Southern Baptists recognize the importance of religious liberty, which guarantees to all Americans the freedom to believe and the freedom to live out those beliefs in the public square. Stretching back generations, Southern Baptists have a rich heritage of affirming the importance of and fighting to maintain protections for religious liberty for people of all faiths. The Baptist Faith & Message states “a free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”
Southern Baptists have continually reaffirmed the important role the federal government plays in safeguarding religious liberty protections. The federal regulatory process is used to dictate how agencies may enforce the law, including how some federal funding can be used. In recent years, the Biden administration has continued to misuse these regulations by distorting federal law and funding to promote an agenda that opposes the biblical view of gender and sexuality, violating the consciences of millions of taxpayers and government employees in the process and restricting how individuals can faithfully leave out the tenants of their deeply held beliefs.
The Biden administration’s rulemaking seeks to restrict religious liberty protections in existing law. These rules are primarily accomplishing this agenda through arguing that religious liberty protections under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act do not apply or are not violated in instances that supersede religious liberty protections, and by including sexual orientation and gender identity in nondiscrimination law. The ERLC has pushed back on dozens of such rules throughout the Biden administration. For example, the ERLC submitted public comments in response to federal rulemaking by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that would create new standards advising employers and colleagues to affirm an individual’s self-identified gender, even if it violated their religious beliefs. In another instance, the administration will require that prospective foster and adoptive parents “affirm” a child’s chosen gender identity to be considered a provider of “safe and appropriate care.”
The ERLC is dedicated to pushing back against anti-religious liberty agendas and the misuse of federal funds to perpetuate harmful gender ideology. We remain committed to ensuring the rights ordained by God of believers to freely practice their deeply held convictions are protected for future generations.
