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. For years, the Biden administration misused these regulations by distorting federal law 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 live out the tenets of their deeply held beliefs.
Throughout its term, the Biden administration’s rulemaking sought to restrict religious liberty and conscience protections in existing law. The ERLC 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 on affirming an individual’s self-identified gender in the workplace, even if it violated someone’s religious beliefs. In another instance, the administration required that prospective foster and adoptive parents “affirm” a child’s chosen gender identity to be considered a provider of “safe and appropriate care.” Unfortunately, many of these regulations were finalized in 2024.
Under the new Trump administration, the ERLC is dedicated to repealing these anti-religious liberty agendas and the misuse of federal funds to perpetuate harmful gender ideology. In a letter addressed to President Trump’s transition team, the ERLC asked that his administration repeal these disastrous rules within the first 100 days in office and bolster religious liberty and conscience protections through the rulemaking process.
