Coalition urges care for freedom of religion and speech

Freedom of religion and freedom of speech are deeply interwoven, and a threat to one is a danger to the other, representatives from more than 20 faith and civil rights organizations said.

“We come together as librarians, diverse clergy, constitutional litigators, historians, journalists and organizers,” Interfaith Alliance President Paul Raushenbush said during the Sept. 23 roundtable livestreamed from Washington, D.C. “We are united by our belief that a country where government decides which ideas may be spoken is a country that will soon decide which prayers may be prayed.”

The roundtable was convened to discuss the urgent need for organizations to unite in the defense of freedom of assembly, dissent, press and speech, said Maggie Siddiqi, senior adviser at Interfaith Alliance. “We believe there is a critical need for a cross-sector initiative to protect and promote the nation’s core democratic values guaranteed at our founding, including religious freedom and other forms of free expression.”

Participants identified several immediate threats to freedom of speech and religion that necessitate coalitions of resistance, including the recent banning of CNN, MS NOW and Politico from White House access; the assault on libraries through book bans, funding cuts and intimidation; the rise of anti-Muslim hate among politicians; and the targeting of houses of worship in immigration enforcement actions.

“Books are being pulled from library shelves while librarians are being threatened, teachers are being told what histories to teach, students are being disciplined for what they say and what they wear, artists are losing funding, journalists are losing access,” Raushenbush said. “A great many of these campaigns are, unfortunately, being carried out in the name of religion or with the overt approval of religious leaders, while at the same time religious minorities and faith communities that dissent from those in power are themselves threatened.”

Melissa Deckman

Most Americans share the concerns raised during the discussion, said Melissa Deckman, CEO of Public Religion Research Institute.

PRRI’s “America at 250” report, released in June, found that “Americans are now more than twice as likely to say we are in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms than to say that those rights will remain protected — 68% versus 29%.”

Most respondents equated “being truly American” with believing in individual freedoms (93%), the Constitution (91%), the Declaration of Independence (88%) and accepting diverse backgrounds.

Just 29% of those surveyed expressed support for a nation comprised primarily of fellow Christians, compared to two-thirds who preferred the country to include people from a wide variety of faiths and ethnicities, Deckman said. “Americans agree the U.S. government cannot establish an official religion or favor one religion over another. Americans understand that religious freedom means the government stays out of the business of picking winners among faiths.”

Bradley Girard

Adding houses of worship to spaces where immigration enforcement actions can occur has hampered the freedom of religion and speech among many faith groups, said Bradley Girard, senior counsel at Democracy Forward.

The organization is among several providing legal representation to religious groups, including the Alliance of Baptists and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, that have sued the Department of Homeland Security seeking to abolish the policy permitting ICE to enter houses of worship.

Such measures force congregations to choose between living into their callings to serve immigrants or stifling their constitutional freedoms by rejecting those beliefs, Girard said. “They can either welcome or encourage the stranger to come to religious service, but doing so they know that they are putting them in danger. On the other hand, they can just simply choose not to express their religious beliefs. It’s an impossible choice for them.”

Jill Dash

Another disturbing development has been the use of allegations of antisemitism to seek the deportation of immigrants involved in pro-Palestinian protests, said Jill Dash, chief of staff at Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

“We cannot allow the fight against antisemitism and broader hate and extremism directed at other marginalized groups to erode civil liberties and democratic norms,” she said. “Deporting protesters and instituting other authoritarian measures do not make Jews or anyone else safer. In fact, such tactics make Jews less safe.”

It will take broad coalitions across religions, races, ideologies and communities to confront antisemitism and while also protecting the democratic principles, Dash added.

“Jewish safety and democracy are intertwined. We believe that Jews, as with those of other faiths, should be able to worship or not worship in the way that they see fit. We also believe it is critically important to protect civil liberties, including the freedom of expression, even when ideas expressed by others are in opposition to our own.”

Sarah Saadian

Working through coalitions also is important to help the country’s nonprofit organizations being targeted by the Trump administration, said Sarah Saadian, senior vice president for public policy and campaigns at National Council of Nonprofits. Many are threatened by changes in the grant-making process, through politically motivated investigations and in some cases the levying of criminal charges.

“We’re here because we also think that solidarity is the key to getting out of this situation and protecting our democratic rights for the future,” she explained. “A threat to one of our nonprofit organizations is a threat to all of our organizations.”

Cole Leiter

Cole Leiter, executive director of Americans Against Government Censorship, highlighted the wide scope of the administration’s assault on freedom of religion and speech.

“It is about using presidential power to intimidate people into silence,” Leiter said. “It is about attacking speech, discouraging democratic participation and using government power to silence dissent or avoid accountability for defeat. Freedom of speech and religious freedom are constitutionally intertwined as part of the First amendment.”

Sameer Hossain

Anti-Muslim rhetoric is an effort to control what Americans think, warned Sameer Hossain, managing director of Muslim Public Affairs Council. “Freedom of expression, which is the ability to freely express what’s on your mind, requires freedom of thought and thus you cannot have free speech without freedom of thought.”

Yet, political candidates claim Islam is incompatible with American values, that mosques should be banned and that Muslim politicians should be deported, Hossain added. “American Muslims aren’t the proverbial canaries in a coal mine; we are the front-line defenders of democracy. For the last 25 years we’ve been calling out how curtailing rights in the name of security erodes our democracy.”

Mike Zamore

Texas’ law mandating Ten Commandments displays in all public school classrooms is the state’s effort to enforce a preferred version of Christianity on more than 5 million children, said Mike Zamore, national director of policy and government affairs with American Civil Liberties Union.

Similar statutes in Arkansas and Louisiana, in addition to the federal government’s attempt to punish ABC for Jimmy Kimmel’s jokes and to censure law firms that represent the president’s critics, are the administration’s way of trying to enforce conformity, he said.

“There are plenty of other examples as well, and it’s all an effort to silence dissent. Like the Ten Commandments case, this is the government wanting to force all of us to toe its line, and instead of leaving us free to agree or disagree with politicians’ views, they want to decide for us.”

Lisa Varga

Libraries and faith communities must come together to combine freedom of expression and conscience to defend the right to share ideas, seek answers protect civic and sacred spaces, said Lisa Varga, associate executive director of American Library Association.

“The shared values of libraries and faith communities is the bedrock of our democracy,” she said. “The First Amendment protects our right to ask questions and to search for answers. It does this through the right to free expression and access to information, the freedom to assemble and engage with our elected officials, and the freedom to worship.”

 

Related:

It’s hard to unknot religion from Christian nationalism, panelists say

Revival needed to respond to Christian nationalism, Raushenbush says