Written by Don Byrd
Several presidential election stories related to religion and religious liberty are rumbling around the news this week, enough for a brief campaign news roundup:
You are no doubt familiar with the candidacies of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but may not know so much about Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico. Johnson has become embroiled in a controversy over statements he has made about religious liberty, which he described in a recent interview, “as a category,” as “a black hole.” He wondered, “I mean under the guise of religious freedom, anybody can do anything. . . . Why shouldn’t somebody be able to shoot somebody else because their freedom of religion says that God has spoken to them and that they can shoot somebody dead.”
In an attempt to clarify that troubling understanding of religious liberty, Johnson wrote an op-ed in the Deseret News explaining that he only seeks the “appropriate balance” between religious liberty and non-discrimination. I expect former Governor Johnson to be asked about this further.
Meanwhile, among Democrats and Republicans, the talk of the election the last several days has been Khizr Khan, who spoke at the Democratic Convention against Donald Trump’s call to limit immigration along religious lines on behalf of his late son, Army Captain Humayun Khan who was killed in Iraq in 2004. Writing for The Atlantic, Peter Beinart argues that Mr. Khan should be celebrated not because he is a Gold Star father, but because he is “defending religious liberty . . . as a champion of Muslim rights.”
Also in The Atlantic, Emma Green writes that repealing the so-called Johnson Amendment (which bars 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations from engaging in political campaigning for or against candidates) would turn churches into the “new super-PACs.”
An NPR profile of Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine identifies their policies as driven in part by the “social gospel” at the heart of their religious views.
What am I missing? What religion and religious liberty news are you reading about national or local elections this campaign season? Send me an e-mail or tweet me @BJCblog and let me know.
