President Joe Biden's $1.75 trillion spending bill is set to impact even Americans' religious freedom, a conservative group said recently. The spending bill raises questions as to how funding will funnel into things like access to abortion and how it will create friction between pro-choice and pro-life groups.
"Allowing a religious organization to be religious is central to the First Amendment," Justin Butterfield, a spokesman for First Liberty Institute told WND. He argued that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) once "trampled the rights of religious organizations like the Little Sisters of the Poor by forcing them to violate their religious convictions."
Butterfield said that to ban the HHS from "continuing to disregard Americans' religious convictions," the Office for Civil Rights was tasked to ensure that the HHS will respect the religious liberty rights as dictated in the Constitution and the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act." He also accused President Biden of creating "another step in dismantling safeguards within the federal government for people of faith" and infusing religious organizations who serve the needy with politics, specifically his progressive agenda.
"President Biden cannot mask his administration's hostility toward religion in doing so," Butterfield argued. President Biden's spending bill, which is overwhelmingly supported by Democrats, abolishes the longstanding Hyde Amendment, which protects American taxpayers from paying for abortions. It's a critical point for conservatives who don't want their taxpayer money being funneled into what is considered in the Bible as a sin.
Alliance Defending Freedom's attorney Zack Pruitt argued that by supporting President Biden's spending bill,. congressional Democrats confirmed "how aligned they are with the radical Left's agenda by voting in favor of a bill that mandates taxpayer funding of abortion and may force faith-based childcare providers out of the system."
He lamented that it's the second time this year that the House passed budget language that failed to uphold the Hyde Amendment and similar legislation to protect taxpayers from funding abortions.
Pruitt also argued that President Biden's Build Back Better Act reshuffles American taxpayer funds to "pay for abortions" and provide "funding provisions and new grant programs that are likely to exclude many faith-based childcare providers." He said that the spending bill will most likely cut down on budgets for childcare programs that are being used by faith-based providers, which will in turn hinder parents from sending their kids to childcare programs that align with their religious beliefs.
"We urge the Senate to reject these dangerous provisions and instead vote in favor of policies that protect life, religious freedom, and the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children," Pruitt declared.
Meanwhile, critics are also pressuring the Biden administration to appoint a special ambassador to lead the International Religious Freedom Act. Knox Thames of Religion News called upon the government to confirm Rashad Hussain, President Biden's nominee for ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom before the holidays, as the post had been empty since the end of the Trump administration this year. He argued that this post must be filled "to ensure American values and interests remain at the forefront of the religious freedom fight."
It's worth noting, however, that Hussain was recently asked how he would be able to protect the religious freedoms of everyone, especially considering how he as a Muslim has professed to abide by Sharia law, which persecutes people of other faiths -particularly Christians- and those who get converted from the Muslim faith into Christianity.
