The Jeff Sessions "Religious Liberty Task Force"

[Mr.wizard]

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No. I would not describe my position as one of economy. I don't see a great need for a religious liberty task force--yes. That's part of it. But my position doesn't boil down to just that.

Refer yourself to RobValue's comments above or the pie chart above. Christians make up a majority of the population. Around 70%... many of whom think that "America is a Christian nation."--- ie. "This nation was built upon Christian principles for Christian people. All other groups should exist in the margins;"--"The Constitution protects religious liberty within Christianity only"-- In other words: "Christianity's cultural dominance should go unchallenged. Any attempt to challenge it is an infringement upon the rights of Christians."

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http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/200...an-nation/

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Now granted, the belief the the US is a Christian nation is little more than a basic belief for many, a statement which has no real meaning at all. Perhaps to most people it merely means that Christians are a majority in this country. Only the foulest of Tennessee holy rollers wants to subjugate all nonchristians. It would seem that the "ugly" interpretation of America being a Christian nation is really only strong in the fringes of the religious right. But that's not quite accurate. Newt Gingrich, for example, has argued the view that the First Amendment was only meant to apply to religious liberty within Christianity, and I consider him fairly mainstream.

Look at it this way: rural Mississippi, even in contemporary times, is plagued by residual racism from "the good old days." Institutional racism in rural Mississippi is far worse than it is in, say, San Francisco. I remember a few years back, I was watching C-SPAN's call-in show in which Bill O'Reilly was a guest. One caller was a black man from Mississippi. He said he was "as conservative as they come" but "Mississippi has a race problem. You have got to be white, or you aren't getting anywhere" (I'm paraphrasing, btw, but that's close enough to his actual words that I feel that quotation marks are warranted). Bill O'Reilly advised him to move away from Mississippi and that little can be done to change something so ingrained in the culture.

What does this have to do with a religious liberty task force? Well, imagine how you might be suspicious of a "white person liberty task force" if it were instituted by the State of Mississippi. I believe that white people's liberties deserve protection just as much as anyone else's. But a "white person liberty task force" in Mississippi would give me pause. Not only do whites not need specific protection there, by-and-large, other cultural groups need protection from their cultural influence.

It's a bit of a hyperbolic example, but it sums my concerns about a "religious liberty task force" being founded in America by someone with an obvious old school Southern Christian bent. Christianity is culturally dominant in the United States--period. I believe that Christians' religious liberties deserve protection as much as anyone else's. But (for the reasons stated above) Jeff Sessions's religious liberty task force gives me pause.
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Ok, so it’s back to fear again or worry about what might occur.

But this doesn’t seem to be just about Christians. Nor is this making a new law, but about enforcing a long standing constitutional principle.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/r...eedom/amp/

I don’t see the issue.

Well what's the point of the task force? Religious expression is already protected in the constitution, they can't "enforce it" anymore than that.