senate detailing the broad range of religious hostility nationwide.The document was prepared after U.S. Senator John Cornyn, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, sought information on the magnitude of religious freedom violations. Earlier this year Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Legal Institute, testified before the subcommittee, and he is optimistic about the implications of the Senate inquiry. (See Earlier Article)
"It's very encouraging," Shackelford says, "that we now have some leadership in the Senate and hopefully in the House that are beginning to really stake a marker out and say 'Religious freedom is under attack, and it's time to start to take ground back.'"
Particularly encouraging, Shackelford notes, is the fact that at least some elected officials are finally recognizing there is organized hostility toward religious expression in the United States, and that certain groups are deliberately seeking to curtail Americans' rights to freedom of religion and religious expression in the public square. "And then," he adds, "we have legal groups that are now out there, us and many others, who will stand and say 'We're not going to allow these freedoms to be taken away. We're going to fight.'"
In its report to Senate, Liberty Legal identified three liberal organizations -- the American Civil Liberties Union, People for the American Way, and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State -- as leaders in a nationwide campaign to remove religious expression from the public square.
According to the legal organization's president, the report proves that religious hostility is widespread and common across the nation. "You can't say it's isolated," he asserts, "when we file 51 pages of case after case after case showing the attacks on religious freedom throughout this country."
Shackelford says he is hopeful that the Senate subcommittee will propose legislation that will offer religious groups, organizations and individuals throughout the U.S. more protection against acts of discrimination and hostility towards religious expression.
