The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Legislative Agenda for 2009

By Richard Land and Barrett Duke - Jan 7, 2009 - 2

The election of Barack Obama as the nation’s 44th president along with significant liberal gains in the House and Senate have created substantial challenges for many of the issues of concern to Southern Baptists and other social conservatives in the upcoming 111th Congress.

Sanctity of Human Life

Our greatest concern is the likelihood that many pro-life advances achieved under President Bush’s administration will be rolled back. President-elect Obama’s pledge to sign the Freedom of Choice Act would do that very thing. This pernicious bill would invalidate all limits on abortion. Even the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortion would be restored to the abortionists’ arsenal in their war against the unborn. This bill will be introduced in the House and Senate. It will have to be stopped before it gets to the President’s desk. In addition, we will need to fight against passage of an embryonic stem cell bill that would use taxpayer dollars to destroy human embryos for stem cell research. The only reason this bill has not been passed already is because President Bush vetoed it twice. As a consequence of these presidential vetoes, researchers have gone back into the laboratory and have emerged with some very promising alternatives that can create embryonic-like stem cells without destroying human embryos.

Others areas of great concern on this front are the many federal restrictions on the use of taxpayer money to fund abortion-related activities here and around the world. Such pro-life policies as the Mexico City Policy, the Kemp-Kasten Amendment, the Hyde Amendment, the Helms Amendment,^{Footnote 1} and numerous other federal pro-life policies are all certain to be targets of the incoming Congress and Administration.

While we will fight to stop these losses, we believe a positive approach is also needed. The Pregnant Women Support Act is just that. This bill, which was introduced in the last Congress, would provide various kinds of federal assistance to women who find themselves in challenging pregnancies so they would have the kinds of health and personal support they need to decide to give their babies life rather than aborting them.

Human Rights

An area that gives us great hope in the coming year is on the human rights front. The recent passage of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which the ERLC (with strong support from grassroots Southern Baptists) worked tirelessly to help pass, gives the United States more power in combating human trafficking around the world as well as in our own country. Hundreds of thousands of women and children are held in sexual slavery around the world and in the United States. Many hundreds of thousands of others are being held as labor slaves. We look forward to working with the incoming Congress and Administration in implementing the many powerful features of the William Wilberforce Act to help our country lead the world in eradicating modern-day slavery around the world and in our own country.

We also hold out great hope for the beleaguered people of Darfur. President-elect Obama has expressed his personal abhorrence of that ongoing humanitarian tragedy. We will do all we can to work with his Administration to encourage a just peace for those desperate people.

Terrorism, National Security, and Building a Just Peace

The first role of any government is to protect its citizens from those who would do them harm—enemies both foreign and domestic. As our nation sends her precious sons and daughters into harm’s way, the ERLC will support efforts to make sure they have all they need to accomplish the tasks they are asked to perform. Additionally, we will work to ensure that appropriate provision and care is available for them when they return.

A just peace is more than the absence of conflict. A world in which there is peaceful redress of grievances and in which people increasingly enjoy the “Four Freedoms” so eloquently espoused by President Franklin Roosevelt more than six decades ago—freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from fear, and freedom from want, is the world the ERLC will endeavor to help bring about.

Creation Care and the Environment

We also have every reason to believe that the incoming Congress and Administration will push vigorously for policies to restrict so-called greenhouse gas emissions. While we support responsible efforts to protect the environment and encourage everyone to practice creation care, we are highly skeptical of the current efforts to control human emissions for the sake of climate change. We are not convinced, and neither are most Southern Baptists, that human activities are the primary cause of the current changes in the climate that have been documented around the world. An increasing number of scientists, including climatologists and others with specialties in this realm of study, are also expressing their opposition to this notion as well.

We will do all we can to urge caution and further scientific inquiry before any sweeping legislation or policies are enacted that would significantly hurt economic recovery in the country and increase the burden on the poor here and around the world. Whatever one’s current view on human-induced global warming, “loving your neighbor as yourself” requires one to always ask the following question of any legislation: “How will this law impact those of our fellow human beings who are least able to bear further economic burden?” We pledge that the ERLC will do our best to make sure that question is asked in every discussion about public policy related to global warming.

Poverty Reduction

As we consider the plight of the poor, we will work to encourage passage of legislation and implementation of policies that would provide safety nets for them as they work to improve their lives. We will not support policies that increase dependence on government beyond those programs the poor need to give them a fair chance to work their way out of their impoverishment. This will include such issues as access to good health care, education, and security in their neighborhoods.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech will also likely come under attack in the 111th Congress. First, we need to work tirelessly for FDR’s “Four Freedoms” not only abroad but right here in this country. It is probable that liberals will move to enact the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” in order to silence conservative speech. Radio would be hit the hardest by this effort, but we can expect efforts to silence the right of Christians to express their opposition to homosexual behavior as well. Second, we expect strong efforts to pass “Card Check” legislation that will remove workers’ rights to a secret ballot when it comes to the organization of their workplace. While most Americans agree that unions serve a useful purpose in defending workers’ rights, upwards of 80% of Americans (including former senator and presidential candidate George McGovern) believe that a secret ballot is an inviolable right that must be preserved to ensure workers’ rights in deciding whether or not it is in their best interest to have a unionized workplace. Labor unions should have nothing to fear from a secret ballot of the workers they seek to unionize. The ERLC will work to oppose both the imposition of a “Fairness Doctrine” and the removal of a secret ballot from the workplace.

The Assault on Traditional Marriage and the Homosexual Agenda

Another area that will require serious diligence is the homosexual agenda. It is likely that we will see very determined efforts by both Congress and the Administration to normalize homosexual behavior. It is likely that Congress will attempt to pass the Employment Non-discrimination Act, preventing businesses from considering sexual orientation in their hiring practices. It is also likely that Congress will seek to pass Hate Crimes legislation that would extend special federal protections for homosexuals and enable prosecution against anyone involved in an act of violence against someone who is or is even perceived to be homosexual. Of course, we decry all acts of violence against law-abiding citizens, but we believe all victims of violence should be afforded the same level of protections. It is also probable that the Federal Defense of Marriage Act will come under assault. While we do not foresee liberals in Congress winning an effort to overturn that law, it is likely that they will make a run at it to see the level of support there is for it. We will need to mobilize a vast network to shut down those efforts.

Our Commitment

More issues will arise as the year progresses, including judicial nominations, religious liberty questions here and abroad, abstinence education, immigration reform, health care, and many others. While we believe we will spend most of our energy this year resisting liberal advances, we will continue to look for ways to move responsible, God-honoring measures forward. As always, we encourage interested Southern Baptists to contact us about other moral and cultural issues of concern to them as well.

We commit to bring the teachings of Scripture and the expressed convictions of Southern Baptists to bear on every issue in order to assure that we apply the salt and light of the Christian witness to as many issues as our Lord directs, Southern Baptists have concerns, and our means enable. While it is likely going to be a very demanding year for the issues about which we care deeply, we know that God is still on His throne and Southern Baptists are still praying and working “to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love” (The Baptist Faith and Message, art. 15). We commit ourselves to this task.

1. The Mexico City Policy requires international family planning organizations to agree not to promote or perform abortions if they choose to receive U.S. taxpayer money. The Kemp-Kasten Amendment empowers the President to halt U.S. taxpayer funding of any group that promotes or engages in coercive abortions. The Hyde Amendment prevents abortion funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Helms Amendment prevents international aid from funding abortions.↩

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