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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

President Trump Proclaims Religious Freedom Day: “Don’t Force Americans to Choose Between Their Faith and the Law”


By Steven Ertelt
Life News

President Donald Trump proclaimed January 16th as Religious Freedom Day in the United States. Now every year the president will declare January 16th as Religious Freedom Day, a day set aside to celebrate religious faith in America.

The day is important for pro-life Americans because Christians are being forced around the country to promote or fund abortions. The administration of former president Barack Obama forced Christian businesses like Hobby Lobby and even Catholic nuns like Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for abortion-causing drugs in their health care plans.

In comments associated with the proclamation, President Trump made it clear that no American should be forced to choose between their religious faith and the law and specifically mentioned those Christians who have been forced to promote or pay for abortions.
“Faith is embedded in the history, spirit, and soul of our Nation. On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate the many faiths that make up our country,” Trump said. “Our Constitution and laws guarantee Americans the right not just to believe as they see fit, but to freely exercise their religion.”
“No American — whether a nun, nurse, baker, or business owner — should be forced to choose between the tenants of faith or adherence to the law,” Trump said. “The free exercise of religion is a source of personal and national stability, and its preservation is essential to protecting human dignity. Religious diversity strengthens our communities and promotes tolerance, respect, understanding, and equality. Faith breathes life and hope into our world. We must diligently guard, preserve, and cherish this unalienable right.”
The full proclamation reads:

Faith is embedded in the history, spirit, and soul of our Nation. On Religious Freedom Day, we celebrate the many faiths that make up our country, and we commemorate the 232nd anniversary of the passing of a State law that has shaped and secured our cherished legacy of religious liberty.

Our forefathers, seeking refuge from religious persecution, believed in the eternal truth that freedom is not a gift from the government, but a sacred right from Almighty God. On the coattails of the American Revolution, on January 16, 1786, the Virginia General Assembly passed the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom. 

This seminal bill, penned by Thomas Jefferson, states that, “all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.” Five years later, these principles served as the inspiration for the First Amendment, which affirms our right to choose and exercise faith without government coercion or reprisal.

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