Category: Warren Throckmorton

Earlier today Donald Trump signed an executive order with religious liberty as the subject matter. However, the order did next to nothing of substance. Everything Trump and his supporters want to change must be done legislatively or via rule making.
Reaction to the order has been much more interesting and in some cases substantial than the order itself. First, I start with comments from Rick Cohen, Director of Communications with the National Council of Nonprofits. After I saw a press release from the group earlier in the day, I asked Rick why the NCN was troubled by the order, which by itself, is of little consequence. In an email, he said:

The EO is only one part of the equation. It removes the bright line that all 501(c)(3) organizations have been able to rely on for sixty years: if you are tax-exempt, you can talk about the issues of the day, but you don’t get to endorse or oppose candidates. Now that bright line is fuzzy. Combine that with pending efforts in Congress to remove the Johnson Amendment altogether through pending standalone bills or incorporating repeal into a broader tax reform package and one of the hallmarks of the nonprofit, religious, and philanthropic sector is under grave threat.

The NCN has taken the position that nonprofits should not become partisan organizations. The position is stated on their website:

The National Council of Nonprofits has long held that the public’s overall trust in the sector would diminish and thus limit the effectiveness of the nonprofit community if individual 501(c)(3) organizations came to be regarded as Democratic charities or Republican charities instead of the nonpartisan problem solvers that they are.

Much reaction is inaccurate. For instance:

BREAKING: Donald Trump just signed an executive order that turns religious freedom into a #LicensetoDiscriminate

— Americans United (@americansunited) May 4, 2017

In fact, the anti-LGBT provisions were apparently removed.

The executive order to abolish the Johnson Amendment is signed into law this morning!!!!!! President Trump has… https://t.co/TvbNGJjJP6

— leah lowrey (@LeahLowrey) May 4, 2017

Somebody needs a civics lesson.
David French has it about right.

What's worse than actually useless? Trump's EO on religious liberty. My take here: https://t.co/BpDbwqd1Xh

— David French (@DavidAFrench) May 4, 2017

Although it is much ado about nothing much, Donald Trump signed an executive order on religious freedom today. After reading through it, I am pretty sure Christian bakers, florists, and photographers are still going to have to serve gays. I don’t think this order changes anything. All of these directives specify that any actions be done within existing law. Any real changes must come via legislation.
You can read it here and below:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 4, 2017
EXECUTIVE ORDER
– – – – – – –
PROMOTING FREE SPEECH AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to guide the executive branch in formulating and implementing policies with implications for the religious liberty of persons and organizations in America, and to further compliance with the Constitution and with applicable statutes and Presidential Directives, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law’s robust protections for religious freedom. The Founders envisioned a Nation in which religious voices and views were integral to a vibrant public square, and in which religious people and institutions were free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or retaliation by the Federal Government. For that reason, the United States Constitution enshrines and protects the fundamental right to religious liberty as Americans’ first freedom. Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion and participate fully in civic life without undue interference by the Federal Government. The executive branch will honor and enforce those protections.
Sec. 2. Respecting Religious and Political Speech. All executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall, to the greatest extent practicable and to the extent permitted by law, respect and protect the freedom of persons and organizations to engage in religious and political speech. In particular, the Secretary of the Treasury shall ensure, to the extent permitted by law, that the Department of the Treasury does not take any adverse action against any individual, house of worship, or other religious organization on the basis that such individual or organization speaks or has spoken about moral or political issues from a religious perspective, where speech of similar character has, consistent with law, not ordinarily been treated as participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) a candidate for public office by the Department of the Treasury. As used in this section, the term “adverse action” means the imposition of any tax or tax penalty;
the delay or denial of tax-exempt status; the disallowance of tax deductions for contributions made to entities exempted from taxation under section 501(c)(3) of title 26, United States Code; or any other action that makes unavailable or denies any tax deduction, exemption, credit, or benefit.
Sec. 3. Conscience Protections with Respect to PreventiveCare Mandate. The Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Labor, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services shall consider issuing amended regulations, consistent with applicable law, to address conscience-based objections to the preventive care mandate promulgated under section 300gg-13(a)(4) of title 42, United States Code.
Sec. 4. Religious Liberty Guidance. In order to guide all agencies in complying with relevant Federal law, the Attorney General shall, as appropriate, issue guidance interpreting religious liberty protections in Federal law.
Sec. 5. Severability. If any provision of this order, or the application of any provision to any individual or circumstance, is held to be invalid, the remainder of this order and the application of its other provisions to any other individuals or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
Sec. 6. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE,
May 4, 2017.
###
I can’t see that it changes anything since the Department of Treasury is required to act within existing law. Since the Johnson Amendment is law, Congress will need to change it. Trump just whipped up a bunch of excitement with little or nothing to show for it.

As first reported here, Gateway Church is going through a large and significant downsizing of staff, expenses and programs.  This is happening after a year of lavish spending on political activities. Although there is no mass uprising yet as was seen at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, some members and remaining staff are beginning to question the stewardship of the existing leadership.
The following video was made by a Gateway Church member who would like to see less lavish spending on leadership and more on ministry. The video contrasts the words of lead pastor Robert Morris with information about Gateway’s revenues, attendance and activities. Watch (for iPhone users, a Youtube video and link are at the end of the post):

I am hearing from more and more Gateway members and staff who are increasingly concerned about the direction of the church. I think the political push of 2016 combined with no transparency on financial matters is fueling these concerns.
There is a deja vu all over again feeling about this. In my early days of writing about Mars Hill Church, I advised the leaders to become more transparent. As we know, they continued to spin and obfuscate and then lost members and money. Gateway has a much larger base and budget which insulates them against some of those losses. However, I doubt the church is too big to fail.
Also can watch here.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me2_vBhtVRs&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

This is an interesting story.
The office supply company Staples today issued an apology to David Barton associate and Wallbuilders Live co-host Rick Green in response to the refusal by a Sandusky, OH Staples to print 500 copies of a Wallbuilders brochure.
In mid-April, Green asked the Sandusky Staples to print 500 brochures advertising Wallbuilders high school government course.  Then via email on April 18, a store representative said the job was being held up because the store had concerns that the brochure might violate “production guidelines” by being “obscene, pornographic or dangerous.” According to Green, the refusal related to the Christian nationalism aspect of the brochure. The email from Green’s website is below:

While I suspect the content might contain multiple errors, the brochure wasn’t obscene, pornographic or dangerous (at least in the way Staples defined that term above). Thus, I reached out to Staples to check out Green’s story and to ask if they stood by the Sandusky Staples. To me, the action seemed blatantly discriminatory and I doubted Staples would endorse what the local store did.

Staples’ Response

As it turns out, Staples does not stand behind the local store. Mark Cautela, Director of Corporate Communications, responded quickly with the following note.

After reviewing Mr. Green’s complaint, Staples agrees that the materials requested to be copied were not obscene, pornographic or offensive in any way.  Our associate made a mistake in sending an email labeling the materials this way and we sincerely apologize to Mr. Green for this experience at Staples. Unfortunately by the time we discovered our mistake, Mr. Green had understandably chosen not to continue with the order.
We regret his refund took longer than typical and appreciate Mr. Green bringing this matter to our attention.  Although we believe this was an isolated incident, we continually strive to improve our customer experience and will further evaluate our training and policies to prevent similar incidents in the future. At Staples, we respect all viewpoints and are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused Mr. Green and his business.

Green’s response to this religious discrimination was to congratulate Staples. On his website, Green wrote:

Bravo Staples!! Free enterprise, and also the First Amendment, requires that private businesses “have the right to refuse service” (Jonathon’s exact words) and I applaud your exercise of those freedoms and your support of your employees exercising those freedoms. I trust you also support the exact same rights and freedoms for the baker down the street, or photographer, or venue owner who would not want to bake a cake for my event, or take my picture at my constitution classes, or rent their facility to me for a Constitution Class. And then, of course, I’m sure you would protect the exact same rights for all of those private businesses to also not participate in something that violates their conscience, whether that be a Constitution Class or homosexual wedding.

Once upon a time, Christians would decry such discrimination. Now, in this case, Green is using it to say discrimination is fine if Christians get to discriminate against gays. What a switch on the Golden Rule. Instead of treating others the way I want to be treated, Green is saying treat me bad so I can treat you bad.
As it turns out, Staples doesn’t have a policy to discriminate based on viewpoint (exceptions given in the email – obscenity, danger and racism). According to Mr. Cautela, Staples has reached out to Green with the apology and clarification of policy. I am curious to see if Green updates his post to provide the rest of the story.

Tomorrow in the San Diego, CA area, self-styled history writer David Barton is slated to address the East County (CA) Mayor’s Prayer Luncheon. Four local mayors were slated to attend but today I learned that the mayor of La Mesa, CA, Mark Arapostathis, has decided not to attend. Dr. Arapostathis did not give a reason. One other mayor also dropped out but has declined to comment as of now.
Controversy has swirled around the event since at least Monday when a local news source wrote critically about Barton’s appearance. The East County Magazine also reported today that the Freedom from Religion Foundation wrote the mayors questioning the Constitutionality of the event and their involvement.
The event appears to be coordinated with the National Day of Prayer.