I woke up this morning to the usual fury of CNN commentators denouncing Donald Trump. This time, it was because he claimed in a speech that Democrats are “against religion.” Here’s what Trump said as reported by AL.com:
These are difficult times for our nation and your work is so important. We can’t afford to have anyone sitting on the sidelines. Now is the time for us to all pull together and to stand up for our values and for our freedoms. And you just can’t vote Democrat. They’re against religion. They’re against your religion in particular [by which he meant Evangelical Christianity]. You cannot vote for Democrats and you have to get out and vote.
As usual, Trump’s aspersions against his political opponents carry some weight but lack necessary nuance and specificity.
I don’t think one can credibly say that Democrats are “against religion.” Many prominent Democrats appear deeply religious. President Biden attends Mass weekly. Nancy Pelosi also openly embraces Catholicism. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is a devout Baptist in the social gospel tradition who continues to attend Cornerstone Church in Brooklyn. The radical Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib is Muslim. Who are any of us to judge their hearts in this regard?
But I do think it is fair to say that the Democratic Party, writ large, opposes the free exercise of religion when it comes to controversial social issues that they support.
What’s the difference? Former Supreme Court justice Frank Murphy put it well when he wrote that the free exercise of religion has “a double aspect — freedom of thought and action,” meaning the right to live according to one’s own faith, that is, to “manifest” our religion or belief in practice, both “in public or private,” without interference from the state.
That is what Democrats generally oppose. As I wrote here last year, President Biden, the leader of the Democratic Party, certainly doesn’t embrace the free exercise of religion. More generally and specifically, the party openly opposes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and continually tries to gut its provisions in Democrat-sponsored legislation around issues such as abortion, transgender medical care, and reproductive technologies.
For example, the Equality Act — which has 50 Democrat co-sponsors in the Senate and has been endorsed by Biden — would add sexual orientation, sexual identity, and pregnancy to the classes protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To ensure that no exceptions are allowed, the legislation would transform the RFRA into a meaningless husk by banning its use as “a defense” to a claim of discrimination “or provide a basis for challenging the application or enforcement” of the law.
Along the same lines, the Do No Harm Act more specifically seeks to gut the RFRA by limiting its applicability to a broad array of issues — meaning that if it became law, it would be curtains for Hobby Lobby and other important religious liberty cases decided under that statute.
Without the RFRA (and its state equivalents, where they exist), Catholic hospitals could no longer operate under the Church’s moral teachings but could be forced to allow abortions, sterilizations, and transgender surgeries on-premises. Christian artists, photographers, and cake designers could be forced to provide their services for moral and political causes that violate their faith beliefs. The list of impacted issues would be long. Of course, that would be the point.
In summary. Democrats are perfectly fine with people having religious beliefs. The leadership of the party just doesn’t want people empowered by law to act in the public square consistent with their faith when it interferes with the party’s overarching social agendas.
Trump should be more pointed in his criticisms. By using overly broad language, he gives Democrats an easy way out of what could be a potent criticism.